Name: Alicia Lynch and Chris Purdum
Location: Las Vegas
Company Name: Orange Soda Photo
Number of Years in Business: We had our own photo businesses prior to meeting, falling in love and becoming Orange Soda Photo. Together we have 20 years combined wedding photography vision and experience.
Website: orangesodaphoto.com
Blog: orangesodablog.com
Twitter: @orangesodaphoto
Facebook: facebook.com/orangesodaphoto
How did you get started in wedding photography:
Alicia: Most of my family are photographers, so I grew up with a camera in hand and a darkroom in the basement. I began photographing landscapes and my family growing up during our travels across the US. In high school I started photographing weddings of friends, and needless to say, I loved it!
Chris: I always wanted a life behind the lens. I’ve had a camera in my hand since I was 12 and that first magical look through the viewfinder started it all. I did quite a bit of photography in the Army during deployments and later natural history and landscape photography shooting large format film through out Washington State and in the deserts of Utah, Nevada and Arizona. In the 1998, a friend asked me to photograph their wedding, and I’ve been doing it ever since.
What did you do prior to this?
Alicia: I had a prior life in the medical field, with two bachelor degrees from the U of WA, first in Cell and Molecular Biology, and then later in Prosthetics and Orthotics. My residency in Prosthetics brought me to Las Vegas in 2002. When I wasn’t on call, building artifical limbs, or putting on HALOs in the Trauma ICU, I was off photographing weddings. The lure of the camera lead me to choose a career as a professional photographer, and in 2004, I left the medical field, and started career in the photography business. I haven’t looked back since.
Chris: I was an Art Director and production artist. I’ve been doing color correction and large format digital printing since the 90s. At one of my jobs we had a darkroom with a copy camera which I loved using – I think I spent more hours in the darkroom than I did sleeping.
If you didn’t do photography for a living what would you be doing instead?
Alicia: I love what we do, I honestly wouldn’t choose anything else. This is my dream job.
Chris: What she said, except with a YEAH! at the end.
What are some of your hobbies? We both love SCUBA diving, and I am an instructor as well. We love the great outdoors, and go hiking & camping when we can. Urban/desert exploring and disc golf are our short escapes. Besides the outdoors, we love to watch movies. And of course, playing with our crazy Corgi, Boon!
What is the craziest wedding experience you’ve ever had?
We’ve seen some crazy weddings for certain, but nothing too over the top. A recent groom was a wrestling coach so all of his friends attended the wedding as wrestlers. The expressions from the other guests was priceless.
What is the best wedding experience you’ve ever had?
They’re all the best! We get to photograph people in love and the share the celebration of that love with their friends and families. That is the most rewarding experience we can have.
What is your inspiration?
Cinema, art museums, old masters, pop culture, fashion, books – just about anything that has passion and an interesting story. The connection of people in any manner, and of course the people themselves and the friendships we make with them. We get to see the phrase “love conquers all” in real life, almost every day. That’s so much inspiration to keep us filled! We love nature and we really love being under the surface of the ocean diving with the beauty of the underwater world. It gives you a perspective on life that we carry to every event, no matter how small or large. Diving with a humpback whale to sharing the most important day in a couple’s lives are unique experiences that cannot be reproduced, and is always remembered – we bring that experience every time we pick up a camera.
Name an exotic location you’d like to visit soon.
Alicia: Truk Lagoon, Micronesia, Central Pacific
Chris: The Galapagos Islands.
Why do your clients choose you over some of your competitors?
Because our photography is awesome and fun!
We work as a team, and it’s always the two of us. We work with our couples to determine exactly what they would like to have in their photography. We have a very fun attitude towards life, and it’s infections to our brides and couples. We always end up being friends with them, even halfway around the world. We always get the true personalities to show in our images, and we always get our couples to smile. We obsess over the smallest details so that what they see is perfection and exactly how they want to remember their experience, but most of all we have fun.
What is the best piece of advice you can offer a bride and groom on their wedding day?
Alicia: Hire a wedding planner, so you can relax and enjoy your day, and when booking a photographer, give them the time they need to photograph the fantastic images you are looking for.
Chris: What she said. Hire a planner. We’re planning our wedding right now and without a planner I’d want to jump off a cliff.
Anything else interesting you’d like to share?
We are so lucky to have so many cool wedding vendors as friends here in Las Vegas. Beyond making the day go that much smoother, we all feel like an extended family and want to thank everyone for supporting us!
We’d also like to extend mega thank yous and smooches to Juliet and Green Orchid for interviewing us!
Cake by Simple Elegance
Wedding Ceremony at Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas
Newlyweds and owners of Sound Fusion Entertainment
Juliet’s notes: Alicia and Chris will be getting married next April and I hear it will be a fun and crazy party!
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website * Email: juliet@greenorchidevents.com
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