By Tina L. Scott

This summer is so crazy ... everything is just getting away from me. Bunches of senior sessions and newborn babies and weddings are keeping me on my toes in and out of the studio ... (and I'm loving it!) ... Then this summer we are gearing up for my own daughter's wedding in September ... LOTS of preparation there! So keeping up with the blog has been next to impossible. BUT today I just have to share images from a small town wedding in Athens ...
This is an amazing story and proof that God puts us in the right place at the right time to do what He needs us to do. That's because I wasn't the person originally hired to photograph this wedding. Another photographer, Chris Kepner, of Kepner Photography in Athens, was hired to photograph last Saturday's wedding ... the marriage of Suzanne Elysia Bunkelman and Brandon Robert Barber on July 19, 2014 ... until Chris went mountain biking on Thursday and broke her arm.
The result, as any wedding photographer will tell you, is absolute panic and the kind of stress you can't even imagine. Chris spent the better part of her Thursday crying, she said. But then she posted in a photography group we both belong to that she needed help. I responded, and the rest, as they say, is history. Chris and I connected and already feel like old friends, and it's a wonderful thing to have another photographer friend who really gets you! I have the feeling we will be hanging out quite a bit as time allows! And maybe even collaborating photographically on more weddings and other photo shoots too!
We ended up shooting the wedding together ... Her assistant came along to help us with all the hauling and set up, and we got Chris set up enough to shoot images from the balcony on a tripod during the church service. I covered the bases for everything that had to be done that was physically impossible for Chris. That meant that the bride and groom got a pretty incredible experience really ... they got the best of both of our styles! Chris set up the formal shots she wanted and I shot the images with her equipment after the service in church. And I learned a lot along the way. Then she stepped back and let me take the lead on all of the outdoor images ... and she said she learned a few things from watching me, as well. The result? I think it is pretty darn awesome!

We now have a happily married Mr. and Mrs. Brandon and Suzie Barber ... a very relieved photographer who went home at the end of the day to a nice Vicadin cocktail and to ice her hand and arm ... and some awesome images made possible by ... well, God, of course. He was pretty busy that day. Not only was He joining this couple in holy matrimony, but He was working with and through Chris and I to bring us together, get the wedding covered, and create a brand new friendship ... and He does some pretty incredible work!
Anyway ... I couldn't way to share some of my personal favorite images that I created for Suzie and Brandon! Some of these images were shot in the "town square" (it's an oval, really) in the center of Athens, a small town of 1,101 people where I have my roots and still have many, many, many relatives! Most of these images were shot in a field in rural Athens not a mile as the crow flies from where I lived and played as a small child ... so it was cool to be back in that area and reminisce a little bit, as well. (And if you are country born and raised, you know that a mile is next to nothing out in the country!) (So yes, this was a pretty cool experience for me, too!)
So without further ado ... a sneak peek at some of the images I created on Suzie and Brandon's wedding day ... I LOVE these!
I hope Suzie and Brandon (and Chris) do, too!!
Tina





