Welcome to Michael Allen Photography’s portrait website. ….this is my new Lifestyle Portrait website dedicated to my continually growing portrait photography business for children, families, and teens. I offer lifestyle portraiture with my own artistic style that many of my clients have grown to love over the years. I’m well known in wedding photography circles, and continue to work avidly with brides photographing their weddings, if you would like more information about my wedding photography, please visit my wedding website at www.michaelallenphotography.com

I hope you enjoy some of my many images that will be seen on this site. I’m based in Memphis, Tn. When I’m not out traveling around the country or photographing a high end wedding, I really enjoy working in my portrait studio. I have 2 small studios, and I work at clients home locations as well. My first post shown here is a session with one of my daughters, who is just as sweet as she looks. I thought it would be nice to start off this new website with some images from one of her recent sessions. If you would like to schedule as session, please call me a 901-489-5237 or email the studio through the contact tab above. I only offer limited sessions each week, so I suggest scheduling at least a month ahead of time.

I encourage my clients to schedule a session every year, so you can watch your child grow, and give them a chance to develop their personality in front of a camera. Lifestyle portraiture is very different from the typical studio sessions in an average photo studio. In my lifestyle studio sessions, I like to spend a little more time with the kids, and let them have some fun, you don’t get that opportunity in a fast paced studio that only gives you 5 or so images to choose from. It is well worth investing in a Lifestyle Portrait session that offers a full portfolio of your child with each portrait session. I typically offer over 75 to 100 proofs for a session with several outfit changes, and if time allows, an outdoor session and a studio session on the same visit. I also offer hand painted backdrops, and a variety of  furniture pieces to add to the look of the studio set, and my signature style of photography. I also offer just a few simple packages, with online web viewing with a la carte purchasing, as well as custom canvas prints, custom framing, and custom photo coffee book designs in fine leather.

I hope you enjoy my new portrait website {or web blog}, if you would like to see more of my photography, please visit
www.michaelallenphotography.blogspot.com to see my current wedding photography blog. Also, please visit my commercial photography site at www.IndesignCreative.com to see even more of my photography work

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Shannon and Peter came out to the lake for their session in the fall to enjoy the beautiful color changes of the season. Having a studio on a 30 acre lake offers some spectacular views and lots of natural settings. We have a 3 mile walking trail with lots of secluded places to enjoy and get away from the fast track of city life. I love the outdoors, and spend as much time outside as I can. Whenever I schedule a family session, I like to suggest shooting a portrait session by the lake. Just about anytime of the year is good, but fall offers some beautiful colors. For their session with the son, I wanted to capture some fun expressions, and offer a real lifestyle session with the beauty of the forest and the lake as the backdrop. Here are a few images from their session.

Jana gave me a call a couple of years back to photograph her new baby. Bella came into the studio with the cutest little smile and just loved every minute of the session. I used my natural light style with a large window for fill, and my large softbox for the key light, and just a little bit of backlight for the background. I love adding black and white to a session, but Bella looked so good with the blue tones, pinks and whites, that I wanted to keep those soft pastels as the styling for the session.

I love photographing detail for weddings and editorial shoots, so I took the same approach with Bella with her shoes and tiny hands. Also using my macro lens I was able to get that depth and softness along with sharpness, having a great lens with perfect glass makes a huge difference in photography.  I also love creating art pieces that have some unique style, for Bella’s creation I wanted to show a baby in bloom, growing like a beautiful flower. Here are a few of my favorite images from the session.

Several years ago a couple of very good friends announced their wedding engagement. I’m sure they had plans to one day have children, as most couples do. We share many friends with them, and they mean a lot to me and my wife Janice. As the years passed by, we all knew that an announcement would come one day. Sure enough, Mary Jo and Matt now have a beautiful baby girl, Molly. It is so cool to watch them as the first of their young family begins to grow up. As you can see from these images, she is a little doll, full of joy and constantly playing in her wonderful world of make believe. For Molly my approach was to capture some very simple, lifestyle images. I wanted to focus closely on her, and tell her story with my camera lens. As the session unfolded, Molly was quickly enjoying her time with me in the studio. I must say that I really love these images of her. I know there were lots of images in the session that Mary Jo and Matt consider very special, but these few seemed to capture the essence of this little girls world. She had some toys, and a few props, and a few outfit changes, but I chose these for the blog because of there simplicity. Thanks Mary Jo and Matt, capturing these photographs of Molly made my day!

One of the things I offer my maternity clients for their newborn baby is custom announcement cards. I use the fine art card stock from several fine art printing companies that I’ve used over the past several years. The hot new card that I love is the metallic paper stock. It is very luxurious and comes in either a pearl finish or gloss metallic. I create custom designs using a few of your favorite images, and select graphic embellishments and fonts that make a statement! I can use some of your favorite color choices and create a card that fits your lifestyle. Here is an example of a card I created for a great client when her baby was born. Fine art announcement card prices can be found on my a’ la carte pricing page right on the main page of this blogsite. I can usually get quick turnaround, but I suggest planning ahead for a 30 day window to shoot your images, create a design, get a proof, and then final delivery.

The cards come is flat style front and back, or a folding card with a blank interior page for handwritten notes. You can add these fine art cards to your maternity or newborn session and have them ready to mail within a few weeks, I take care of all the details, you spend time at home with your new baby! Matching envelopes included!

Several years ago Audrey and Reid ran off to some island to get married. When they came back, they commissioned me to photograph their wedding reception that summer. {Another one of my wedding couples} In the past few years they began a family. They have 2 really cute baby boys, and as you will see in this post, we captured some very classic and timeless images of the family. I usually suggest a nice bright day session so we can take advantage of my giant window with natural light, but in this session Audrey and Reid wanted something in classic black and white. With this in mind I scheduled a night session, which worked out better for them with work, school and two boys. {I’m glad it worked out that way, because it gave me a chance to use a new softbox I had just purchased.} I used a simple black backdrop with the main softbox as a dramatic key light. I wanted a classic hollywood look, but with a bit more drama and mystery to really draw you into the photographs. {On Another note: when I created a wedding slideshow for them for the wedding reception, Audrey had this really cool photo of her posing with Drew Barrymore, to this day, she still won’t tell me the story behind that photograph. I’m kind of a Drew Barrymore fan, along with a million other guys on the planet. I wish I knew the facts about this mystery photo.} Anyway, back to their family session. Here are some of their portraits from their session. These are some of my favorites from the session…the first one…..the third one…and the last one….but maybe they are all my favorites!

One of my very good friends and her husband {also a very good friend} just had a new baby boy to supplement their family of two boys. We just live around the corner, so we tend to go their house a lot. Our daughter loves to play with their boys, so adding one more boy for her to play with is an added plus. I think we’ve been to just about every birthday party they’ve ever had, and visa versa. Jill and my wife also sing together, perform is comedy skits, and pretty much are twin sisters in just about every respect. When Jill announced another youngster was on the way, I wanted to offer her something a bit different than the typical baby photos from the mall. Max was a bit upset with me for taking his comfortable blanket away and making him pose all natural, so let’s just say this session went pretty quick. My vision for this shoot was inspired by some images that I’d seen this summer for by another photographer that I admire. Because it was winter time and beginning to get cold, an outdoor session was not going to happen, so I went on an expedition to find some giant banana tree leaves. My other friend and photographer Brian Crain just happened to have a small jungle in his yard full of banana palms, so I was all set. With the outdoor weather not cooperating, I went for a modern nature style. I also created the photo styling for the baby on the towels, good thing he didn’t fall off of the high stack that I set up, it was a bit wobley…..(just kidding, that’s a post processing illusion, Max was very cozy and safe at all times) Thanks Jill, for letting me photograph Baby Max, one of these will make a nice museum art canvas.

Did I mention that I love photographing babies? A lot of photographers run the other way when you mention “baby photography”, but I have a different perspective about photographing babies and children. A lot of those same photographer run the other way when you mention “wedding photography” too. Sure, I love photographing high fashion models on the beach, but there is something special about babies that I love to capture. They are so busy inspecting the new world that they’ve just come into, that they don’t need much coaching on what to think or do, they are just little miracles breathing in their first breath of fresh air. I love using a macro lens and capturing all the tiny details, their little hands and feet, even the hairs on their head. I guess that’s why so many moms call me to schedule their photography sessions.

In this session you’ll get to meet baby Miller and his wonderful mom, Lindsay. Lindsay is full of life, fun, silly and great to be around. When she told me that she was going to have a baby, I signed her up on the spot. When she did bring Miller to the studio, she was so excited and proud of him. Welcome to Memphis little baby miller! She was on a mission to share her new found love with the world, and I was the first person on the greet list. {that’s the excitement that I love being around as a photographer} Well, I could talk all day about that, but you just want to see some pictures, right?

Over the years of photographing fashion models, I’ve created a signature style of edgy, photography that gets noticed a lot. Some people see my photography and ask me {who shot that photo?} and I respond, thank you for the compliment. I’m kind of a humble person, so I don’t always rave about my own photography, but I do admit that I love what I do, and I’m very confident in my work.

I get calls all the time asking me to photograph seniors for their high school portraits. Up until just the past few years, edgy, artistic portrait photography for senior high students was unheard of. Just the typical cap and gown photos, and maybe a few photographs by a tree in a park setting. Now the trend has shifted 360 degrees to an edgy, urban art style. Color tones, sepias, black and whites are all very in demand with students. I’ve also photographed a lot of musicians and rock bands, that gives my portraits a unique style that students love. When I go on shoot for a professional singer/ songwriter, they are wanting images that sell their brand, and give them compelling art for the album cover. I take a similar approach when photographing students.

I love to scout locations and come up with some fun and different scenes for my senior high portrait shoots. Its usually a spot that you’d never dream of. One of my favorite places in Memphis is near the old train bridge on the Mississippi River. It has become a very popular icon in Memphis, and makes a great contrast from our history of old to the modern traditions that are shaping our world today. If I can find a spot like that for my shoots, then I know when the students look back, they will see the art and history of the photographs that I shoot of them. I still like to shoot in natural settings, but shooting in a garden is not quite my style. But, if you make me shoot in a garden, I will break the rules and shoot images that you would not think of. I love to think out of the box and think creatively.

Here is a session with Claire. She did a great job with coming up with different looks and styles for the shoot. Having several color combinations helps give the shoot more character and appeal. If you see these images and like them, spread the word. I love photographing students, they are so much fun!

I love photographing high school seniors with my edgy artistic style. Over the years of photographing rock concerts on the one extreme, to photographing fashion models on the other extreme, I’ve ended up creating my own style of edgy, artistic senior high portraits. The photography world is catching on, and they have labeled senior portrait photography as “Rock Star” photography.  {Some mom’s get scared when they hear about my style! Don’t worry…} my mission is to catch senior students being themselves, having fun, and establishing an identity that shows their friends who they are. {I call it self esteem – moms – it really is good for your kids to step up and claim their spot in this world} I do my best to help them see how great they are, and their potential.

Ok, enough about the image stuff. Here is Meridith’s Senior Portrait session. She was a blast to work with. For my sessions I like to meet the students on a location of their choice and shoot some pretty amazing images, very edgy, very fun! We went into downtown Memphis and found a few of my favorite places, then we went on an expedition to find some more cool spots. I’m always shooting downtown, and I worked downtown for several years, so I know all the backstreets, safe havens and cool places to shoot.

I also can shoot on locations like Shelby Farms with the horses, or on our lake at Riverwood Farms, or in my studio for some really cool fashion model looks and styles. We can also schedule a hair & makeup appointment and give you some really amazing looks right in our studio! For the fashion model shoot styles, I bring in several scene changes, backdrops, some funky furniture pieces and shoot with some fun music, just like a professional model shoot!

In the old days students just got a senior portrait package with one or two photographs in their graduation cap and gown…schools still offer that style, and you can usually get a very cheap set of photos for the wall in the hall back at home. My sessions go a bit further. My packages cost a little bit more, but I shoot on location with a few outfit changes, then I offer a complimentary rock star slide show set to some really great music, and they get to post a copy on their own Facebook or personal website. Next I create a really amazing personal album of the session that students really love. A custom layout in a custom album all their own. Then I create a personal card layout design for thank you notes or graduation dates. On top of all that, they get their images posted online on my website with a link to order A La’ Carte prints and other products.

You will absolutely love my Senior High Portrait photography. Edgy, artistic, fun!