I'm Alysha. I've been doing photography for a long time- and I have been photographing weddings for 5 years. I can't remember how many weddings I've done- but each one is absolutely different from the one before or the next. And every couple is different-that is why you see such different images for each couple. I don't take pictures; I capture you and your moment. Really, I do. It's what makes this fun.
I've changed over the years. I’ve gotten better with age! Like cheese, wine, or a favorite pair of jeans. My photography has changed too; it has improved and it shows. I have learned to help people relax and be photographed looking their best.
My passion is PEOPLE; I think that clearly shows in the faces of the couples I photograph. While I love fashion and fashion imagery, the mental and emotional state of the project is what drives the model, the overall eye and style, and the ultimate results. This is what is exciting to me. Each project is a partnership where everyone wins.
I started photography in middle school at age 12. All we had were plastic point-and-shoot consumer cameras. Years later my dad gave me a used professional Pentax camera. I spent hundreds of dollars in film processing then for what cell phones now do for free! During my time as an exchange student in Australia is when the light really came on for me. The environment and melting pot of people I met there inspired me and I began taking photography more seriously.
I built and ran a photo studio for my high-school my graduating year and raised $3000 for the school through studio business. I won a few awards- but more importantly I learned to appreciate the art of photography. Learning the ‘old school’ way of doing photography is one of the reasons my digital photographs have more warmth, personality and visual quality.
After high-school I worked for about a year with studio photographers. I didn’t like the tiny, dark studio sets and the disgruntled customers. The customers had hoped we would capture them at their best. I learned that was impossible, especially with families and children, in the foreign studio atmosphere. I quit the studios and began working for myself as a freelance on-location photographer. That was the birth of “alyography” photography! Leaving the studio behind and taking photographs in other environments has become a signature of mine.
My first freelance job was with a family who had too many people to fit into a studio. I moved my antique couch into their front yard for the shoot- it fit their personalities perfectly. The family was stunned with the natural results of the shoot. They swore to never get studio portraits again! My fee then was $50; the results- “priceless.”
My first wedding job came 6 months later. I shot all in 35mm film. I only had a tiny point-and-shoot consumer digital camera at the time; nothing professional, and I was just beginning to teach myself Photoshop for editing. I processed the film, printed the photographs and put them in a leather album. The album was arranged to tell the couple’s story along with a copy of their wedding invitations. I felt my purpose in life right then as I handed them an album of precious images of their once-in-a-life-time moments and preserved memories. The results of the trust they had placed in me, to capture those images, was rewarding. The leather album has been replaced with a DVD but the reward for the couple, and for me, is still the same.
Since then, I have experimented with blending art, portrait photography and my passion for fashion. I decided to un-shroud and tackle that mysterious perfection we see in magazines and ads. I had friends who were studying fashion design and marketing, so I had a lot of willing subjects to experiment with! My first fashion editorial style photo shoot was shot with a Canon 3 megapixel “low-tech” digital camera. With a friend as a model, I found an abandoned farm to use as our set. From that first experience I learned that finding unique settings, or making the most of any setting, was my way to make photograph more unique and dramatic.
The next thing I knew, I was working with major Arizona, California and Utah agencies and their models. I was shooting 50 weddings a year, making band album covers, taking actors headshots and making people HAPPY! That is what I love. I love seeing the world in a beautiful way and sharing that with everyone around me. I hope they see it that way too- not my way- but in a beautiful and stunning way.
I would like to share with you what I’ve learned, the talent I have, and the skills I’ve developed to create photographs that are more than just ‘pictures’.
