Apr 30

Apr 30 A just-for-fun photoshoot in Downtown Nashville | Darien Photography | Nashville Portrait Photographer

Give yourself the gift of a photo shoot. You deserve to feel special, beautiful and have the photos to proof it! | A Downtown Nashville Portrait Session for a woman who knows she is worth it! | Darien Photography, Nashville portrait photographer.

Some people think I am only a wedding photographer, some only know me as a portrait photographer. I am both!

What most people don’t know is that I am also a hybrid photographer, shooting digital and analog photography. I learned photography on a 35mm analog camera back in the late 80s, and shot everything, including big weddings strictly on film when I was a novice photographer 20+ years ago. So, I'm still sprinkling analog film photography here and there, and I still use the same camera that started it all (my love for photography, that is).

I adore my Minolta Maxxum-7000 35mm film camera. I usually bring it with me to every wedding, and to my full portrait sessions, like this one with Shana. I first met her when she found me on Google looking for mini sessions near Nashville. She hired me to take pictures of her daughter and her husband for Father’s Day, then booked Portraits with Santa for her daughter, and she finally gave herself the gift of a just-for-fun session with me early this Spring. That coat and pink heels gave her black-and-white outfit with sparkles an extra fun factor.

I typically shoot mainly digital, and deliver my client’s galleries as fast as I can, but I also take some frames with the 35mm. I do it for the pleasure of framing my view through my favorite prime glass lens (50mm f/1.8) and for sentimental reasons. My favorite uncle, also a photographer and visual artist, gave it to me. He passed before I was able to show him what I could do with it, so I think of him and honor his memory every time I shoot with it.

Photographing with film slows me down in a good way. I enjoy the process of waiting for the lab to send me the scans, then I savor when I go through the images and I love how they look as is. I randomly make a change. Do they look different than the images I already delivered to my clients? Perhaps. I love them every time. Some may not like the grain, or the slightly different tone. You may call them vintage, I call them magical.