Indian Wedding Gallery / March 9, 2019 by Bradley Hanson

indian wedding photographer minneapolis minnesota hindu weddings

Since 1999, I’ve been photographing weddings all over the world in a candid, non-posed style. This allows my clients to focus on enjoying their wedding day rather than being directed by the photographer. I’ve found people are infinitely more interested in seeing what really happened rather than the photographer running them through a standard template of photographs that can be seen at any wedding. To me, the best photographs are ones that are moments that are just happening and that cannot be recreated or posed. For Indian and Hindu weddings, which typically occur over a 3 day period, there is a theoretically infinite number of moments to observe and photograph. Things usually begin with the Mehndi, which includes hennas, then the dinner called the Sangeet. The Baraat is the processional with the groom and his family walking and dancing (originally with a white horse, which still happens if the space allows for it) to meet the bride and the bride’s family. The ceremony includes the Saptapadi, which is when the bride and groom walk around the seven stations of fire. The reception has a number of events, including the Bhangra, a Punjab folk dance.

In 2001, I photographed my first travel wedding in Zihuatanejo, Mexico, entirely on film. I had already photographed many Indian and Hindu weddings in Seattle when I was commissioned to photographs weddings in Rajasthan, India and Bangkok, Thailand for the same couple in 2005. Since then, I’ve photographed over 20 Indian weddings, mostly in Seattle and Minneapolis. Clients can see how much I love black and white photographs in my portfolios, so I figured it was time to give these vibrant, colorful weddings their own portfolio as they tend to be significantly more colorful than my usual work.

This link will take you directly to the gallery. Like the rest of my portfolios, click the “+” in the upper right of the first image to scroll through them at full size.

WPJA Wedding Photojournalist Association Contest Winning Images / February 19, 2019 by Bradley Hanson

These were four recent winning images in the WPJA (Wedding Photojournalist Association) wedding contest. It is open to photographers from all over the world, not just wedding photographers from Minneapolis.

There is some continuity between thematic elements in the photographs in that two of the three are backlit and all three contain scenes that were photographed entirely as found, rather than directing the action, which is my preferred method of working. The color scene was the bride and groom’s first dance, in the unusual twist of being outside at one of my favorite wedding venues near Minneapolis, the Camrose Hill Flower Farm in Stillwater, MN.

You can follow me on Facebook, Twitter, VSCO, Pinterest, Instagram, and LinkedIn through the links on the upper right.

To see more Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN portraits, wedding photography and weddings all over the world, visit my main portfolio on bradleyhanson.com or email me at info@bradleyhanson.com or call me at 206-393-8292 and we can discuss your wedding plans in detail. My speciality is shooting family portraits in an unposed, natural style and wedding photojournalism. I photograph weddings as they happen rather than direct the action, which is often referred to as documentary style wedding photography. I’ve photographed weddings in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Seattle and many countries around the world.

Wedding Portfolio Redesign Featuring 75 Vertical Images And NEW Work From 2018 / January 24, 2019 by Bradley Hanson

Back in 1999 when I began photographing weddings, I was shooting only film and I had a website. It was crude, clunky and designed and updated in Dreamweaver software. The images were only 300 pixels tall. My 2nd main website, designed in 2007, and featured images that were 1200 pixels long. It was Adobe Flash based, which meant it was literally invisible to mobile devices. While the portfolio kept evolving, I didn’t really start over with a 3.0 version until 5/10/15, (a date chosen on purpose because I like numerical patterns), with a version of a site that is similar to the one you are looking at right now. In order to allow the photographs to load quickly and at a reasonable quality, the images in the gallery are 1200 pixels tall and 1800 pixels long for horizontals.

The first book of photography that I remember buying was Ralph Gibson’s “Tropism,” published in 1987, at the Walker Art Center bookstore in Minneapolis. I was immediately excited and inspired by Ralph’s minimalist, abstract, high contrast vertical B&W images. I would later do a week long workshop with him in 2003 in Vancouver, BC, after I’d been shooting weddings for 4 years. While my work doesn’t look like his, the seed of seeing images vertically was planted and has remained to this day.

Although I loved my super wide format Hasselblad XPAN panoramic film camera and it remains the one camera I still miss, my eye seems to see the world in vertical rectangles. My old website didn’t reflect this. While I’m still working on sequencing as though I am creating a book of my wedding images, my new website reflects that 50% of my wedding images are made as vertical images.

To see any image below enlarged to 1200 pixels tall, clicking it will bring it up in a new window.

You can follow me on Facebook, Twitter, VSCO, Pinterest, Instagram, and LinkedIn through the links on the upper right.

FOR THE 5TH YEAR IN A ROW, I WAS A WINNER OF THE WEDDING WIRE COUPLES' CHOICE AWARD FOR 2019 / January 8, 2019 by Bradley Hanson

This award is based on reviews from real clients from the 2018 weddings.

minneapolis wedding photographer wedding wire 2019 award

You can follow me on Facebook, Twitter, VSCO, Pinterest, Instagram, and LinkedIn through the links on the upper right.

To listen to the bi-weekly photography podcast I do with UK photographer Ian Weldon, visit https://www.outerfocuspodcast.com or search for Outerfocus on Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts.

WPJA Wedding Photography Contest Winning Images / December 19, 2018 by Bradley Hanson

As this will likely be my last blog post of 2018, I should end the year on a high note. These were three winning images in the WPJA (Wedding Photojournalist Association) wedding contest. It is open to photographers from all over the world, not just wedding photographers from Minneapolis.

You can follow me on Facebook, Twitter, VSCO, Pinterest, Instagram, and LinkedIn through the links on the upper right.

To listen to the bi-weekly photography podcast I do with UK photographer Ian Weldon, visit https://www.outerfocuspodcast.com or search for Outerfocus on Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts.

Late Autumn Family Portrait Mini-Session In Minneapolis / December 14, 2018 by Bradley Hanson

We’ve been having mild weather in Minneapolis and decided to use the opportunity to take some quick family portraits of my wife Jackie and I with our youngest son, Oliver, at sunset. Traffic was a little more congested than expected, but we arrived just as the sun was hitting the horizon. This left us with about 15-20 minutes to try a few things. As always, anything involving our son Oliver was a mix of fun and adventure.

These are in relatively chronological order as the light temperature kept evolving. Just before it got dark, the gray sky had deep background pockets of pink and orange.

You can follow me on Facebook, Twitter, VSCO, Pinterest, Instagram, and LinkedIn through the links on the upper right.

To listen to the bi-weekly photography podcast I do with UK photographer Ian Weldon, visit https://www.outerfocuspodcast.com or search for Outerfocus on Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts.

WPJA Wedding Photography Contest Winning Image / October 25, 2018 by Bradley Hanson

Although I am buried in the tail end of peak wedding season tasks (shooting, editing, uploading/downloading, backing up files, responding to client calls and emails, meeting potential clients, etc), I decided to enter the WPJA international wedding photography contest because I made my favorite photograph in a long time while at a wedding last month. The WPJA contest judges have worked as staff picture desk editors at major news publications or are working photojournalists having won the highest news industry awards.

As members, we are allowed to enter 10 per contest, but I decided to only enter one because I believed in it. It is good to know I am able to trust my gut…

WPJA contest winning image taken at St. Wencelaus Catholic church in New Prague, MN moments before the wedding ceremony. The church was built in 1907.

You can follow me on Facebook, Twitter, VSCO, Pinterest, Instagram, and LinkedIn through the links on the upper right.

To listen to the bi-weekly photography podcast I do with UK photographer Ian Weldon, visit https://www.outerfocuspodcast.com or search for Outerfocus on Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts.

Katie And Ryan's Elegant Wedding And Reception At The Machine Shop In Northeast Minneapolis / October 5, 2018 by Bradley Hanson

While Ryan was getting ready at The Depot Hotel in downtown Minneapolis, Katie was getting dressed at their apartment in St. Paul. Their wedding ceremony was at Our Lady Of Lourdes, the oldest church in Minneapolis, near the Mississippi River. Their reception was nearby at the lovely and spacious Machine Shop a couple blocks from Main Street. Between the ceremony and reception, we stopped at the Walker Art Center Sculpture Park.

Rather than going on about my photographic perspective of the day, I thought it would be more interesting for the reader to have some background information about the Katie and Ryan and how they met.

This is from Katie:

“It was June 2014, the summer before our senior year at Iowa State University (Ames, IA). I was at home in Wayzata, Minnesota, living with my parents and working at a wedding and event planning company. Ryan was spending the summer in Ames taking summer classes and living on campus.

One week in June, after a tough week at work, I decided to drive the 4 hours back to campus for a few days to visit my best friend, Megan. Shortly after arriving, we decided to go out to the bars. We stopped at a few before landing at Mickey’s Irish Pub around 10:00pm.

We walked up to the bar and stood in line for a drink before I noticed a tall, handsome and red pant-wearing Ryan. In my college years, I was quite set on finding a “preppy” boy. They were fairly uncommon on campus and when I saw his red pants, it caught my attention. Megan encouraged me to talk to him and when I finally introduced myself, I mentioned something about how I liked his pants. He kindly thanked me and our conversation began to flow. Before we knew it, 2:00am had struck and the bouncer was making his rounds to kick everyone out. We exchanged numbers and parted ways.

I can’t explain it, but something inside of me really felt like he was “the one.” It just clicked. In the days that followed, I told my friends all about him. The two of us texted back and forth for awhile before I returned back to school in August. As we started our fall semester, we began to hang out more and more and in October we officially started dating. By February we had said “I love you.”

In the past 4 years, we have grown to love each other more every day. Our wedding day was absolutely perfect in every way and we feel so blessed to have exchanged vows with so many loved ones by our side! We’re looking forward to many more beautiful years together!”

You can follow me on Facebook, Twitter, VSCO, Pinterest, Instagram, and LinkedIn through the links on the upper right.

To listen to the bi-weekly photography podcast I do with UK photographer Ian Weldon, visit https://www.outerfocuspodcast.com or search for Outerfocus on Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts.

My interview with "So You Want To Be A Photographer" photography podcast by Gina Milicia of Australia / October 2, 2018 by Bradley Hanson

So You Want To Be A Photographer podcast with host Gina Milicia:

“There are wedding photographers – and then there is Bradley Hanson.

In this episode, we chat with Bradley, who reveals the approach behind his image and the art of photography. He shares his thoughts on starting out and how he felt shooting his very first wedding, essential gear, setting expectations with clients, pleasing the client and pleasing yourself, muscle memory and shooting intuitively, and developing a unique style. This show is all about inspiring and learning from the best in the world – and with 19 years experience and 600 weddings Bradley has lots of great stuff to say in this interview.

I first discovered Bradley Hanson when I stumbled across the excellent photography podcast he co-hosts with UK photographer Ian Weldon called Outerfocus.

I love the way Bradley sees his images and talks about the art of photography. I find myself reading his blogs and wishing I had thought of that!

This show is all about inspiring and learning from the best in the world and with 19 years experience and 600 weddings Bradley has lots of great stuff to say in this interview.”

He shares his thoughts on:

Starting out and how he felt shooting his very first wedding
Gear
Setting expectations with clients
Pleasing the client and pleasing yourself
Muscle memory and shooting intuitively
Developing a unique style

In this podcast, we discuss my Minneapolis, MN based photography business, my photographic history and beginning with film and darkroom experience, how I work and how I developed my documentary, fly on the wall style, and my thoughts on the industry. We talk about wedding photojournalism, mirrorless cameras, my favorite lenses and focal lengths and the importance of setting expectations with clients.

“I learned early on that showcasing a portfolio of images that speak to me will attract the kind of clients who share the same visual aesthetic.”

Link to the podcast and show notes: https://ginamilicia.com/2018/08/ep-212/

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You can follow me on Facebook, Twitter, VSCO, Pinterest, Instagram, and LinkedIn through the links on the upper right.

To listen to the bi-weekly photography podcast I do with UK photographer Ian Weldon, visit https://www.outerfocuspodcast.com or search for Outerfocus on Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts.

Sunset Family Portraits On The Eden Prairie Bluffs Overlooking The Minnesota River / September 5, 2018 by Bradley Hanson

Portrait and wedding photographer Laura Alpizar hired me to photograph her family and to incorporate a maternity session for a birth announcement photo. She and her husband met in Costa Rica and expect their second child soon. Their 4 year old, Oliver, was sweet and energetic like my own son Oliver!

For bookings in the months of September and October, I'm offering a reduced rate portrait session rate of $400 for a one hour session which includes a website gallery of images. I will travel up to an hour outside of Minneapolis (anything else, just ask me). My preferred way of working is to photograph you and your family in a casual, less-formal approach, interacting and hanging out rather than just posing so we can get genuine moments.

To inquire about details or to book me for your family portrait, email info@bradleyhanson.com

You can follow me on Facebook, Twitter, VSCO, Pinterest, Instagram, and LinkedIn through the links on the upper right.

To listen to the bi-weekly photography podcast I do with UK photographer Ian Weldon, visit https://www.outerfocuspodcast.com or search for Outerfocus on Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts.