We are Chris and Jessica Hanna, and we absolutely love photography!  All we do is talk about it: shooting, post production software, computers, file back-up, cameras, gear, location, lighting, lighting, lighting, and our next shoot. Every morning over coffee, we talk about it, and every evening we either discuss it some more or we study it. One time three years or so ago, we told each other we would have our morning coffee and NOT discuss photography. Well, after about fifteen minutes of nothing but sipping sounds, we talked about photography, and we have been every morning since.

We love to travel and when we do, we take cameras.  Yeah, it’s extra baggage and it can get a little unnerving having spendy equipment along, but on one trip a long time ago, we thought traveling light would be a good idea so we took cheezy little point-&-shooters.  We’ve regretted it ever since.  We especially like to get off the beaten tourist path to see and capture real life in the area we’re visiting.  We try to make this the sort of “theme” of all of our trips.  Then, when we get home, we assemble our favorite photos into a slide show and probably bore our friends and family to death with them.  Now that I think of it, we haven’t had company for quite a while…

We really enjoy sharing our passion for photography with our community.  It seems like we’re constantly looking for something interesting to photograph.  So, when Redding’s second Saturday ArtHop came to town, we started bringing a camera and blogging photos of the art and all the ArtHoppers of ArtHop.  Now, we’re official sponsors of Second Saturday ArtHop  and our ArtHop blog has become a useful source of local ArtHop information.

Since we’re always looking for a reason to practice photography in some way, our blog contains more than just photos of paid gigs.  Our blog contains a wide variety of photos that are targeted to a widely varied audience and most of the time includes the technical data for the photo itself.  We hope this information will be interesting or helpful to other photographers who check in.

In May of this year we were blessed to have the opportunity to open up our own photography studio and art gallery in downtown Redding.  Having done all our photography on location since the day we met, having a studio turned out to be just the greatest treat.  Now, our gear is always set up, we can precisely control the light, and we now have an absolutely posh place to meet clients and show them our work.

We study photography pretty much constantly.  I know I know, I’m a full time civil engineer so this can’t possibly be true.  Well, our weekends are spent either shooting or studying photography, five out of seven evenings out of the week we study photography in some way, and since you’ve read this, you know we discuss our work every morning.  We’ve entered our photos in competition, and watched and learned plenty from photography judges. We’ve attended seminars by Hansen Fong, Bob Davis, Mike Colon, Yervant, Munoz, Buissink, Graf, Reggie, Zucker, Ziser and others, and running the daily business of Hanna Gallery is what Jessica does full time.  Yes, photography is what happens around here pretty much constantly.  Of course, Jessica and I have different strengths which we effectively use to make the well-rounded team that we are.  Jessica is a master at web design, Photoshop, Lightroom, slideshows, fashion and posing, I’m the hardware and lighting guy, and yes, it takes all this to make great photographs.

Here’s a great complement we received from the mother of one of our brides:

“Our experience with Hanna Gallery was exceptional.  From the first time we met Jessica and Chris until we saw our own CD of the wedding.  Both were personal, professional, innovative, and very flexible being sure to address our wants and needs and yet introducing us to new ways of seeing photos.  They made my daughter and her fiancé feel so special and it showed in the finished product.  All we get are WOW’s!  Their sincere personal touch will take me back to them in the future for other special moments.  Thanks Jessica and Chris.”

Mary DeVlaming

This is exactly how pleased we want each and every one of our clients to be with us.  And, this is exactly why we put so much effort in what we do, how we do it, and in the relationships we build with the people we work with.

We are a husband and wife – fashion, wedding, and lifestyle photography team.  And, yes, we love photography.

Chris and Jessica Hanna

www.hannagallery.com