Summer of Weddings Part 2, Rebecca and Bill, Instinct and Time

This past August I had the pleasure of photographing an old high school friend’s wedding in Stockton, NJ.  It was simple, beautiful and meticulously planned by the bride.  She even planned the dj’s playlist for the entire evening (which was so good, I asked for a copy).   This is a woman who knows what she wants and how to get it.  And I love that.

What I seem to notice the more I photograph on location, especially in a location I’ve never been before is that no matter how much I prepare, it’s sometimes all still a surprise when I show up.  I tend to have a two-minute window of panic, trying to get my bearings on the environment.  Then I realize I can work through it and an instinctual part of me shows up.  Such was the case while photographing a key part of this wedding.  I had a five-minute time span to shoot formal portraits of the bride and groom at the actual venue.  During times like this, when the pressure is on to perform, you don’t think, you just act.  I shot maybe 16 frames and then it was time to get married.   Ironically (and wonderfully), their favorite shot from the whole wedding was taken during this time.  But I love that about photographing weddings.  There are moments of adrenaline-filled exhilaration when you’re operating that fast.  One great aspect about this wedding was getting to capture Rebecca and Bill’s sense of humor.  Check out Bill’s ring below.

A $40 antique couch, a thunderstorm, my amazing friend Chigozilu, and a bit of magic

This is a little overdue.  I shot this in August, during a major thunderstorm, under a bunch of very large trees in my backyard.  Fortunately, the rain was touch and go.  The thunder and lightning were our constant companions, though.  We shot this for my friend, Chigo, of Odi Couture, to promote her line of custom-made gowns.  The idea was to have an antique couch under a chandelier, in the woods, and create a kind of magical, fairy-tale environment for our lovely model, Syreeta Lockett.  I decided somewhere along the way to add fireflies.  Everything came together easily enough except we had no couch, even though I had been searching for over a month.  I was starting to think we were going to have to rework the concept but Chi had her heart set on the original idea.  Less than a week before the shoot, I suddenly had an urge to check out the Goodwill and lo and behold…our couch.  For 40 bucks.  It worked out like magic.

Summer of Weddings, Sharon and Tom, The Power in the Word Yes

I shot my first “official” wedding this past May.  I don’t think Sharon and Tom knew that when they hired me to shoot their wedding.  I’m not totally unfamiliar with the basics of wedding photography.  I did assist a wedding photographer for about a year…12 years ago.  I decided for a while it wasn’t really for me.  Then, out of nowhere, I have a request to shoot a wedding for a friend of friend and I find myself saying yes, and happily.  During the past 12 years, wedding photography has changed dramatically, and I was up for the challenge.  It was a bit of a crash course in wedding photography – it rained, there was huge* bridal party, lots of family, almost 200 guests, and I had to get all the family and posed shots during cocktail hour.  Whew.  Somehow, I pulled it off.  And more importantly, they loved the shots.  (exhale).

What’s amazing about saying yes to something, especially something you’re taking a bit of a leap on-following your heart instead of your head, is how the Universe responds.  It just opens up doors.  I say yes to one and it’s as if the response was: oh really?  here’s four more.  Not that I’m complaining.  Yes is a magic word.  Life changing, actually.

Below are some of my favorite shots from that evening.  Sharon and Tom have been together for 14 years and have a beautiful family.  When I was editing the pictures of the ceremony, I just about welled up and over with emotion seeing Sharon’s face.  The love and bond between them is so evident and I am so honored to be trusted to capture these moments for them.

*it should be noted that I consider anything beyond the bride, groom, MOH and best man “huge”.

Airways, Subways

When I was scouting locations in Philly for Viv Peyrat a while ago, I came across an awesome looking church and made note of it to use it in the future.  I didn’t have to wait very long.  Adam from Airways (and formally from TEOS) contacts me and a month later they’re hanging out in front of some creepy gothic church doors.  Awesome.  Afterwards, we hit up a subway for good measure:

 

 

Viv and The Revival

Many exciting things are happening for Viv Peyrat and I’m glad to be a part of it.  We did this shoot, in my attic studio, in February, with the help of a bottle of 5 buck chuck.  The idea for some of these photos was to create a whole different look for Viv – than we had done before – in part because he was creating different music and felt the photos should reflect that. I nicknamed these “the malibu” shots because I was loosely aiming for a “Californication”, summer look.  This ended up being the cover of his latest release: And Then the World, Part I:

Old friends, new babies

I recently reconnected with my first grade best friend, thanks to facebook, after about 20 years.  She’s now married and has a beautiful son with her husband.  She asked me to photograph him, which I did, happily.  It went even better than I could’ve hoped for and it was wonderful to be able to do this for her.  Below are some of my favorites, the top one probably being my most fave (isn’t she a beautiful mother?):

Pin-up style shoot, little Asha makes a guest appearance

So, we never ending up adopting the kittens out.  This wasn’t actually my plan.  I had found a home for them and then at the last minute, Lar decides to pull the plug on it.  So, now we have a few more cats in the apt (um, triple the amount).  Might as well put them to work.  These are a few shots from a pin-up style shoot with my lovely sister, Amy.  ”Amy and Asha” were recently accepted in ASMP’s Focus Philadelphia 2011.  Focus Philadelphia is currently running through February 10th, 2011 at University of the Arts, CBS Hall (building with columns), Broad and Pine, Philly.

Amy and Asha

Fishbowl Winterland 3am shoot with Super Tripod Action!

After I graduated college, I immediately went to a local photo store and bought the best tripod I could afford because I thought it was a necessary piece of equipment to own, for all proper photography.  It’s a beautiful 3221 Manfrotto, heavy as anything, built–I suspect–like a tank, which I could run over with my car with little to no damage being done.  I discovered shortly after that they can be way cumbersome, and hard to use if you are constantly moving around your subject.  So, unfortunately, it’s seen more of the inside of my closet than my studio or the outdoors.  In fact, it’s seen so little action, I considered selling it to someone who was far more dedicated to work that required such a sturdy tank.  I would just get a cheaper aluminum one, I thought.  I ended up not doing any of that–probably, just forgetting I even had it–and my Man sat around, waiting for me to come up with the right project to use him.  Self-portraits, for instance.  Or, a shoot outdoors at 3am after a huge snow storm.  Which, was last night.  My tripod was in all its glory, in 2 feet of snow, holdin’ steady for 13 second exposures.  I am so glad I had it.

I’ve always liked my street after the snow, it has huge old trees lining it.  The snow makes them so beautiful, and it is quite amazing to walk around in the middle of the night gazing up at them.  Everything is perfect at 3am, after a storm, and the sky takes on the most unusual colors.  Pink, for instance.  There were at least three different sources of light and the long exposures of my camera caught way more than my eye did.

I’m also testing out a new lens, a 10.5 mm fisheye, which makes everything surreal.

Serendipitous findings and New Packaging Design for Mina

This is a little CD package design I did in record time for Mina.  She requested a theme of Skeleton keys.  By chance, I was wandering around Lambertville, NJ the following day with my Mom, taking in all the antique stores, when I happen to glance into a glass case in one.  What do I find?  A large skeleton key that went to a lock for the NY insane asylum.  I couldn’t think of a more perfect key for the project, so I bought it, along with 3 others.  They were shot on a coffee table my sister painted for me–done in a weathered-wood style.

Shoot Your Shoes, Some awesomely creepy Church doors, Classic Philly

While in Vegas (yikes, does time fly!) almost a year ago, I attended a seminar by the soft-spoken wedding photographer, Elizabeth Messina.  During the event, she suggested that photographers should continually invent assignments for themselves and threw out the idea of shooting ones own shoes.  I made note of it.  Several months later, while looking around for things to shoot in my studio, I picked up a pair of gold heels that I adore and did just that.

Last week I was scouting places in Philly to shoot a client of mine and feeling terribly disappointed in my surroundings, when I stumbled across an old, old church.  It had the most incredible doors. Just beautiful. I was running out of light but I think that just added to the slightly creepy effect.

Right across the way, some classic Philadelphia texture–and a test of survival of the fittest if trying to navigate in high heels: