Meet Michelle Pullman | Wedding Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Michelle Pullman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Michelle, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
It didn’t cross my mind to do it any other way. I was lucky in that I didn’t have a big picture in mind. I just knew I wanted to photograph more weddings once I learned that lots of people wanted non-traditional wedding photography. Prior to photographing weddings, both my business partner, Jamie Street, and I, took photos in our daily life. We both shot film from an early age and loved taking candid photos of our friends and whatever caught our attention. For me, it was a way of interacting with the world around me in a deeper way, or at least in a way that would last longer than a blink of an eye. After photographing some weddings of some friends, I loved it so much that I wanted to do more of it. Jamie had been researching weddings and blogging around the time she was planning/designing her own wedding, which I photographed, and we both wanted to be around more of that incredible energy of friends and family spending a day in support of a couple in love. We decided to try to shoot some weddings together. We started with a wedding photography giveaway in 2011, which was hosted by the wedding blog 100 Layer Cake (https://www.100layercake.com).

We got so many entries of people pouring their hearts out about their love stories we couldn’t pick just one. We chose 3 couples and we photographed their weddings for the cost of travel expenses only. Each of these weddings was featured on a wedding blog and it’s how we started our portfolio. Couples who identified with the couples we chose, chose us to photograph their weddings and our business was born!

I think if I had considered a bigger picture and what needed to be learned, the equipment that needed to be bought and maintained (and the cost!), and all of the upkeep of websites, blogs, marketing and general administrative duties, I would have been overwhelmed. We really just followed our hearts and took things as they came! It was a really manageable way to start a business, just a little bit at a time, over time.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
In both my personal work and wedding photography, I like to photograph people as they are, in caught moments but also in thoughtful portraits. My goal is to capture a bit of personality, to tell some sort of story, and to show them as they are. Every portrait is some sort of collaboration between the photographer and subject but I try to hang back as much as possible. Any kind of exchange between people gets a unique result. We respond to each others “energy, if you will”, it’s human nature and it’s fun to catch that on film. I started out photographing friends who were artists and musicians, live music and a little bit of short touring. That led to road trip photography, travel and landscapes. Lately I’ve been photographing in nature, on camping trips and hikes to the tops of mountains with friends.

For the wedding business, Rad + In love, Jamie and I have gone back to our roots shooting a lot more film photography and short super 8 mini films. We are so excited that people are hungry for the unexpected again, the warm, natural feeling of film and the “happy accidents” that sometimes occur. People see to want to feel how it felt through photos again and we find that film does that best!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Well, for the most part, I’d say in my neighborhood, Eagle Rock / Highland Park.

Food: Joy on York, Glorias Cuisine LA, Cookbook (incredible sandwiches), Jeff’s Table (also incredible sandwiches), , Kitchen Mouse, Mason’s Dumpling Shop, Amara Kitchen on Ave. 64, Rosty

Groceries/Snacks: La Tropicana Market (coffee bar, deli, kombucha on tap, plus fancy groceries and the staples)

Coffee: Cafe De Leche on York, Civil Coffee on Figueroa

Sweets: Magpies Soft Serve (fried vegan pie!!!)

Shopping: Sayida (home goods with affordable vintage!), Luca (with vintage by Charlie Rouquette!), Prelude & Dawn

For a hang, I like hiking in the Angeles National Forest and checking out the views above the clouds off of the highway.

Evening hikes above the city in Griffith Park are awesome too. Red Rock Canyon in Topanga is pretty cool and there are a lot of hikes in the Pacific Palisades with incredible ocean views!

Rollerskating at Moonlight Rollerway is always fun too.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Jamie Street: https://www.jamiestreet.com/ 100 Layer Cake: https://www.100layercake.com/
A Practical Wedding: https://apracticalwedding.com/
East Side Bride: http://www.eastsidebride.com/

Website: https://www.radandinlove.com/ and https://www.michellepullman.com/

Instagram: @radandinlove and @michellepullman

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/radandinlove/

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/rad-and-in-love-los-angeles-2

Other: https://blog.radandinlove.com/

Image Credits
Photo of me by Corey Dumais 3 landscape photos by Michelle Pullman all couples photos by Michelle Pullman of Rad + In Love