Documentary photography you can feel .

I describe my style as ‘fine art with a moody twist with film-inspired aesthetics’. Let me break that down for you. ‘Fine art’ means that I always try to capture the unique atmosphere of a day in an accurate and timeless way. ‘Moody’ describes how I shoot in high contrast lighting, I’m not afraid of shadows, and I try to achieve the look of richness with colors and contrast. The opposite of this would be “light and airy” where there is less contrast, little to no shadows, and there are a lot of highlights and bright backgrounds that are almost white. Some lighting situations require I shoot in the “bright and airy” look and I think it can be very pretty, but my tendency is to be drawn to more dramatic lighting situations. ‘Film aesthetic’ simply means that I am inspired by the look of film photography and will often edit my digital images to be closer to the look of a photo taken with an old film camera. This involves lowering overall contrast, using warmer tones, and even adding some grain where it is appropriate.

A large portion of what you are paying for when you hire me or any other wedding photographer is not only their time and skill on the actual wedding day, but hours and hours of culling (narrowing down and choosing the best images to include) and editing also. I don’t make any guarantees about the amount of photos I deliver, but on average it is about 50-75 images per hour of shooting, so this would be 400-600 images for an 8 hour wedding day. However, I do not put any caps on the number of images I deliver, so if we get more pictures that I feel are worth sharing, I will of course edit and share those too! I never give RAW images to any of my clients for a couple of reasons, but mainly because it is like handing over unfinished art, like a painter prepping the canvas and then handing it over to someone else to finish. Only I know what I was envisioning when the photograph was taken, and only I can bring that vision to life. By hiring me, you are trusting me to choose favorites and edit them in my style, so I encourage you to look through my portfolio and make sure you like the types of images I take and how I edit them!

My first wedding was for a friend in 2010, and for the next several years I would average 2-3 weddings per year just shooting friend’s weddings who had a smaller budget. By 2018 that number increased to 4-5 weddings and I felt like I was starting to get better at it and could see myself taking on more. In 2019 I lost my job as a graphic designer and that was the push I needed to start my own business and try to make photography my full time job, and that’s how Lee Bottoms Creative was born!

All photos are delivered through an online gallery where you can choose favorites, order prints, and download the full resolution images. The link to your gallery will be emailed or texted to you no later than 10 weeks after your event. I always try to share some sneak peeks within the first week after your wedding, but I don’t make any promises because some weeks are wild and I can’t turn it around that fast! I realize that you will be dying to see your images and I do my best to run ahead of schedule! I’m just as eager to share them as you are to see them.

I can’t make any guarantees on the amount of pictures I deliver in final galleries, but I can tell you that the average I deliver is 50-75 images per hour, so an 8 hour day usually produces a final gallery of 400-600 images and a 10 hour day gets 500-750 images. Final gallery sizes vary based on many factors such as weather, scheduled photo moments, cooperation of the wedding party, whether or not I have a second shooter and other factors, but I always include as many photos as I can based on my creative judgment of what I consider a good photograph!

Yes, I have liability insurance through Hill & Usher and can provide a document to your venue or planner if necessary.