Not even gonna lie to y’all: On Saturday morning, I woke up, pulled out my laptop, and stayed snuggled up in bed as I put together Jamie and Kristen’s interview blog posts. Two hours later, Andrew came back into the room (while I sat putting the blog posts together, he had grabbed doughnuts from Bradley’s, come home, left for a grocery store run, and arrived home again – eek!), asked me what I was working on, saw that it was an interview, and said “I want to do one, too!!” because, guys, my husband never says no to a questionnaire. They’re fun to fill out, right?! And so fun to read, too!
Right now, all of the changes in my business are both exciting and a little bittersweet. Andrew and I built this business completely on our backs through an enormous amount of hard work, sacrifice, and bananas amazing clients and, while I am so excited to branch out and so excited to have incredible associate shooters on the team, this little interview totally feels like the end of an era. Here’s to bigger and brighter things!! I’m so excited for y’all to hear from Andrew! This is his first ever blog post and this seems so crazy to me! Here’s my husband, y’all! He is everything.
(And yes! Whenever you see parentheses underneath one of his answers, that’s totally me talking!)
How old were you when you got your first camera?
Fifteen
How did you fall in love with photography?
“Love” is such a strong word.
(Homeboy is playing this cool. When he was a kid, he saved up enough money to take personal art lessons and, when we got married, he bought me my first big girl (non-film) camera. He LOVES photographs and has said “That was so fun!” literally after every single wedding we have ever shot.)
What’s your very favorite part of the wedding day?
All of it. For reals. I love weddings more than Lissa (you can ask her).
(Not true. We love them the same… Andrew did fall in love with them first, though.)
Any funny stories that took place while shooting a session or wedding?
Lissa: Andrew left this blank so I’m answering this question for him (without parentheses!)
There are so many stories that come to mind when I think of funny stories from wedding days – in the course of six and a half years we’ve ran through epic rainstorms and snow storms, gotten lost in major cities we’d never been to, we’ve taken bridal portraits in one of the world’s most famous bookstores and Andrew laughed at me and my starry-eyed-ness book nerd dreams the entire time, we’ve commandeered countless bubble wands for bridal party portraits, I’ve screamed like crazy after encountering a baby snake, once Andrew even got his camera stolen and returned within fifteen minutes! – but I’m going to tell these two stories that happened post-wedding instead!
First! A story from the middle of a Wal-Mart grocery store: I don’t think I’ve mentioned this anywhere online yet but, in May, we photographed the super sweet wedding of Joy-Anna Duggar and Austin Forsyth and, when the People feature came out, I was really, really excited. While at the store with Henry one afternoon, I didn’t realize that the magazine had come out yet – I thought it came out the next week! – but I pulled the magazine off the rack anyway to browse through and found our photographs smack dab in the middle of the magazine. The feature was super exciting but, as soon as I saw it, I started laughing. Every single ceremony photograph included in the magazine was taken by Andrew – not by me! – and I still laugh about it every time I remember finding so many of his photographs in the magazine. Andrew is the master at ceremony photographs. Like, I get chills all the time when I pull up his photographs and see them for the first time… and sometimes I ugly cry, too.
Second! This photograph of Anna below? I LOVE THIS PHOTOGRAPH. It’s one of my very favorite First Look photographs of all time because, when I look at it, I can just feel the anticipation and the love and the excitement. It’s so beautiful! And because it’s so beautiful? I plastered this baby all over the Internet the week or two following Anna and Jimmy’s wedding. I never checked the EXIF information when I started sharing this – I totally thought it was mine – and, a few weeks later when I put together their Three Things I Loved blog post, I realized that this photograph wasn’t mine. It was Andrew’s!! Definitely one of those student surpasses the master / out of body experiences. Hahaha.
Alright, after the photograph! Back to Andrew! I won’t answer his questions so much anymore… maybe. I mean, I’ll try hard to keep quiet but we all know how well that goes on this blog.
(Y’all can call me Miss Chatterbox) – End Lissa
How did you meet your husband?
Andrew: Some time after this survey, because I didn’t know I had one until right now.
I saw Lissa at a social event at college and ran away because she was so beautiful. I continued to hide for 6 more months before I had the cojones to talk to her. Then things moved pretty fast.
(Five Year Anniversary Photographs below taken by the super talented Carly Bingham!)
If you could photograph any one person living or dead, who would it be and why?
Selfie with Louis Daguerre
What’s in your camera bag? Do you have a favorite lens?
Camera Bag: Canon 5d Mark III, Canon 35mm f/1.4L, Sigma 50 Art, Canon 135mm f/2.0L
Favorite Lens: Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L
If you could travel anywhere, where would it be?
Space
What’s your favorite local date night?
Any time we do a ridiculous date night. On our most recent date, we went on a “first date” to Noodles and then got ice cream. Did I get lucky? A gentleman never kisses and tells, but there’s a particular Lonely Island song that comes to mind…
(OMG guys! Ignore him and his sassiness!)
Favorite Netflix show to binge on?
Anytime? Archer. Oct 27-29? Stranger Things S2.
Song you know every single word to? Album?
Too many to name. The entire Beatles catalog (including anthologies) for starters…
(He may be able to quote every Beatles song but he can also sing every line to Party in the USA.)
Waffles or Pancakes?
Hash browns
Farmer’s Market Flowers or Store Bouquets?
Lissa likes me to mix it up each week.
Mountains or Beach?
Mountains
Comedy or Horror Movies?
Comedy
Maxi Dress or Blue Jeans?
Wrangler dress jeans
Vintage or New?
I don’t understand the question.
(Wife’s opinion: Mostly new if it were up to him but 50% of our house is vintage because I love vintage everything with my whole heart. Even our bed frame was found at a vintage market and he’s the one who found the frame! Totally unprompted I might add!)
A Quick Weekend Trip or an Epic Road Trip?
Epic road trip. Or a cruise.
Aquarium or Zoo?
Museum.
Favorite Color?
Green
Favorite Pizza Toppings?
There are too many combinations/options to choose from
Favorite Fayetteville restaurant?
Depends on the day. Where would I eat today (just Fayetteville)?
Burger: Feltner Brothers
Chinese: Chao’s
Thai: Thep Thai
Indian: Khana
Mexican: Sarita’s
Current Fave: Southern Food Company
Italian: Always Better at Home
Ask me tomorrow and it’ll probably change.
Favorite Dinosaur?
Technically not a dinosaur, but Dunkleosteus
Favorite Laffy Taffy Joke?
Q: How can you tell if a ninja has been in your fridge?
A: You can’t.
How do you want your clients to feel when you photograph them?
Given the specific role I fill at weddings, I don’t want them to even notice that I’m there.
And there’s that! After six and a half years in business and four and a half years on this specific blog, y’all have officially met my husband! He’s kind of a sassafras, right? Thanks for filling this out, boo!
You can read more about Andrew HERE and, when he starts posting more – which he will start doing later this month! – you’ll be able to find his posts HERE! He’s my fave! Also, he totally didn’t take the last photograph of this post but Andrew always sets up my OCF setup for weddings so I’d say those photographs should be credited at least 50/50. Love him to the moon!
