I grew up in a small town in the thumb of Michigan before earning my bachelor's degree at the University of Michigan in 2005. I was not always a photographer! I majored in English and minored in Political Science through the School of Education. I graduated with my teaching certifications in K-12 for both subjects. During the last year or so of my college experience, I actually got turned on to the idea of becoming a DENTIST, through the help of several roommates and friends who were already going through the process. But I decided to give the 'teaching thing' a try for a while since I had almost completed my degree. I left the educational world having two total years of middle school and high school teaching experience. During my time as a teacher I took dental school pre-requisite classes at night and during the summer at Wayne State University in Detroit... and that's how the photography business got started. I needed a way to pay for my classes without disrupting the family budget!
I created a monster. :-D
Fast forward: I finished all my classes at WSU and decided that I loved what I was doing so much that I was not willing to heavily invest in another career (dentistry) that I might not enjoy as much. Heather and I are both very thankful for how much God has blessed this business in a relatively short time span!
I have an insatiable appetite for learning every aspect of becoming a top-tier photographer. I'm not there yet, but I'll let you know if I ever feel like I've arrived ;-). I'm fun, energetic, easy to get along with, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE people!!
By the way... I'm on Facebook! Feel free to check out my public profile!
Last month I had the pleasure of photographing Jozie and Jeff’s AMAZING wedding on the island of Maui. Maui wedding photography is so different than what a Michigan wedding would look like at this time of year, that’s for sure! The weather was 80-85F the whole week and SUNNY!!! Who wouldn’t love that?!
After the couple got ready we loaded into the car and went to a couple of off-site locations that I scouted a few days earlier for a photo shoot. Once we were done we headed back to the hotel property for the ceremony. The ceremony was on the golf course near the fabulous Ritz Carlton Hotel on the north side of the island, where we had views of breaching humpback whales, crashing waves, and neighboring islands in the background beyond the cliffs. It was literally picture-perfect – just like Jozie and Jeff’s relationship! The two were so excited to get married and it was an honor for me to be a part of the event and witness their love for each other. After the afternoon ceremony, we golf carted our way back to the hotel to eat a dinner at the famous Kai Sushi restaurant at the Ritz. The food was SOOOOO fresh I couldn’t believe it!! The fish we ate was likely caught earlier that day. Unbelievable.
If you are considering a destination wedding, I would HIGHLY recommend the Ritz Carlton in Kapalua, Maui… and flying me out to photograph it! Kristina Harpe is the wedding coordinator there and does an amazing job. Everything was PERFECT! Here’s a few of my fav’s:
Wondering what one of our unique album designs looks like? Check out my sister’s rockin’ Kalamazoo wedding photos from 9/4/09!!! Every album we make is custom designed and fabulous – and of course you approve the final design before we order it! This particular book measures 20×8″ but the fun comes in all shapes and sizes. Cheers!
Two quick shout outs: one to my friend and fellow photographer Kate Elliott, who took some of these images and worked with me on Abby’s wedding day so I could enjoy it! The other belongs to the boys at Epic Motion for creating that sweet custom animated logo!
In a recent interview with one of our AWESOME new clients, I was asked, “Do you have an assistant? What do they actually do?” I think that is a great question. The reality is that not all Michigan wedding photographers use associate shooters, but in some cases I question how effective the main photographer is able to be without the use of them. We are usually VERY busy and I find my associates to be an invaluable tool on your wedding day.
I recently assisted my friend Tamara at a wedding she was photographing as a favor (and because she let me try some funky new ideas!). Here are a couple of the shots I took, which look very much like the images routinely captured by my associates when they work with me:
Hello and Happy New Year! Thanks for stopping by the blog!
Just a head’s up – we will be out of town for the next week for Jeff and Jozie’s fabulous destination wedding on the beautiful Hawaiian island of Maui. After we return we will head to this year’s Imaging USA conference in Nashville for 4 days. We will be back in town and available for new client consultations on Thursday, 1/14.
If you need to reach me [Adam] during the time I’m away, please do not hesitate to call / email / twitter / facebook / text me. I can be reached at 248-767-6296 and I would love to hear from you! I will be operating somewhat of a ‘mobile command center’ with my laptop so it’s all good .
We hope to hear from you regarding your upcoming wedding or event! Make sure you fill out the contact form on our website!
Now that there is snow on the ground (finally!), it’s time to reminisce about the beautiful fall weather we had for an extended period of time this year. Here are some fun pics I took of the Johnson family. Dave is a community pastor at my church and their two kids are both really awesome. Judy, the lucky mom of these 3 studs, won one of the charity auction donations I made to raise money for local a scholarship fund. Enjoy!
December 26, 2009 at 11:10am Posted in Photographers
Just had my camera on a tripod the other night and decided to brave the cold and experiment a little bit with HDR! For those of you who are unaware, HDR stands for “high dynamic range”, and is a type of photography that combines different exposures to cover a more broad tonal range. Check out these cool shots:
We are excited to announce that from now until it’s *officially* Christmas at 12am December 25th, new wedding clients will receive a FREE 16×24 wall portrait from either your engagement session or wedding. This offer is only good for new clients and will ONLY be good until 12/25/09! This special has an incredible value of $407!! To qualify you must sign your agreement and submit your non-refundable retainer fee. Sign up now before it’s too late!
Last month I was blessed to be able to photograph Ashish and Vasavi’s fabulous Indian wedding in the Detroit area. For those of you who are not familiar with Indian weddings, it’s much more about the joining of two families than just the bride and groom and I think that’s awesome. Everyone is very supportive and it’s a VERY joyous occasion. There was singing, dancing, chanting, and – oh my gosh – EATING! We worked from approximately 7:30am – 11:30pm! Thank goodness we got fed breakfast, lunch and dinner! Being an Indian wedding, there were, of course, LOTS of beautiful colors. But I decided for this post to only display black & white images because I think they capture the timelessness and beauty of this gorgeous wedding. Congrats guys! Enjoy!
Are you having a baby? Did you already have a baby? Do you have LOTS of babies? Are your babies not even babies anymore? We’re excited to announce that this winter we will be launching a brand new portrait website to show of all the fabulous famliies we’ve photographed and reach out to the maternity/baby/family/seniors community. I photograph plenty of families and people, but until now I have not had any time to launch a website to show off that work . Get excited!
On Saturday, December 12, I had the fortunate opportunity to collaborate with other professional photographers participating in Help-Portrait, a day where photographers from all around the world photograph those who would not normally get to have their photos taken. It was awesome! Everyone involved was blessed by the happenings all day long. We managed to photograph 17 families with kids ranging from 2 weeks old all the way up to grandparents! I spent the whole day laughing with the little ones and taking funny pics of them to show their parents. One woman, upon seeing her photos on the editing station, broke down in tears and said, “We’ve never had a family picture before.” That same tone was echoed by several other families that day. Every family was given a free 8×10 and 5×7 just for showing up!
Who wouldn’t love that?!
by adamczap
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