Lauren Bee

Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.

Filtering by Tag: Jackson County Alabama photographer

Modern Elopement, Destination Wedding Photographer - Jan + Matt

I met Jan when she phoned me last Fall to schedule a session with her daughter. Jan lost her husband, Phil, to cancer just a year earlier, and she and her daughter needed a bonding experience to help ease the grief of losing this important man. Having lost my own dad a few years back, I completely understood. I I gave these two ladies my best and produced for them some beautiful portraiture that they both love.

A few months later, Jan told me about her best friend, Matt, a good man who had helped Phil during his illness, had stood by when Phil was laid to rest, and then supported Jan through the horrific grief that followed.  Jan hashed through and Matt was there for her every step of the way.  Before they knew it, they'd fallen in love.  Jan let me know that Matt had proposed to her, and she wanted to know if I would travel with her to Florida to photograph their elopement.

I said "YES!"

For months I kept their wedding a secret from everyone (including mutual friends) before traveling to Cape San Blas, Florida (with my family in tow, under the guise of "it's just summer vacation").  I have never in my life been so touched by a couple saying their vows to each other.  The emotions were so raw and wonderful and overwhelming, the exquisite pain of Jan's and Matt's shared past, sublimely mixed with the overwhelming joy of hope and promise and renewal and life.  They (with their sweet girl, Ruby) stood on that beach, hearts laid bare, creating a new covenant before God, their words mingling with sand and tears, and salty air... and it was perfection.

I am continually humbled to be asked to bear witness to such a miraculous thing as two lives being joined in marriage.  That I get to forever capture and protect these precious moments, turning them into tangible memories, never to be forgotten .... that in itself is a rare, rare gift, to be treasured.

Thank you so much, Jan and Matt, for allowing me to be your wedding photographer.  From my frail human heart to your beating warrior hearts, I speak blessings upon you both and pray for your many happy years together.

Huntsville Lifestyle Family Photographer - Campbell Family

I've said it before, and I'll say again:  I have the best clients (my "people", as I prefer to call them because they're really like family).  When someone gives the Lauren Bee website a good looking over, and then contacts me for a family portrait session, we get to know each other really well, fairly quickly -- and sometimes (okay, I admit almost every single time) within just a few sentences or e-mails bounced back and forth, we're laughing and making jokes and being generally hilarious together (because my people are just that awesome, I'm telling you).

Janet is totally one of those clients.  She's my people.  She's quirky and funny and smart -- and upon meeting her for the first time, I realized, also beautiful.  Know what else she is?  An amazing mom.  I'm a big "heart on sleeve" kind of gal, so I won't beat around the bush:  watching Janet with her boys deeply touched me;  we're talking right to the heart and turning on the waterworks just a smidge.  Her sons adore her!  And it's no surprise why.  She's so laid back and so .... cool.

("Cool" is still a hip word, right?  Right?)

Basically, Janet is the mom every kid wants.  I am not even kidding.

Our lifestyle photography session started out at the most perfect "golden hour" time, where the summer trees were all lit up with dappled fire.  I snapped a few shots of Janet, one or two with her boys, a few of her boys being silly together .... but dang it gets hot in July in Alabama.  So we headed on over to Plamore Lanes in Huntsville -- where I was afforded a rare glimpse of a family done right, a la bowling balls and ketchup-drenched fries that are, apparently, the best fries in the world

I couldn't be more thrilled to now count Janet and her fellas as some of Lauren Bee's own.  Welcome to the family, y'all!

My PhotoShop Escapades - Huntsville Alabama Fine Art and Conceptual Photography Artist

I've been an artist for decades.  Whether it's the endless unicorns and mermaids I drew as a child (I'm talking notebooks full!) or the two years' worth of pastels, acrylics, and graphic drawings and paintings I created in college as a Fine Arts major, I've always felt this near-manic drive to create visually.  Even when I was a writer, my words attempted to invoke the visual-emotive through effusive comparisons, similes, and allegory, words flooding the page like a thousand drops of liquid rainbow, mingling with a thousand more splashes of warm honey-glitter.  (See what I just did there?)

I suppose it's only natural that something inside of me shifted when I began to use a DSLR to full effect.  At first it was just playing around with a Kodak point-n-shoot, but then the Nikon D3100 became "a necessity", followed by the D7000, the D7100, and now the FX D700 (two of them -- yes, two).  Don't even get me started on the quest for quality glass;  my current obsession is the Sigma Art line, the 35mm 1.4 being the most frequently wielded weapon of choice.  

The learning curve didn't stop there.  Along with self-propelled education in the use of manual mode and Kelvin white balance, I ripped through editing software with a hunger akin to Edward Cullin on a vegan diet.  Lightroom was a very good investment, along with a few Creative Live classes, watching assorted and sundry YouTube tutorials, and picking the brains of several excellent photographers.  It's been painful and maddeningly frustrating at times, with sudden stops and starts, moments where I just didn't understand (!!!) and even the occasional (violent) urge to just quit it all!

And all of that in just four years.

Around this time last year I signed up for Creative Cloud.  And then I just quietly paid the monthly fee, terrified to dip my toe into the waters of all things Adobe.  I wanted to try Photo Shop;  truly I did.  I just didn't know where to begin.  So I didn't.  I just stared at it.  Weeks went by, more payments made.  I tried to find the time to start playing with the buttons and whatnot... but it was just so terrifying, so daunting.  So I ignored it.

Until about eight months ago, when my creative spirit just sort of said to me, "Lauren, look.  If you procrastinate any longer, you're going to stagnate -- and artists don't stagnate, you hear?  'Cause when they stagnate, they die.  Long, horrible deaths, moaning and wailing in pits of darkness and despair and --"

And that's when I told my creative spirit to shut-it because I got it (and she was being way too melodramatic anyway .... which yeah, is what creative spirits do...)

So I started playing with Photo Shop (PS).  The first few attempts ended in tears and much bemoaning to a friend who is very well-versed in PS and who just swore up one side and down the other that it's pure magic.  Bless her, she tried to explain some things to me, but I just was not getting it.  I didn't even know words for things, so I couldn't so much as Google for information.  I mean "how to use that swipey thingy that does The Thing in Photo Shop" didn't yield such great results.  Still, I tried and tried on my own, hacking and sawing, reading up on things, watching more tutorials, taking more Creative Live classes, hacking and sawing some more amid wailing and gnashing of teeth ...

And then, one day, it just started to click.

I began layering things, adding on textures and pushing buttons and using brushes (I think that's what the swipey thing is called), creating clipping masks, adding and manipulating text, and, and, and ...

I also found that those long-distant semesters spent in Fine Arts school started to pay off.  I brushed up on my fairly decent understanding of shading, lighting, shadows, and two-dimensional depth, making the painting in of finer details an intuitive process.

SOOC on the left;  final Lightroom + Photo Shop edit on the right

SOOC on the left;  final Lightroom + Photo Shop edit on the right

As my confidence grew, my ideas started to gain some steady momentum, becoming more grandiose by the week.  Ranging from the dark and emotive, to the light and whimsical, one day it was fairy wings and solar flare, the next day it was head swaps and 19+ layer composites with excessive Gaussian blur.  It became a sort of game where I dared myself to see if "it" could be done (whatever "it" happened to be at the moment) -- and that creative spirit of mine, not one to back down from a dare, said to me, "Challenge accepted."

I have so much more to learn and so far to go -- but I can't wait to learn all the things and go all the places PS will take an eternally budding artist!  I've even got my sights set on Adobe Illustrator;  I hear it too does miraculous things -- and miraculous things, that's where it's at!  I love more than anything the process of creation, of plumbing the depths of a human heart and pulling forth beautiful and amazing worlds and emotions and stories.  They've been there all along, but the act of bringing life to it all.... this is why my creative spirit exists.

I can't wait to learn more and more and expand my body of artistic work!

SOOC on the left;  final Lightroom + Photo Shop edit on the right

SOOC on the left;  final Lightroom + Photo Shop edit on the right

Want to see how I do it?  Enjoy this warp speed video of an edit, below:

I now offer my clients the option of a custom, fine art edit, through HERstory.  Partnering together, you and I, we create something truly one-of-a-kind:  a blending of my imagination with your soul, story, and unique beauty.  It's a gorgeous process, one that yields gorgeous results.  If you think you'd like to join forces and create something amazing, let's chat together and see what kind of glorious magic we can dream up!  Working with you will be such a blessing!

Contact Lauren at:

lauren@laurenbee.com

(256)605-6722

Mother & Daughter -- Huntsville, AL lifestyle family photographer

Jenni is a dear -- dear! -- friend of mine.  Over the last year and a half we've gone from "nice to meet you" to working as business partners on weddings as Tulip & Thistle Wedding Photography.  She's an amazing photographer who has allowed me to sit-in and absorb her editing techniques, shared photography tips, and don't even get me started on the amount of cheerleading she's supplied me with.  She's pretty much just an amazing woman -- clever, witty, honest, and down-to-earth.  I thank my lucky stars to have stumbled into our friendship.

Of course I was more than happy to do a few head shots for her!  I even invited her beautiful daughter along for a few Mommy & Me captures, just outside Huntsville in the heart of Madison, Alabama.  It was definitely one of the highlights of my summer photography experiences.  Gorgeous sunlight, wildflowers, that earthy Secret Garden vibe -- and two beauties for the price of one!

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Personal Projects -- Scottsboro Alabama lifestyle photographer

If you didn't know already, I'm a homeschooling mama -- on top of being a pro photographer -- and lemme tell ya, this last semester of school was a real doozie!  My girls have kept me on my toes, with giving and grading history quizzes and science tests, carting them here and there for dance classes and library volunteering, even the random and assorted sick day.  Phew, I'm pooped!

But tucked amid all of that, I've made time to express myself, and it's been just glorious!  The artist in me has made herself known more than a time or two.  Check out some of my personal (non client commissioned) work!  And let me know which one is your favorite -- I'd love to hear from you.  

"Beneath the armor of skin and bone and mind, most of our colors are amazingly the same."     ~ AberjhaniSpecial thanks for this image goes out to Toya Poplar, of Tree of Life Photography, and her lovely daughter Trinity (model).

"Beneath the armor of skin and bone and mind, most of our colors are amazingly the same."     ~ Aberjhani

Special thanks for this image goes out to Toya Poplar, of Tree of Life Photography, and her lovely daughter Trinity (model).

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 O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword;The expectancy and rose of the fair state,The glass of fashion and the mould of form,The observed of all observers, quite, quite down!And I, of ladies …

 

O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!
The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword;
The expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
The observed of all observers, quite, quite down!
And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,
That suck'd the honey of his music vows,
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,
Like sweet bells jangled out of tune, and harsh;
That unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth
Blasted with ecstasy: O, woe is me,
To have seen what I have seen, see what I see!

~ Ophelia, Shakespeare's "Hamlet" (Act 3 Scene 1)

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