Community Highlights: Meet Matt Andrews

Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt Andrews.

Hi Matt, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I always enjoyed photography but it never occurred to me to pursue it as a career. I tried many other things from working as a recording engineer to facilitating DesignShops at Vanderbilt but all the while, I would agree to do photography for the occasional friend’s wedding. Also, my father was a college professor with a lot of his travel photography all over the walls around his office and students would ask him to photograph their weddings and he would always turn them down but he would refer them my way so he was a source of a lot of my early work that helped me build up a portfolio back in the film days. When I started photographing weddings, it seemed that a lot of my most established competitors were these photographers with studios who would advertise with canvas prints in malls and in the yellow pages. Most of their wedding coverage boiled down to boilerplate shots from a list because printing and film were expensive and it was just the way it was done. I started out with a website, full day coverage, and though I was shooting film I would deliver hundreds of photos and I got busy fast. Most of those photographers with studios and the mall displays who were established when I got started were out of business pretty soon after younger photographers were advertising on the internet. Then around 2006-2008 a whole other wave of established film photographers seemed to fall behind and change careers when digital competition was springing up.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It has been pretty smooth. I feel very fortunate. Every year since going full time in 2010, I’ve booked over my goal of 40 weddings per year. Almost every year has been busier than the last. That is until the pandemic in 2020. But even during the pandemic which was definitely the most challenging year, I was able to take on more small micro weddings and elopements, more portrait sessions and I even landed some gigs for still photography for movies and a few shoots for Amazon that helped me get through.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Photographers I know tend to point out my lighting as one of the things that set me apart or that I am one of the rare photographers who seems to stay busy with both commercial and wedding work but I think what I’m most proud of and what may set me apart the most is that I’m pretty good at making it a fun experience for bridal parties. I make even the family formal portraits quick and painless and stress-free at weddings. I deliver more photos than most photographers but I help cultivate an atmosphere where there is a lot of laughter. I believe I capture the joy at weddings and events and natural happy expressions not just because I’m quick but because I know when to improve a shot by posing and when to improve a shot by stepping back and letting something real unfold without being obtrusive. The reason so many of my past wedding clients reach back out to me for family photos is the connection we make. I think they sense that I really am delighted to get to know them and to explore venues with them, that I love my job and that I’m laughing right along with them as the bridesmaids heckle the groomsmen. In short, we have fun together.

So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
What matters most to me in a personal/philosophical sense is time. Life is short and moments are fleeting and nothing is more important to me than the time I’m able to spend with loved ones, making memories, learning together as we explore this planet and as we explore and learn about each other through conversation stories and experience. Change is constant and I want to appreciate moments as they happen as much as I appreciate the ones I save in my memory or in photographs.

As a photographer, I’m freezing those fleeting moments and making little emotional treasures for my clients. I’m exploring not only a venue or location but also learning about my subjects and their relationships. I’m helping my clients to feel relaxed enough to be themselves so they can look back on their photos and recognize real moments. Photographs are magic in the way they can connect us to another time, to people we’ve lost, and to bring about those bittersweet emotions that we all feel when we take a look into another time and place.

Pricing:

• Packages start at $3,300 but most couples choose a $4,300 package that comes with a 2nd photographer and engagement portraits. Other options from albums to video coverage can be added a la carte.

Contact Info:

• Email: matt@mattandrewsphoto.com
• Website: www.nashvilleweddingphotography.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattandrewsphoto/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MattAndrewsPhoto/

Image Credits
www.nashvilleweddingphotography.com