Lynn Martin generally chooses to

compete in Oklahoma

Press Association contests rather than photo association contests.

 

The OPA is comprised of  over 200 members newspapers . . . from the largest to the smallest in Oklahoma.

 

Lynn has also won first place awards in photography,

Personal columns and  community editorials

We fly to Events Nationwide

Lynn Martin Photography

By Lynn L. Martin

 

I enjoyed the most unusual wedding shoot of my career this September on Maui, in the Hawaiian Islands. The couple was Kristi Odom and Travis Jones of Arizona. The pair has been out on their own for quite awhile and simply wanted to elope to Hawaii and have a simple wedding with no hoopla. However, they did have one priority, they wanted great wedding pictures.

 

Getting great wedding pictures on an elopement is much harder than you might think.

 

I have seen numerous "included in the wedding package" photos from Las Vegas and Hawaii. In Vegas, they are simply line-em-up shoot'em scenes. Too often zero consideration has been given to head-height-relationships if there are family members or wedding party present. I often see photos where the ankles are cut off. The one's I've seen from Hawaii are deemed to be a success if either a beach or ocean is the background. That gets pretty boring very quickly.

 

Usually the photographer is the spouse or significant-other of the minister performing the ceremony. Indeed, on my trip back home, I ran into a couple who had been married on Tuesday in Hawaii. They told me, "Our minister was a lady, the photographer was her husband, and the videographer was her son."

 

I showed them some of the photo scenes on my laptop computer that I had taken at my Thursday wedding. Their jaws dropped, with comments like, "Oh my goodness, we didn't get anything like this."

 

How are great pictures done?

 

I want to explain that I do not believe I am conceited when it comes to "great" photography. I explain to my couples it is merely the product of hard work and if you want to go do the hard work with me, we'll get great pictures. Four or five hours at a wedding and reception rarely produce great photos. Even in routine Oklahoma weddings we often have 20 hours invested (counting travel).

 

If a competent portrait or wedding photographer shows up in Alva, and is not familiar with the location of beautiful backgrounds, neat backyards, or scenes of pattern and texture, that photographer will flounder for awhile until they spend a few days learning the town.

 

That's what I faced in Maui. A beautiful island, but I didn't know where the good stuff was. I arrived on Tuesday, my wedding was on Thursday afternoon. I certainly couldn't put my couple on a tour-bus to go find the sights.

 

I first talked to the tourist information lady at my hotel. She told me of the state park where she would like to get married. She placed a line on the map to show me how to get there. Then she told me to avoid the public beaches, and drew more lines on the map showing "secret beaches."

 

I figured the "secret beaches" might be where the naked sunbathers hang-out. Wrong! That's where the fat people congregated who didn't want others to see them in bathing suits.

 

Secret Beaches

 

Then when I got to some of the secret beaches, I felt the need to explain my presence since so few people were there and I didn't look much like a tourist in dress slacks with a big camera in hand. When I told them I was scouting out wedding shoot locations, I was always rewarded with a ton of suggestions and great ideas.

 

At the most remote beach, I ran into a white haired gentleman who was driving a motor scooter. A retired city sewer design engineer from Alaska, he said he has a condo in Maui and one in Arizona. He offered to lead the way on his motor scooter and took me on a tour finding great locations.

 

My scouting trip began at 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning. I hooked up with my wedding couple at noon where we enjoyed a real Mexican meal (remember, they were from Arizona and me from Oklahoma). They were wearing their casual style wedding clothes, and we re-traced my scouting trip from the morning and shot lots of photos. That evening we went to their gorgeous Hyatt Regency hotel and did hotel and beach shots.

 

The next day, their wedding day, we spent an hour doing photos at their wedding location, "The Enchanted Gardens." Then the 50-ish Hawaiian preacher arrived on his motorcycle. He slipped his black robe on and we all selected a good spot for the ceremony to take place (with photography in mind).

 

I had a last minute bright idea. I always carry a tiny digital audio recorder for use in recording news information for the newspaper. I handed it to the preacher and he stuck it in his pocket and recorded the whole thing. That way I can create a DVD slide show with the actual ceremony as the sound track. I haven't listened to the sound yet, so I hope it is good.

 

The Wedding Ceremony

 

 

The minister blew a sea-shell horn to begin and end the ceremony. His ceremony included him singing a short Hawaiian song and then he recited a normal Christian wedding routine. I had to sign as witness as I was the only other person around.

 

Then the couple and I headed out to find waterfalls on the north side of the island. Finding waterfalls is much harder than you would expect. We spent the afternoon hiking up and down mountain trails until I had a blister on my heel. We finally found a couple of medium-sized waterfalls and did our photography. We ended back up at the Hyatt Regency to do retakes of the beach - sea shore pictures. The one's the night before turned out fine, except after we parted, we realized we had missed the spectacular Hawaiian sunset that occurred later.

 

I always tell my Oklahoma customers that it is hard to schedule a sunset. Well, that's not true in Hawaii. There is always a gorgeous sunset. We had reserved Friday morning for photos but mutually agreed we had more than enough. So I had Friday available to explore on my own until catching my airplane at four that afternoon.

 

One might ask why any couple eloping would want a old guy from their home town along on their elopement. Well, they put me in a hotel 20 miles from theirs and provided me with my own rental car so I was not a problem. The couple was a joy to work with and seem to be a perfect match. Travis is formerly from Alva, the son of John and Pam Jones.

 

Click here to see a pdf of a full page ad about this wedding in the Newsgram.

About Us

Lynn Martin had a ten year photographic career in the State of Missouri before moving to Oklahoma in1969. While in Missouri, Lynn worked as a photographer/writer in the public relations department of the Jewish Hospital of St. Louis.

Since the hospital was a “teaching” hospital, surgeons soon asked Lynn to provide operating room close-up images for their classes. This experience helped broaden Lynn’s experience in the field of “commercial” photography.

Because of the large Jewish community, Lynn soon learned the customs of Jewish weddings, which were far different than the Christian weddings he had photographed for many years.

In his last year in Missouri,  Lynn was named “Wedding Photographer of the Year” by the Missouri Professional Photographers Association.”

Lynn’s photographic education was obtained at the Winona School of Photography operated by the Professional Photographers of America when it was located in Winona Lake, Indiana. He has earned eight national merit print awards from the Professional Photographers of America.

Before moving to Oklahoma, Lynn studied, but did not complete degrees in Electrical Engineering at UMR and Radio-TV journalism at UMC.

Lynn and his wife moved to Alva, Oklahoma to purchase the radio station which they operated for 20 years. During that time, Lynn continued his photographic work, opening a store front studio in 1972

Lynn also completed his college degree in Alva with a bachelors degree in psychology, with minors in computer science and math. Lynn is a licensed pilot with over 3000 hours as pilot in command.

With his own aircraft, Lynn not only provides aerial photography services, but uses it to travel to photograph weddings for discerning couples around the nation.

Lynn Martin Photography has now photographed over 4000 weddings. The studio in Alva generally operates with two other full-time employees and two part time employees.

The studio is in the top 10% of customers in business volume at the largest color lab in the nation.