Seaton Shoots Blog

Five months became five years as stories from other travelers inspired him to go further. Staying in one location to work and save money he would then set off on two and three month trips at a time, starting the process all over again in a new location when the funds ran out. This way he traveled around Australia in a station wagon for three months; hitchhiked New Zealand for a month; and island hopped Indonesia for six weeks, including a five-day trek in Borneo, sleeping in Dayak tribe long houses. All the way shooting incredible images and learning to “see”.

So far most of Barry’s emphasis had been “picture postcard” style images, but when he started teaching English in Taipei, the subject matter increasingly became the local people, in their everyday lives.

Moving to Tokyo he continued teaching English, this time to business men in the mornings and evenings. Contributing to a local city magazine, he photographed the city by day and also on assignment, which provided new challenges. By now it was clear what the true vocation would involve, but not the specifics of transition from English teacher to self-supporting photographer. His girlfriend, Sarah Lynn Kinnard, was not too impressed by this vagueness but nonetheless “encouraging”.

Barry and Mel taking_photos

After a telephone interview between Tokyo and England Barry was accepted by the Kent Institute of Art and Design at Rochester for commercial and editorial photography.

Lynn returned to Knoxville, Tennessee to be with her father, Carl in the later stages of his illness, and stayed on with her mother as she started up her graphic design business, SLK Designs.

Before leaving Japan five months later, Barry had his first wedding photographer experience. He was asked to photograph two weddings for friends. Despite the first time nerves, what he lacked in wedding expertise he made up for in enthusiasm– and they loved the photographs.

Kent Institute gave Barry a depth of knowledge and experience through assignment-based projects. At Kent he was able to use and learn about a large variety of equipment, build studio sets, work in both colour and black and white darkrooms and learn about photographic computer manipulation.

What Kent did not have was cheap phone rates to the States. Barry’s phone bill per month was enough to buy a plane ticket (almost) to Knoxville. Easter break of ‘95 Barry was given the grand “best of Knoxville” tour and on August 8th Barry and Lynn were married in Goostrey Parish Church, England. In February of ‘98 Grace Margaret was born and on July 28th, 2000 another little girl joined the Seaton household – Sara Tennessee.

Since arriving in Knoxville in September of ‘95 Barry has attended numerous wedding seminars and conventions keeping abreast of new technologies and up-to-date with the lastest styles in wedding photography. In 1997 he started photographing weddings exclusively with his “unlimited time, unlimited film, unlimited fun” storytelling approach and quickly became one of Knoxville’s most sought after wedding photographers. By pioneering slideshow proofing of all the photographs onto VHS videotape for brides and their families, he was able to create four times the average number of photographs, including true black and white film. All these photographs told the story – from the rehearsal, the day before, to the last waves of goodbye – and became an integral part of the new Candid Album, separate from the traditional portraits of the day. His bride’s custom designed double album sets became the benchmark for new brides.

In 2002, Barry started carrying a digital camera in his bag, and begin testing it in various situations when time permitted. On December 28th, 2002 he photographed his last roll of film and started creating the first wedding albums in the area that did not require sticking photographs onto pages behind slide-in mats. Exactly like a coffee table art book, the photographs are the page, allowing total creative freedom in the layout of the photographs to better tell the story with the most impact. By 2004, first edition style books printed in Italy were added to the lineup, along with DVD slideshows and innovations like a dedicated black and white digital camera that sees in true Infra Red, creating beautiful otherworldly portraits. His creative and artistic approach continues to keep him on top of the market.

Quality can only come from having the right people as part of our team. Melissa Wilke; our assistant photographer, adds a tremendous amount of creativity and freshness to the black and white photographs she takes. Deborah Corlew, our graphic designer and office manager, is the backbone of our production, designing and creating your heirloom albums. In addition; Sarah Lynn Seaton, with a BFA in graphic design, is now creating fine art black and and white images of families and children. Visit www.seatonart.com to view her images.

Seaton Shoots doesn’t only document your wedding day. We create memories to last forever- and have fun doing it! Brides who want it done differently, professionally and creatively come to Seaton Shoots.