Wedding Photographer Highlight – J&J Studios

J&J Studios, John Ryan

Who is J&J Studios?

Hi I’m John! I own J&J Studios with my wife, Vanessa. We’ve been producing quality imagery for discerning couples since 2011. We also own Philly Aerial Imaging, which produces cinematic aerial footage for weddings and commercial real estate and venture capital firms.

Bride and groom at longwood gardens, J&J Studios

J&J has two branches: a wedding and commercial division. While on weekends, we are usually shooting weddings, proposals, and engagements, during the week we take on corporate branding and corporate headshot projects. We work with 30+ prominent Philadelphia companies and do the events and headshots for many of the top legal firms in the city.

Our experience as commercial photographers helps us bring unique experience and perspective to our clients. During a wedding, we get to be product, portrait, lifestyle, glamour, editorial, family, and documentary photographers all in the space of 10 minutes.

Our commercial experience gives us unique advantages when submitting to publications in that we can visualize a magazine spread or blog layout and shoot photos that are perfect for publishing. Many of our couples get published at least once or twice. Our record last year was getting a wedding published in 13 different publications.

wedding rings, macro shot, J&J Studios

When did you first realize your passion for photography, and how has this journey cultivated you into the photographer you are now?

Photography has been a passion since high school. I worked for the yearbook, and went on to be Photo Editor at my collegiate newspaper. I started photographing weddings in 2008 when a college friend was getting married and needed a helping hand. I started doing more and more weddings, and poof—it took off.

Couple with umbrella in rain during engagement shoot, J&J Studios
bride and groom posing with bouquet, J&J Studios

How would you describe your photography style?

We are a blend of classic and dramatic imagery with an emphasis on wide angle, environmental portraits, back lighting, and off camera flash use and adjusting ordinary moments to make them picture perfect. We make ordinary moments absolutely beautiful by changing small things in photos to make them shine. 

It’s ok if the sun’s not shinning, we bring our own sun and many of our “sunkissed” images have been created with off-camera flash techniques.

Our LOOK:

Our images are bold, contrasty, colorful and as close to film look as possible. We strive for a traditional timeless look that will still look great in 50 years. We don’t follow trends, we forge our own path.

What we are NOT:

·        Pure documentary/photojournalistic.  We capture plenty of organic, documentary moments during your big day, but if you are looking for 100% photojournalism, look elsewhere.

·        Light and airy.

·        Faded/washed out imagery.

·        Overexposed (think white skies and overly bright images).

Our Mission:

Our mission is twofold

o   To produce timeless art that our clients will love enough to print and adorn their walls.

o   To adorn client’s tables with heirloom albums.

Our Clients:

·        Our clients are interested in timeless wall art and heirloom albums.

·        Our clients print and display prints and wall art.

·        Our clients value the printed and tangible.

·        Our clients do not want “just digital.”

·        Our clients value and appreciate photography.

·        Our clients trust our creative artistry.  The poses we put you in might feel weird, but the images created are beautiful. Let’s get weird together.

Our Branding Words:

·        Epic

·        Drama

·        Passionate

·        Emotive

Dilworth park water fountain engagement shoot, J&J Studios
bride and groom with amazing lighting, J&J Studios

What is the process like for couples who want to book you for their wedding?

Call, click or email. We have packages starting at $2999 so if we are within your budget, give us a ring/email/text/smoke signal. We’d love to have you into our studio to show you some albums, wall art, and chat with you about your big day!

bride and mother of bride embrace, J&J Studios

What do you love most about photographing weddings/couples?

I love being intimately a part of the biggest day of a couple’s life. And I treasure the honor of documenting that day for future generations. There’s so much happening that you may not even see as a bride or groom but when you go back to the pictures, it’s like living the fairytale all over again.

bride looking out window, J&J Studios

Besides weddings, what other moments do you like to capture?

We touched on this before, but we have a thriving corporate business during the week that keeps us occupied with both photo and video shoots.  We also do a fair number of proms, bar/bat mitzvahs, and real estate work.

bride and groom embrace, J&J Studios

What other locations do you cover in addition to Philadelphia?

We shoot mainly in the greater Philadelphia, but its not uncommon for us to spend Saturdays working NJ, DE or NY. We’ve traveled internationally for destination weddings, so, the answer is, really anywhere you want to go.

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