About Us
Who we are… as people.
Born and raised in Lexington, we, like all true Lexingtonians, bleed blue! GO CATS! Very recently our photography has allowed us to travel the world but each time we come home we realize that the bluegrass is the only place we want to be. We want to raise our children here, make our life here, watch it snow on our famous bluegrass and sip our mint juleps on Derby Day. We love our little town and cannot imagine being anywhere else. We LOVE to visit everywhere else, but are always happy to come home. Kentucky is and always will be home. (even once we retire and own our own private island somewhere is the aqua blue waters of the caribbean!)
Together we form a photography team that can be matched by very few garnering more than 15 years combined experience in the wedding industry. We approach our photography as we do our life, with a sense of humor and laid back nature. There are very few things that stress us out. We have found, in life, that sometimes you just have to laugh and move on. Even being laid back, we are still “go-to” people. Each of us, having graduated in the tops of our classes, are habitual over achievers. We have been known to pull over-nighters to get images finish for a short deadline or wash our clients “decorated” cars at midnight after their reception just to make sure they would be safe on their journey to their honeymoon.
Our main goal on the wedding day, is to make sure that the day goes as smoothly as possible, and to have FUN making that happen. I have been found in many a dressing room, pinning bridesmaid dresses, stitching hems into crinolines and repairing bouquets with bobby pins. Rick is usually found doling out cigars or the groom’s favorite beverage (wink) to calm him down on the wedding day!
You will, most often, find us running through the streets (yes! literally) with a bridal party, finding the perfect sunset with a bride and groom, up to our waist in the Cumberland river getting just the right shot, freezing our butts off in a snowstorm or dancing the night away with a wedding party. (Yes, occasionally we do kick off our shoes at the end of a long day and finish out the evening just the way they live, having fun.) And eating CAKE! Isn’t that why EVERY photographer shoots weddings?
Who we are …. as photographers.
Amber : ” As a photographer, my style is distinctively, full of depth and color, life and breath. I honestly feel that images should pop off the page and grab you by the heart. It has always been my goal to create images that touch your heart and tell YOUR story.” While the signature “SS&G style” is what brings many of our clients into the SS&G Fam, they quickly realize that our photography is LESS about “us” and more about them.
As the great Annie Leibovitz said “A thing that you see in my pictures is that I was not afraid to fall in love with these people.”.
There could be no truer statement when describing me as a photographer. At any given wedding I will cry multiple times and I don’t think I have EVER held it together during a Father / Daughter dance… ever. Early in my career I sought advice from anyone and everyone who would ever talk to me about photography. Some of that advice I kept and some of it I have let fall by the wayside as I have matured into the business. I found myself and my style somewhere along the way and with that came a certain confidence.
One thing that I will never forget is a wise photographer that once told me that as long as I would “Find the light” I would always be succesful. He was very right but I did not understand the depth of his statement when he first made it. Now, years later, I get it. You MUST find the light. The physical light. Light and shadow are the building blocks of creating any impactful photo. Without those two things the photo is dead. Find the LIGHT in yourself, as a photographer. Find the inspiration, the creativity and the drive. Lastly and most importantly, find the LIGHT in your subject. Find the things in life that make them who they are. The things that make them smile and cry. Make SURE that in every photo you can SEE them because for one single moment, during the camera shutter, I have the unique opportunity to capture life. I have stopped time and that moment, which can never be had again. That is what I do as a photographer. I allow my clients to hang onto those beautiful minutes and hours of their life that they will never be able to live again.
Rick: “My best image will always be my next one. I strive to make every single wedding day image better than the last. I hope that my clients, above all else, have FUN and remember their wedding day as a special time when they started their new life together, laughing, crying and dancing the night away. I always hope to produce images not only that I am proud of but that our couples are proud to hang on their walls and include in their albums for many years to come. I hope that every time they look back at their images, they laugh and cry and remember exactly how they felt on the wedding day!
Brian & Lindsey: “As film makers and wedding professionals, we want to become storytellers. We want to tell YOUR story from start to finish in a way that is unique and special, a way that only YOUR wedding day can. We want your wedding filmd to be more than a straight documentation of the day, it should capture the unique personality of you as a couple and should truly show the heart and soul of your big day.”
Amber is the heart and soul of the business, Rick is the true sense of humor who continues to challenge himself and Amber both to be better each day, Amanda is a truly fabulous blogger, facebooker, tweet “er”, Pinterest”er” and soon to be photographer, Kyle is a fantastically creative photog assistant who is learning more every single day and Brian and Lindsey are an unbelievable set of award winning film makers who bring a sense of calm and fun to every wedding day.
Amber dreams it up, Rick & Kyle make it all work and Amanda writes about it once it all over! The studio is truly, in every sense of the word, a team. Partners in life and business… what could be better than to work with your best friends every single day?
