Atlanta Fashion Photographer, Portrait Photographer, Atlanta Georgia

You heard correctly, a toilet paper wedding dress!

Meet designer Cynthia Richards, ‘Re Sike Killed’ design line who came up with this amazing wedding dress. Good willed and skilled is what she is all about.

Cynthia started designing when she was eight years old, in her Grandma’s NY attic. She knew then that, that was what she wanted to do when she got older. This rococo-era inspired design (Cynthia’s favorite) was thought up by her partner Molly Hopkins of Livi Rae Lingerie shop in Kennesaw, GA.

This wedding dress is made up of 20 rolls of Charmin toilet paper, two bottles of glue (fabric glue and Mod podge glue) and a roll of duck tape, and was entered into the annual Cheap Chic Weddings’ Toilet Paper Wedding Dress Contest. It came in third place and will be displayed in Ripley’s Believe it or Not!

I had the pleasure of photographing Cynthia Richards in her very own design, along with my son North. Molly Hopkin’s cousin was gracious enough to allow us the use of his land at Fleu De Coop, as well as the vintage pieces we needed. Thank you.

If you are interested in reading more about this dress, you can follow any of these links:

www.Cheap-Chic-Weddings.comshine.yahoo.com
www.perfectweddingguide.com
www.bocamag.com
fashionetc.com
www.genogenogeno.com
wildfire.gigya.com
abcnews.go.com
www.wxii12.com
www.refinery29.com
www.wpbf.com

http://marietta.11alive.com/news/style/woman-places-third-toilet-paper-wedding-dress-contest/70493

http://www.stillthelovely.com/2011/07/toilet-paper-wedding-dress-contest-winners/

http://browngirlnextdoor.com/2011/07/11/7th-annual-toilet-paper-wedding-dress-contest/

http://www.odditycentral.com/art/cheap-chic-wedding-dresses-made-of-toilet-paper.html

http://www.stylesegment.com/featured/toilet-paper-wedding-gown-contest/

http://www.bocamag.com/blog/designer-wedding-gowns-and-toilet-paper/

http://www.styleite.com/media/toilet-paper-dress/?pid=7056#image

http://fashionetc.com/news/fashion/2398-toilet-paper-wedding-dresses-winners-2011

http://www.cheap-chic-weddings.com/wedding-contest-2011.html

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20077909-1/here-comes-the-bride-all-dressed-in-toilet-paper/#ixzz1RtpS867k

http://www.bridalguide.com/blogs/bridal-buzz/toilet-paper-wedding-dress-contest

http://www.lifestylesfashion.com/toilet-paper-wedding-grown/

http://www.stylelist.com/2011/07/08/toilet-paper-wedding-gown-photos/

http://marietta.11alive.com/news/style/woman-places-third-toilet-paper-wedding-dress-contest/70493?utm_source=fbp

***Contact me if you are looking for your photos to stand out! Karen@nickelweddings.com or 678.773.2562

I’m a Top Atlanta Wedding Photographer In The Knot!

Featured in the Spring/Summer Issue for The Knot‘s ‘Top Atlanta Weddings’ was a familiar couple to Karen Nickel Photography. Jessica and Dele were wed in March of 2009 and hired us on for one of the most beautiful weddings we have been a part of.

The ceremony and reception were held in the Imperial Ballroom at the grand Biltmore. This wedding was planned and designed to perfection. As a wedding planner herself, Jessica showed off her amazing talent at her own wedding. Every last elegant detail (which we will talk about and show more further down) was touched by Jessica’s special attention.

The Knot‘s featured article goes further into the overall style of Jessica and Dele’s wedding by saying ” [The couple] chose a soft color palette to represent their early spring wedding. Champagne, ivory and pale pink detail were used in everything from the invitations to the wedding party attire. They also wanted a style that would complement the reception ballroom.”

If you love what our bride did for her wedding, click on over to her wedding planning site so she can help make your own wedding as breath-taking as hers.

Photo Captions (Above): The bridal bouquet – For a touching tribute to her late father, Jessica pinned a vintage locket, holding his photograph, to her bouquet of roses, orchids and ranunculus. The Ceremony – The couple used The Biltmore’s grand space for both their ceremony and reception. Neither Jessica, or Dele is Jewish, but they love the significance of the huppah, and how it represents the couples’ new home together. The ceremony programs – Jessica made the ceremony programs herself, mirroring the same scroll design used in the reserved seating and scripture cards. – The Knot

Photo Captions (Above): The cake – An opulent combination of fresh and sugar flowers encircled the bottom tier of the couple’s beautiful cake. The confection was etched with an elegant pattern on two of the tiers. The reception decor – Tall trumpet vases filled with blooming branches and cuffs of ivory and blush blooms added to the drama of the space, while not distracting guests from dinner conversations. The bridesmaid looks – All four bridesmaids wore elegant ruched A-line dresses in a a soft champagne color. They individualized their looks with their own accessories. The desserts – The bride and groom treated guests to a lavish dessert bar filled with their favorite childhood treats. – The Knot

Top Atlanta Wedding Photographer Featured Wedding Detail Shots

What is it that makes a wedding special or stand out from all the rest?

The statement “It’s the little things” rings true when it comes to wedding details. As photographers, we find this is really where the bride and groom makes their statement, show their personality, and truly set the mood for the entire event.

We love how weddings are becoming less traditional and more friendly to those who love to express themselves in their own wedding. Details do just that for the entire celebration and it also offers the guests beautiful eye candy as well. Wedding details are what separate ‘just an event’ from a ‘special event.’

The beautiful hand picked bouquet draped over each table, the miniature wedding cake desserts and handwritten name cards at each guests seat; these things are what allow you to stand out from the rest of the weddings.

Our couple featured in The Knot were truly a joy to photograph because they paid attention and invested in the details and we had a blast capturing their detail filled wedding.

Below is the highlight of Jessica and Dele’s wedding details. Be inspired!

How To Add Textures To Your Own Photos

A great way to add more depth and interest on an image you take is applying textures to the photo.  Karen Nickel Photography uses this texture technique on many of our photos. You’ve probably seen it on images we’ve posted on our blog and wondered how we created that effect.

Since we love sharing how we do things and offering tips as often as possible, we thought we’d focus on how you can add great effects to your own images.

Note that our editing is done within Adobe Photoshop, but don’t be intimidated. What’s great about this technique is it only has a few steps. We’ll show several examples, and example 2 has only one step!

So if you have a few minutes and have been interested in how we create our textured images, run through these samples and see what you think!

We have attached 10 FREE textures for you to try out on your own. Simply click on the links below, download the files and use them to add texture to any of your images. We love hearing your feedback.

[download id="1"]                            [download id="2"]                             [download id="3"]

Applying Textures on Photos

(all photo editing done in Photoshop CS4)

Example One Above:

1. First step would be warming up your image, giving it more of a ‘vintage/70s’ color to the overall image. An easy way to apply a soft warm color would be to make a layer over your original image and filling it will orange. Make the orange layer mode “screen” and bring down the opacity till it’s to your liking.

2. Place a texture image in your image photoshop file. Make sure your texture image is the top layer. For my sample image, I made my texture layer mode “hard light” giving the texture a rich contrasting effect over the original image.

3. The last touch to my image is simply taking the burn tool and brushing it over the edges of the image. I brushed the burn tool on the texture layer and also the original/background image as well.

Next example of photo textures

Example Two Above:

1. Once your image is open in photoshop, simply place the texture (brown_paper.psd) over top of the original/background image.

2. Change the layer mode of the textures to “vivid light.”

Last Example of photo textures

Example Three Above:

1. Again, I would warm up the image some. And also lighten it up, since the effect wanted is an airy feel to the overall image.

2. Place your texture over top, use the layer mode “overlay” to give it a light effect

3. Final touch would be to make sure the faces of the couple do not have any distracting textures on their skin. If so, simply use the mask tool and brush out the texture from their faces and arms. But keep in mind you want to it look natural so use a soft edge brush and turn the opacity down so it’s not so noticeable you are taking the texture away from an area.

Example Four Above:

1. Turn your original image into a black and white photo. If you want, make the contrast a little more rich so the image pops some.

2. Place the texture (Beach_Sand.psd) Over the origianl/background image and turn your texture layer mode to “screen.” Turn the opacity down a little until it’s to your liking.

Pakistani Wedding Photography

We were enchanted by the most recent wedding we photographed. The bride and groom were right out of a fairy tale with their beautiful Pakistan attire. And Warda, our bride, was a breathtaking princess.

When Warda contacted us, we were delighted to be a part of their wedding and were equally intrigued by their Pakistan wedding traditions.  This wedding marked our very first Pakistan wedding.

We quickly learned it isn’t just one day but three days of celebrations. Thankfully we got to be a part of all these events. We were blown away by the detail and richly layered traditions that filled the three days.

The sparkling jewelry, the rings, and the intricate henna designs that traced across the brides hands, arms, and feet. To say the least, we loved every minute of the detail shots.

But of course our favorite time was the couples session. This is where we get the bride and groom all to ourselves and have fun with being creative and getting the couple to interact.

We skipped on over to historic Norcross and got to use some great backdrops. Our couple was unbelievably amazing in the hot summer sun and their heavy layers (Warda in her high heels too!) But we dare say it was quite worth it with the shots we got…

Check out this stunning Pakistani wedding photography!

Congratulations Warda and Asad!

Musician Photography

We are wrapping up on one of our favorite projects and couldn’t wait any longer to show it off! Karen Nickel Photography got to be a part of the creative journey in drawing the vision for a local artist, singer/songwriter Mandy Gawley!

What made this project so unique is the fact we got to brand Mandy as an artist, from her color scheme to her logo, all the way to her package design for the debut album. This truly has been such a satisfying project seeing it from start to finish.

Our featured artist, Mandy Gawley, is having her much anticipated album release party at the end of September. Join us in the celebration. Tickets are on sale and going fast, hope to see you there! Visit: mandygawley.com for details.

If you are an artist, give us a call so we can help you create a vision through musician photography, logo design, and album design.

Musician photography and design is all done by Karen Nickel Photography

Wedding Webpage

Nickel Weddings just made every bride’s life a little bit easier. Want to know how? We are proud to now offer custom in house design services and high quality wedding websites to all our clients!

This means any or all of your design needs can go through us. This includes custom wedding invitations, beautiful save-the-date cards, wedding programs, favor tags, etc. And no more repeating wedding details or having to find a way to share photos with family and friends. Now with our customized wedding websites you can show off your engagement photos, inform guests with all the ‘need to know’ details {like registry links}, and best of all, once your wedding photos are complete, we add them to your site for everyone to enjoy.

So not only will our wedding clients receive top quality photography but beautiful design and a sleek website to show it all off!

Brides, now you can check off those details on your list all at one place – with our quick response and quality work, we are sure to put every frazzled bride back to enjoying planning their big day.

Feel free to click on an example wedding webpage we created here:      http://toddandcreah.com

We would be kidding ourselves if everyone was right for us. And it’s important to know what our clients look like before you hire us for your next shoot.

Karen Nickel Photography offers a unique photojournalist style for every photo session. Now if you’re asking yourself…”hmmm, what is that exactly?”…let us explain.

Instead of creating a posed photo, we love to just step into the dynamic relationships we are photographing and capture moments of true authenticity. Real laughs, real smiles, real emotions. We would rather be documenting these real moments then having everyone looking into the camera saying “CHEESE!”

Why take a shot of everyone posing if that’s not who you really are? We strive to photograph the interaction between siblings, couples and families, like dad’s funny face he makes when telling a joke, or your sisters smile when she is being silly. That’s what we want: we want real.

And our clients want real too. We have had the amazing opportunity to photograph clients that are willing to relax and be themselves in front of the camera. When this vulnerability happens, we create our most prized images.

We measure our success when anyone can look at our photos and experience the personality of the people we photograph. Now if you’re saying “Yes! That’s me.” Then call us for your next shoot – we can’t wait to step into your world and capture beautiful moments.