Melanie Grizzel got her start in photography shooting on film back in the day before every kid on the block had a digital camera. It was a high school teacher who noticed she had a photographer’s eye.
“He encouraged the hell out of me.” Grizzel said.
She got her first gig working for a small newspaper in Grapevine, Texas, before it was Grapevine, Texas, shooting lots of father-daughter pancake breakfasts and restaurant groundbreakings. Those days of shooting flap jacks didn’t last long. By the time she was 20, Grizzel was managing the lab at the Dallas Morning News.
“It was a crash course. They had every piece of equipment. There was always fun stuff to play with.” Grizzel said.
For two years, she shot almost every concert covered by the paper, which means she was lucky enough to see every popular band that came through Dallas from 1994 to 1996. While at the Dallas Morning News, Grizzel received a Pulitzer Prize nomination for her work.
Concert photography took Grizzel from Dallas to the Big Apple where she shot for the New York Times.
“Working for the paper meant going into situations where I had to quickly figure out what’s best.” Grizzel said. “Once, the Chemical Brothers had a big party on a boat. We had seven minutes to get the shot. We waited around all night for those seven minutes. They only had four press days in the states. We were sandwiched between someone important and a beer barge with Rolling Stone Magazine. So, our photo shoot was relegated to seven minutes with the busy duo, at the Astralwerks offices. We made it work.”
Since then, Grizzel has shot for various advertising campaigns and for publications like Forbes, Money and People.
“Shooting for People Magazine is interesting work because of the people and the stories we tell.” Grizzel said.
She spent four days photographing a family in New Orleans on the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
“Spending that kind of time with those people, you live their life, you meet their family. I was really honored to be a part of it.”
Grizzel made the move to wedding photography after returning to Texas and as a result of her experience with her own wedding photographs.
“I am still madly in love with my wedding photography. I want to give that back to people. Wedding photography is incredibly important and I know that from my own experience. You must love it.” Grizzel said.
“I have a unique perspective to wedding photography because I have been married and I love my wedding photograph. I understand how a bride and groom feel about the big day. I want to give a couple images they’ll cherish for a lifetime.”
When it comes to capturing those cherished images, Grizzel doesn’t follow a check list as each wedding is unique. She follows her gut to get what’s most important to a couple because she gets to know couples before their big day and develops a very personal relationship with them.
“The best shots are always the unexpected moments when people forget about the camera and the photographer.” Grizzel said. “This happens because they see me as a friend, like a member of the party who just happens to have a camera.”
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