The Century Building at 312 S. Gay Street is the new home to Scott Temple’s photography business. Temple Photography has been his full-time enterprise since 2010 with a focus on wedding photography and he’s excited to have a presence in what he calls the “creative epicenter of the area.”
Scott is a native Knoxville resident who currently lives in south Knoxville with Tiffany, his wife of twenty-two years. He’s also quick to point out that it is her organizational mind that makes the business work. A University of Tennessee art major with a focus in photography, he worked in an art gallery and taught art before devoting his full energies to his photography business.
Saying other types of photography simply don’t have the same appeal to him, his focus is on wedding photography. His wife helps plan the shoot and he often spends a couple of days with the couple gaining trust and building a relationship that allows him to get the best shots. He loves the range of emotion present at weddings and enjoys capturing that. He says it is a joy to work with young, beautiful people who are in love, want to be photographed and are in a setting where people accept a photographer as part of the package.
He likes to break down pre-conceived ideas about photographs and finds it to be a comfortable role. He’ll often have dinner with the wedding party, or have coffee with the couple. He says once the connection is made, people relax and allow who they really are to be seen and that’s when the magic can begin. Once the connection is made the photos are easy and those photographs in turn have built his business as the couple shares them with friends.
He’s also a supporter of printed photographs. He likes the tactile nature of a non-digital product and likes the idea of a photograph on the wall or beside the bed being a reminder of a special day. He mentioned a photograph he keeps on display of himself with his grandmother and the comfort he takes in seeing it regularly.
While his photography is very modern, his base is very old. He studies masters of film photography to see how they captured such fine photographs without modern technological assistance. As a person who started on film, himself, he feels that background offers a helpful perspective. Knowing the rules of photography so well allows him to break those rules while keeping the photographs grounded. He feels that what sets a photographer apart is not their equipment and expertise, but the creativity inside their mind.
With all the talk about magic, however, he points out that what looks like magic on the back end is the result of a lot of hard work on the front end. It’s not unusual for him to spend a fourteen hour day on the day of a wedding to get the shots he wants. It’s hard work to stay “visually aware” for that long, but that is what he feels is necessary. He also shoots with Becca Williamson as a second photographer for weddings.
So, he’ll meet clients at the new Gay Street location and you can make an appointment via the contact information on his website. He says he doesn’t take himself too seriously, but he takes what he does very seriously. If that sounds like someone you’d like to work with, give him a shout and check out his site on Facebook.