It’s been 3 years since my website has been remodeled, so in keeping up with new technology, I’ve got a new website in the works. The new design, which will be ipad friendly, and much easier to navigate. I’m rolling out the new Portrait site first along with my new commercial site. The wedding site & new blog will be coming in April 2011. Simply visit www.michaelallenphotography.com to see the menu of my websites. Here’s a sneek peak of one of the pages. 

Michael Allen Photography Home

Just a few weeks ago the new 2011 issue of Southern Bride Magazine hit the newsstands. I’m so excited to show you some of the images that made the “World Chic Couture” fashion spread in this post. I shot well over 1500 images, and these were some that I narrowed down for the spread, I also included a few that were not featured, as they only had room for so many images in the spreads.

Working with a magazine with such a huge reputation as one of the leading bridal publications in the South is an honor. On a typical fashion shoot for the magazine, we will be working with a very large crew of hairstylists, makeup artists, dress designers, jewelers, set designers, and the editors of the magazine. We start early in the day and shoot late until the evening, and some shoots go into a second day. Visit www.southernbride.com to see some of these photos in the new issue. I also created a short film from the recent photo shoot with the creative team at Southern Bride Magazine in Memphis,Tennessee, The feature spread of the 2011 spring & summer issue offers readers a glimpse of chic bridal couture from Paris, London, Shang Hi, and Greece to Morrocco and other world couture influences, The magazine spread and the short film feature some of the most current, modern dresses for 2011. Our beautiful models offer a glimpse to brides to be on how these dresses will look, as well as breaking from traditional styles by seeing what brides are wearing across the globe.

The team at www.filmindesign.com comprised of Michael Allen at www.michaelallenphotography.com and Brian Crain at www.bkcphoto.com offer their amazing professional photography and HD cinema film to capture a look behind the scenes of the shoot. Special thanks to www.southernbride.com for producing and coordinating the project, selecting the models and styles of the shoot. Kathryn Ballard was the artistic director along with editors Lynn Walker, Sherra Meyers, and Lindsay Wolfe. The design team at www.estonsalon.com created the hairfashions using www.aveda.com haircare products for the shoot, along with an amazing team of professionals from www.sephora.com, www.mednikow.com, www.brilliantearth.com, www.christosbridal.com, www.JLMCouture.com, www.Martinaliana.com, www.cherylkingcouture.com, www.DGAmodels.com, and www.thepalladiogroup.com who all helped make this shoot possible.

For more films from Michael Allen, visit www.filmindesign.com, and be sure to visit www.southernbride.com to get the magazine. For the photographers out there, I used some custom presets in Lightroom 3 to create split tones to make the looks for the blog post. I hope you enjoy seeing the photos!

Each year I photograph a lot of high end weddings all across the South. Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to work with a lot of magazines across the country and overseas. For the past few years I’ve been working as an editorial photographer for Southern Bride Magazine located here in the Southeastern US. Here is a spread that I photographed for the 2010 Issue which is on news stands now. One of the keys to being a successful photographer is the ability to offer a wide range of photography specialties, one of which is wedding photography, which compliments my lifestyle portrait sessions that I offer for my clients in my portrait studio here in Memphis Tennessee.

Here is the pages from the spread in this issue. The theme was “Back to Nature” set in a beautiful rainforest in the Lichterman Nature Reserve, offering Brides a look at summer fashions made with all natural “green” fabrics. I also get the opportunity to work with one of the best hairstylists in the country. Janice Allen at www.estonsalon.com created all the styles for the shoot, and works with magazines all over the country, she also happens to be my wife, so I can brag on her talents!

I do quite a few editorial magazine shoots, usually fashion shoots with professional models, lots of incredible clothes like Armani Fashions or Nicole Miller. I got a call from one of the editors at Southern Bride Magazine asking me if I’d do a children’s shoot for one of their issues.

Of course I said yes, and soon the date was set. The theme of the shoot was designed around “Cupcakes and Candy”. If you have not been to a really chic & posh Southern wedding lately, one of the hot items is a “Cupcakes and Candy” bar, full of Godiva Chocolates, pretty and colorful candy items, and jars and jars of different candies for guests and children to enjoy. {believe it or not, the children on this shoot did a great job not wiping food all over their very expensive outfits.}

For this shoot the fashions were provided by Strasburg Children’s Fashions, Halo Hattie, Bella Bliss, and Baby Deer, which are all very well known lines in the children’s fashion industry.  The candies were provided by Dinstuhls Fine Candies, and the cupcakes by LaBaguette. For the shoot, Magic Mr Nick’s was brought in to entertain the kids, and he also brought some live doves, which were a big hit with the kids on the shoot.

Angela Dacus with Southern Event Planners was brought in to create the setting for the party shoot. Also, my wonderful wife, who happens to be the owner of Eston Salon, bought in her hairdesign team to handle the beautiful hair and makeup for the kids. I get some calls from time to time to shoot children’s parties, so if you have a party coming up, this spread from Southern Bride will definitely give you some ideas on how to plan an incredible kids party. {Here are some of the actual spreads from the magazine issue from Tennessee and Alabama editions in 2008.}

{and, yes, we ate a lot of candy on the shoot}