Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
Bringing together local businesses and neighbor of the Tri-Cities region. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Skip Mauney helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around The Tri-Cities.
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Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
EP# 223: Behind the Lens: Adventure Wedding Photography with Hunter Kittrell
What makes Hunter Kittrell with Hunter Kittrell Photography a good neighbor?
Ever wondered what it takes to capture love stories against the backdrop of misty mountain vistas? Meet Hunter Kittrell, adventure wedding photographer based in Johnson City, Tennessee, whose journey from missionary work in Haiti to photographing couples across the Appalachian Mountains reveals the powerful intersection of passion, purpose, and profession.
Hunter's unique niche serves free-spirited, adventurous couples who want to incorporate their love of the outdoors into their wedding day. From his strategic location in northeast Tennessee, he's perfectly positioned to photograph weddings across seven states in the southern Appalachian region. What many couples don't realize is that these breathtaking mountain backdrops don't require strenuous hiking – most of Hunter's shooting locations are easily accessible, allowing couples to wear their wedding attire without special accommodations.
The path to adventure wedding photography wasn't straightforward for Hunter. Seven years in Haiti as a missionary, where he adopted his two oldest children, planted the seeds for his photography career. What began as documenting the work of nonprofits evolved into tourism photography and eventually wedding work. Upon returning to his native East Tennessee in 2017, he naturally blended his newfound photography skills with his lifelong love for the mountains. Now, with over 300 photo shoots under his belt, Hunter provides a unique service to the 13 million annual visitors to the Smoky Mountain region, many of whom come seeking the perfect mountain setting for their wedding day.
What truly sets Hunter apart is his commitment to the entire journey. "I don't do mini sessions," he explains, preferring instead to build relationships with couples from engagement through their wedding day and beyond. For Hunter, photography isn't just about capturing a moment but being part of something bigger – a philosophy shaped by his experiences witnessing both hardship and community resilience in Haiti. Whether you're planning an intimate mountain elopement or a traditional venue wedding with all your friends and family, Hunter Kittrell Photography offers more than just stunning images – it offers a shared adventure. Discover more at hunterkittrell.com or follow his daily content on Instagram and Facebook.
To learn more about Hunter Kittrell Photography go to:
Hunter Kittrell Photography
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Skip Monty.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast of the Tri-Cities. So I am thrilled this morning to have a very special guest in our studio. And if you're ever in need of a photographer, one might be closer than you think, because today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, mr Hunter Kittrell, who is the owner operator of Hunter Kittrell Photography. Hunter, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you, skip, I appreciate you having me on.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. We're thrilled to have you, like I said, very excited to learn all about you and your business and what makes you different. So, if you don't mind, why don't you start us off by telling us about your business?
Speaker 3:Sure, I'm an adventure wedding and elopement photographer based in Johnson City, tennessee. If you don't know where that's at, it's kind of that northeast corner of the state. It's a great location for me to join couples on their adventure weddings, really all across the southern Appalachian region. A two to three hour drive kind of gets me to Tennessee, north Carolina, south Carolina, virginia, georgia, west Virginia, kentucky, so really anywhere that you can think of in this region. I've probably taken photos there. So it's what I do and I enjoy it.
Speaker 2:Very cool. Now adventure. You said adventure, photographer Tell me about that, yeah.
Speaker 3:So really every couple that I work with is kind of a free-spirited, adventurous couple. They like being in the mountains, they love having those hiking and camping experiences, and so those kinds of people are are coming to this region and looking for adventure, looking for fun in the mountains, and when they're trying to incorporate that into their elopements or into their weddings, I'm here for them.
Speaker 2:Wow, Very cool. So you kind of specialize in in that.
Speaker 3:So if go ahead, oh, yeah, yeah, no, I mean, I grew up in this region, I grew up in the mountains here, and so, uh, uh, fishing, hiking, camping, you name it, I've done it in this area and, um yeah, it's just a fun way to kind of incorporate my love for photography and the outdoors.
Speaker 2:Nice. So if somebody says, hey, we want to get married in a kayak or just go kayaking, we want you to hop in a kayak and go with them, and I can I can I have.
Speaker 3:I've not done kayaks, but I've done canoes, so we can. We can make that happen for sure. Very cool.
Speaker 2:Very cool. Well Hunter, how did you? How did you get into the photography business?
Speaker 3:Yeah, my, my wife and I got married right out of college and we moved down to Haiti in 2011 as missionaries, and we ended up staying there for seven years. We adopted my oldest two kids from there, and photography really started as a hobby while I was down there, but it kind of grew into something a lot more. I took a lot of photos for nonprofit organizations, you know, kind of showcasing their work and really the plight of the people, but it sort of morphed into the tourism industry and taking a lot of photos for hotels and restaurants and concerts, and really got to travel the whole country taking photos for different events, and weddings were sprinkled in there as well. And in 2017, though, we moved back to East Tennessee.
Speaker 3:My wife is from this region too, and you know we really call this home, and so I wanted to blend that love for the outdoors, like I mentioned earlier, with this love, this newfound love for photography and adventure. Wedding photography just kind of fell into my lap, and I've been doing it ever since. I've shot over 300 photo shoots in the past handful of years. Yeah, it's just been a lot of fun. I've really, really enjoyed it.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow. So missionary work, doing the Lord's work Awesome, that's right, and buddy Haiti needed it then and probably needs it now too, as well, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 3:and uh, a lot of uh difficult, extra difficult times down there these days. Um, things seem to be on a a nice upward trajectory, getting better uh, during our time there, but unfortunately, uh, political unrest and and gang activity is kind of taking it back down. So uh it, it. So it's hard to see some of the news that is coming out of the country right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, back then I was involved with an organization that supplied. We packed food to ship to Haiti. It was right after a hurricane just slammed it. I think that was what 2009 or 2008?.
Speaker 3:There was an earthquake in 2010. Earthquake, earthquake, earthquake in 2010.
Speaker 2:yeah, that was quite. Yep, that's right, and we were shipping food, but we we had to send people down there because, I mean, they were prepared to bribe officials so that the food could get through the airport and get delivered, and so we sent people down there to bribe officials. I mean just said that the food was not going to get through, but anyway, I just thought that was crazy. Well, getting back to the subject at hand, but thank you for that, thank you for that. What are some myths or misconceptions in the adventure wedding photography business?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:There's two that really come to mind.
Speaker 3:The first is that a lot of couples will reach out to me and may be nervous that I don't shoot larger weddings, that I only do the mountainside elopements and really about half of the weddings that I shoot are those mountain elopements and really about half of the weddings that I shoot are those mountain elopements and the other half are the more traditional wedding venue type weddings with lots of people.
Speaker 3:So I really do both. And the second is that my elopements when I am on the mountain with couples we don't have to go on a 10-mile hike to get to the shooting locations. A lot of the times the locations I pick with couples are very easy access less than a mile round trip. Most couples still wear their wedding clothes. They don't even have to change their shoes to get to the locations that we're shooting at their wedding clothes. They don't even have to change their shoes to get to the locations that we're shooting at. So I want to be able to have spots picked out that are easy access and not too difficult to get to and still have those really Epic views for photos.
Speaker 2:Awesome man, that sounds like a lot of fun. Actually it is. I'm sure it is, I'm sure it is, I'm sure it is. Well, we know marketing is key to just about any business's success. How do you market your photography business?
Speaker 3:Yeah, a lot of the adventurous couples that are coming to this region. They're looking for those mountain views, they're looking for that mountain culture. A majority of the couples that I take photos for are from out of state. I get a lot of couples from Florida, texas, chicago, even Washington DC, new York, and a lot of them are coming to the mountains here. Just to put it into perspective, the Smoky Mountain National Park averages about 13 million visitors a year, which is far above and beyond any other national park in the country, and so there's just a constant flow of people coming to our region, and many of them are wanting weddings or elopements and so being available on social media for a lot of updated content, having really good connections with venues and other wedding vendors. That's really where a majority of my efforts lie in. Advertising is through those routes, because there's just so many people coming to this region. No-transcript.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely Word of mouth, best, best advertising, you have no question For sure. So outside of work, if there is time outside of work, what do you do for fun?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, if I'm not on a mountain somewhere, I am at a sports field. Probably my I have four kids total and we have we have kind of morphed into a sports family, and so especially this time of year, we're at the track and we're at the soccer fields, and so I was a high school athlete as well, and so I really enjoy. I grew up playing lots of sports and I enjoy spending that time with my family and watching the kids work hard and succeed at their different sporting activities, and so it's just a really great way to keep us all active and keep us together.
Speaker 2:Great answer Time with family, always, always the right answer, especially if your wife watches the podcast. Well, let's switch gears for a second. Can you describe a hardship or a life challenge you've overcome and how it made you stronger in the end, and did anything come to mind?
Speaker 3:while we were there and for a long time it made me very angry, very angry that this kind of stuff was happening in the world, and you know it was hard on me mentally, it was hard on my marriage, but in time I saw that the people there didn't have time to be angry.
Speaker 3:They accepted their reality. They worked together in community to survive and they worked together to make life better. And so I really learned through that experience that living in community, being part of a church, being part of something bigger than yourself, is so important in our life stories being a husband, being a father and, ultimately, a business owner. I see that being a part of a community is a really powerful thing. We shouldn't have to go through any life struggles on our own. And that's kind of where, you know, leading to this wedding photography thing, I get to be a part of. You know these weddings, part of the wedding journey, and for me that's a real honor to be connected to of. You know these weddings part of the wedding journey and for me that that's a real honor to to be connected to people in that way absolutely I could imagine.
Speaker 2:you know, for a lot of people, their, their elopement marriage wedding is like the highlight of their life so far and you get to be a part of that. I can, can't imagine Absolutely Well cool. What if a hunter? If there was one thing that you would like our listeners to remember about a hunter Kittrell photography what would that be?
Speaker 3:Yeah, for for me, kind of like I've mentioned in that last question, there, I like being a part of their journey.
Speaker 3:I don't do mini sessions, you know, those mini sessions maybe for graduation or for little family sessions that are like 15-minute sessions. I don't really do those because I enjoy joining a couple for the duration of their wedding experience and, you know, from the point of planning that engagement session all the way through the delivery of their wedding photos and then beyond. It brings me so much joy to stay connected to my couples and see that they're buying their first house together or they're, you know, announcing that they're pregnant or they're moving across country, for, you know, in search of some kind of adventure, cross country, for you know, in search of some kind of adventure, and so for. For me, I love being a part of the entire journey, not just a quick little photo session, then I'm gone. It's much more than that for me to be able to join them on that in that time of their life. It's, you know, it's one of the most exciting times of their life, like you said, and being able to be a part of that is just amazing.
Speaker 2:Awesome, Good thing to remember. So if any of our listeners are interested, they're thinking about getting hitched or just going kayaking or canoeing or climbing the side of a mountain. How can they learn more?
Speaker 3:how can they learn more? Sure, my website is just simply hunterkittrellcom, and, uh, I'm very active on instagram, social media, facebook, um, and I have daily posts, daily content that's getting posted. I've got a lot of reels about wedding and elopement planning tips, um, so, yeah, I'd love to chat with anyone who's interested in learning more about mountain elopements or full day weddings in this region. I do travel out to other places as well, but you know, most of my time is spent close by, since I've got, you know, a lot of family here, and so, yeah, I'd love to get that conversation started.
Speaker 2:All right Sounds good. Well, hunter, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to hang out with us and tell us about you and your adventures and what you do. And, uh, we wish you and your family, uh and uh, hunter Kittrell photography, all the best moving forward. I really appreciate it. Yes, sir, maybe we can have you back sometime when you've got some really wild story to tell us. Absolutely All right, man, you have a good one, you too.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnptry-citiescom. That's gnptry-citiescom, or call 423-719-5873.