A Bryan Photo

18 for 18

Been a minute since I ran a proper portrait studio at a wedding & I forgot how fun they are. Thrilled that brought me in for one of his really special couples. What a fun night in Columbia!

Thanks to for running an impeccable event.

Glad my studio can be used for the important things in life.

In February of 2006 I was handed a remarkable photo assignment - document former president Jimmy Carter teaching Sunday school at his church in Plains, GA (Marantha Baptist Church) and then capture his portrait over lunch at the local meat ’n’ three (Kountry Kitchen). My friend was conducting the interview and writing the article. He pitched me for capturing the visuals. Taylor and I were both young upstarts in our respective fields and probably didn’t calculate the magnitude of the opportunity. Maybe this was for the better. But off we went to Plains on a Saturday afternoon for our biggest assignment of our career. We stayed at the local bed-and-breakfast in the “presidential suite” sharing a king size bed.

I chose to only bring my Mamiya RZ 67, a Holga and 8 rolls of black and white film. No digital back up. I still get the cold sweats thinking about what if something had gone wrong with one of those rolls. None the less - I went full send on how I wanted to capture the day.

Sunday School began at 10 am followed but the Sunday worship service at 11 - all taking place in the quaint sanctuary. Visitors from all over the world queued out front before Sunday school and we were grateful to have a seat saved on the 2nd row with the Carters. It was the perfect spot for capturing intimate moments of Jimmy & his wife Rosalynn. Over lunch I slowly shot through a roll on my Mamiya while Taylor was interviewing him. Within 5 seconds of capturing the last frame, President Carter turned to me and said, “OK, are you ready to take my portrait.” I stumbled a bit as the Mamiya takes a few minutes to reload and I clearly wasn’t ready for this request. As he watched me nervously reload my film he commented, “You have to be the slowest photographer I’ve ever worked with.” I quickly retorted, “But I may also be the best” - a foolish statement given all the famous photographers who have taken his portrait through the years. Alas - he waited for me and let me run off 10 frames of him.

(Continued in comments)

I’m always blessed to capture the vibrant student body of . Thrilled to continue documenting their school culture and the portraits of their seniors. Here’s a few favorites from this fall!

One of the most rewarding aspects of being a photographer for the past 22 years has been watch my clients blossom and grow. The Ragans hired me to shoot their wedding 12 years ago and they quickly became some of our closest friends when they moved to BHM for Matt to go to med school. They are now a family of 6 living in Dothan so we don’t get to see them often. So we were thrilled when they wanted to do a family session when passing through BHM last month. The last few images are from their wedding (2012) and also from a shoot outside their first home (2014). God bless these wonderful people!

A few photographs from my archive