Studio Journal of Amy Deputy Photography » photographers

Things We See ~ a collaboration

amy — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:49:12 +0000

“To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion, all in one.”
~ John Ruskin

I am excited to announce Things We See. This collaborative website founded by Britt Bailey, Bonnie Berry, Jennifer Domenick, Emmy Sherman and me has a simple vision: share what we see. If you are interested in contributing please visit Things We See for information on how you can be part of this new community. You may also email us at contribute@thingswesee.net. We hope to see you soon.

Field of donkeys

amy — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:09:16 +0000

“Mostly people just wanted me to listen to their story.” ~ Bonnie Berry

She called me from Love’s truck stop. We wound up in a retired postal worker’s field of donkeys. And that’s what happened on an afternoon in Texas.

Anna + Amy Workshop ~ San Francisco March 30-31

amy — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 11:35:35 +0000

“Photography, alone of the arts, seems perfected to serve the desire
humans have for a moment – this very moment – to stay.” ~ Sam Abell

I am co-teaching with the fabulous Anna Kuperberg in San Francisco on March 30-31. The two day Anna + Amy Workshop has two spots remaining. Our workshop is available to professional photographers based on portfolio review.

Shadow and Grace ~ a slideshow

amy — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 01:47:07 +0000

I am feeling particularly nostalgic this evening…

Maybe it’s the snow and the soft cloudy days nestling me…

Maybe it’s my delayed reaction to a new year, a chance to trace my time and reorient my compass…

Maybe I’m savoring a sense of completion…

Maybe and most likely, I’m simply grateful.

I hear my husband and my son bantering in the next room, snippets of laughter and ever~so~earnest questions waft like the chocolate chip cookies I baked. Homework is done. Folded laundry rests. Neat white reminder bundles stack on the stairs. And the slideshow below…it rests, at home on this journal, complete.

Shadow and Grace chronicles 22 years of my photography. It starts with the first worth~a~darn photograph I made as a student in Kentucky. It ends exactly this time last year after my husband received his new kidney. What you might want to know before viewing this lengthy piece it this…some find the content challenging. I offer a very personal no~holds~barred collection of photographs. I trace time by revisiting my years at newspapers, my challenges of coping with my now 14-year-old son’s Cowden Syndrome, my husband’s Polycystic Kidney Disease and running a small business. Some folks have asked how I photographed my family, particularly my son’s early years. My answer? I knew then and know now, one day these images would be needed for him to trace his time.

What I see now, a year later, are beautiful laundry piles on the same steps lulled by the gentle snores of my family.

love ~ amy

{ music: courtesy of Triple Scoop Music }

A Field

amy — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:58:52 +0000

“We see things as we are.”
~Anaïs Nin

I wrote about the Foundation Workshop a year ago when I attended as a team leader. Heading to Dallas is somewhat of a yearly pilgrimage. Tomorrow I head back to Texas and meet a new team of photographers.

The five day photography immersion experience started by Huy Nguyen, former Dallas Morning News photojournalist, is devoted to teaching wedding photographers to be better visual storytellers by former news photographers Greg Gibson, David Murray, Brooks Whittington and Tyler Wirken.

I am again blessed with another powerful group. Each is an amazing photographer with incredible gifts. I am so excited to hunker down in Texas and live pictures with my photography family. The 2010 Team Amy includes Britt Bailey, Bonnie Barry, Gulnara Samoilova, Emmy Sherman, Tina Wilson and Tak Yi Young with mentoring by Rachel LaCour Neisen, Huy Nguyen and Jay Premack.

The slideshow below is from the 2009 workshop, re-edited for a presentation for my 2010 Digital Wedding Forum Conference presentation in Nashville. Thank you to 2009 participants Britt Bailey, Marcin Czech, Erin Beach, Daniel Chinn and Scott Williams, Jay Premack, Sergio Lopez, Anja Schlein and David Murray.

Hello new beautiful team. Let’s rock Texas.

love ~ amy

{ note: special thanks to Triple Scoop Music }

Amy Deputy Photography among Top Ten Wedding Photographers ~ American PHOTO

amy — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:51:02 +0000

I am humbled and grateful, and too somewhat flabbergasted, to be chosen as one of the 2009 top ten wedding photographers in the United States by American PHOTO magazine.

When I received the notification email from the magazine, I replied with one sentence. “Are you kidding me?” I contacted my wedding photo buddies, many who are on the previous year’s American PHOTO list and many who will be, asking if the email was an improved version of a clever online prank. I was assured the email was accurate. They offered their congratulations.

It’s official now. Online. A magazine article en route. The only studio south of New York City, north of Atlanta and east of Dallas represented. The wedding photo community a twitter. And I’m feeling quite shy.

Ahhh…such are my paradoxes in receiving this designation. Questions hound me. Why does human nature adore the art of nebulous comparison? How can creative pursuits be empirically judged as better than others’ endeavors? I am honored and too, wrestling with my skeptical nature of accepting non-objective truth.

I called a friend to chat. For perspective, he offered a quote by 19th century newspaper editor Horace Greeley. “Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, and riches take wings. Only one thing endures and that is character.”

Yesterday I went to a family dinner. I took a fruit salad. I made pictures of colored eggs tattooed by my son’s fingerprints, the people I love and gold-kissed daffodils. My questions faded. Sweet clarity returned. I am deeply thankful to the couples whose weddings I have photographed, to the 2009 American Photo nomination committee and to harbingers of spring.

I offer my congratulations to my fellow wedding photographers who were selected:

click here to read complete online article

Team portfolios ~ Foundation Workshop

amy — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 21:12:09 +0000

I asked my 2009 Foundation Workshop team to send me their thoughts and personal favorite images from their week in Dallas.

What follows is a selection of their top five pictures culled from thousands. Here’s how it worked. On Monday night each received an assignment, reflecting an average daily newspaper assignment. On Tuesday, shooting began and each received one-on-one on-site mentoring by team mentors Sergio, Anja Schlein and David Murray. Evenings were spent in late night team picture editing sessions utilizing the savvy computer prowess of team assistant Jay Premack. The shoots were completed Wednesday night. Editing began again that evening into the early morning hours. On Thursday, stories were finalized and presentations were shown during the dinner finale. I hope you enjoy their words and images, Amy

SPCA of Texas | Photographs by Daniel Chin

“I take pictures. Does that mean that I am a photographer?”

“This verb “to be”. What is this incessant need to define myself in the form of this verb “to be”, as if I could ever find just that right mix of adjectives to finally contain and thereby understand myself.”

“Even in this pursuit to define, I find myself only frustrated by the limitations of those words.”

“Enough with words. So I take pictures.” ~ Daniel

Sunstone Yoga | Photographs by Britt Bailey

“These images were shot at the Sunstone Yoga Teacher Training Program, the core of which are the twice daily 90 minute Fire Yoga classes, in a room where the temperature hovered around 101 degrees.”

“Spending time with these women, in that setting, had a profound effect on me, which was magnified by the parallel emotional experience I was going through at Foundation. There is the figure of speech that to get at the essence of anything, you have to be willing to leap into the fire.”

“I don’t know that I managed to bring back images that showed what I truly felt and saw in the company of these women, but these images are as close as I could get at that time. I learned from that experience what it took for me personally, to “get in there,” to take that leap into a world of openness and connectedness, heat and light. The women I met at Sunstone Yoga are so much better at all of this than I was. They held the door open for me. They were my guides.”

“I came home from FW7 feeling both broken and strengthened, and more than anything, enlightened by those who shine so much brighter than I do.”

“I owe a debt of gratitude to all who helped me…Thank you from the bottom of my heart.” ~ Britt

Plano Super Bowl | Photographs by Marcin Czech

” I learned that strangers will gladly let you into their lives and hearts when you stop being scared of them.” ~ Marcin

Dirty Dawgz | Photographs by Erin Beach

“My time at Foundation was spent partially covered in dog hair at the Dirty Dawgz Dog Wash and Spa.”

“Initially my story was going to focus on the the couple who worked in the store. After the first night of editing it was clear my attention needed to be on the lives of the pets. I was pushed to go weird with my work and the next morning at the salon a crazy one-glaucoma-eyed dog walks in. I knew it was going to be an interesting day.”

“The man who owns the dog with the blue rhinestone collar also has a pig that wears a matching pink rhinestone collar. It was a very enlightening way to spend a week.” ~ Erin

Allen Skate Park | Photographs by Scott Williams

“For the first time in my life, I feel like a real photographer.” ~ Scott

Blue List Photographers ~ destination photographer collective

amy — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 10:12:59 +0000

Blue List Photographers, brainchild of wedding photographers Huy Nguyen of F8 Studio and Anna Kuperberg, is a collective of local and destination wedding photographers from the US and Canada with a shared philosophy: great service and great pictures. A big thank goes to classical violinist turned Blue List Photographers concierge extraordinaire, Kathryn Krueger.

I am grateful my studio is among this group of established artists including:

Ben Chrisman ~ San Francisco, California

Jesh De Rox ~ Alberta, Canada

DQ Studios ~ Calgary, Alberta

F8 Studio ~ Dallas, Texas

Sean Flanigan ~ Portland, Oregon

Greg Gibson ~ Washington, DC

The Image Is Found ~ San Diego, California

Anna Kuperberg ~ San Francisco, California

Sergio ~ Phoeniz, Arizona

Vrai ~ Chicago, Illinois

Linda Wallace ~ Durham, North Carolina

The Weibners ~ Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Wirken Photography ~ Kansas City, Missouri

Amy Deputy published in Wedding Photography UNVEILED ~ write some words and receive the book

amy — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 13:21:18 +0000

Jacqueline Tobin, longtime editor and writer at Photo District News, has published her first book, Wedding Photography UNVEILED: Inspiration and Insight from from 20 Top Photographers published by Amphoto Books and available at Amazon.

Wedding Photography UNVEILED, with cover photographs by Jose Villa, highlights twenty contemporary wedding photographers whose work is considered among some of the best in the nation. It offers aspiring wedding photographers practical tips, business practices and inspiration from established “fashion-forward” wedding photographers. Tobin’s book is a joyous celebration of the emergent art of wedding day reportage.

Tobin, who has been in the photo industry for over twenty years, sees wedding photography, once considered a “thankless profession”, evolving into its own lush storytelling genre.

“The most compelling images, I’ve discovered, are these “new-school” images that focus on emotion-filled, spontaneous moments during the course of the day, woven together to highlight a couple’s personality and connection, ” she writes.

I am deeply grateful to be among the nation’s wedding photographers selected for Wedding Photography UNVEILED including:

Charles and Jennifer Maring

In celebration of Tobin’s vision the corporate headquarters of Amy Deputy Photography, meaning me, is pleased to announce a book giveaway. Here’s how it works: start by choosing a word from the title, Wedding Photography UNVEILED: Inspiration and Insight from from 20 Top Photographers.

Write an essay, word, or sentence on what the word means in your life.

If your entry is best supported by an image please include an 800 pixels wide jpeg.

A select panel of judges, meaning me, will select two winners who will receive a copy of the book.

Email your entries no later than June 1, 2009.

So to you Jacqueline Tobin…I offer my deep gratitude. Thank you for your kindness, your patience and your guidance. Thank you for your representation of women photographers. Thank you for sharing your gifts with a community who loves images and how they hold our memories.

And to you…the countless photographers who inspire me daily, thank you. And to you…the couples, who love, without you there would be no book, Amy