jimi allen photography

I love gallery shows…the beautiful prints, the family time, the music, the flowers…the food…

This coming Saturday is our 10th wedding gallery show. It’s one thing to see wedding pictures online or as proofs, but it is quite another to sit with family and friends while moments are projected on a large screen set to music. More than one bride has teared up at the sight!

In a few hours the studio is transformed with large prints, fresh flowers and a decadent cheese tray. Though we sell prints as these shows, that is not the primary focus.

Have you ever loved something so much that you spent a lifetime crafting a skill to preserve it as a memory? We have.

Art isn’t something you only see at the Art Institute in Chicago, art communicates. Art is the realization and remembrance of who we are. Art validates our experiences. At a wedding gallery show, memories take physical form in a photograph and relationships are honored.

By the end of the evening, we have continued relationships and built new ones. We also go to sleep full of pepper jack cheese and mimosas humming “Fly Away” by Frank Sinatra.

- amy

“Ask Kate.”

This might as well the motto around the studio. As studio manager and photographer, Katharine is constantly juggling more than a few responsbilities. At any given moment she could be designing a card, invoicing a client, setting up a commercial shoot or talking to a bride about her wedding day itinerary. Though she keeps everyone in line, she is nothing like a drill sergeant…what drill sergeant do you know who wears pink sweaters and bakes oatmeal cookies?

There’s really no other way to do it. Jumping in is the best course of action. By the time you were caught up on the story, we would again be behind. I have concluded that the best thing is to just jump in, just like my dad made me do my first day of swimming lessons. “Get in the water…you’ll figure out the rest as we go along.”

There is always something happening. If you are interested in photography, this is the place for you. If you love art, you will appreciate our thoughts. If you know us and think we are worth reading about, you will not be disappointed.