Oh yeah, did I mention that Shannon is my darling sister? She and Nick live in Boston, but are looking to move to Brooklyn in the very near future. Which I am over-the-moon excited about, because I could always use more rock climbing / biking buddies. That, and I also wouldn’t mind benefiting from Shan’s stellar cooking/baking skills.

Happy anniversary, kiddos!

But as much as I abhor winter weather, it does provide a few nice things. Case in point, this image: the blowing veil and colorful sky made possible by said abhorrent weather. Ashleigh and Shawn were such troopers for sticking out the cold in their wedding attire, and I dare say it was worth it :)

Here’s a sneak peek of their wedding day; more to come next month!

You might recall some portraits I posted from this wedding awhile back that were taken during a freak October snow/sleet/rainstorm. Thinking on the fly and wanting to keep everyone dry, I pitched the idea of popping into a local gallery to take a few quick photos, not knowing a). if it would work for photo ops, or b). if we’d even be allowed to shoot there. The wedding party was 100% down to try it out, and we ended up with a few cool shots before being kicked out. See? So much awesome.

And if that wasn’t enough proof of awesomeness, Cora & Matt’s wedding will go down in history as the first wedding where I was literally pulled onto the dancefloor to dance with everyone at the end of the night :)

We started the day with photos by the Brooklyn Bridge on a clear blue sky day, then used the most fetching rooftop view as a backdrop for more portraits. The ceremony and reception took place at ReBar, a ridiculously cool venue in Dumbo that I’d describe as *visually stunning* – which, of course, excites us wedding photographers beyond words!

Yeah, I’d say it was a pretty great day :)

Speaking of these two, they are pretty much the cutest. They came to the shoot with lots of creative ideas of their own, which made for one fun collaboration session. I always encourage this sort of input because a). It’s a surefire way of putting more of yourselves into the images we’re creating, and b). It keeps you engaged (in more ways than one!) in the session.

Here are a few of my favorite shots from our collaborative engagement shoot!:

One of the most frequently asked questions I get is “What happens if it rains on our wedding day?” – and the answer depends entirely on the couple. If they’re not keen to get wet, then, well, we may end up with a few less photos in the end. But if they’re anything like Cora and Matt, then we get a little adventurous and I’m forced to think on the fly and push my creativity. Here’s what we came up with:

LOCATION 1: Manhattan Bridge underpass
This is one of my favorite spots because it’s so sheltered and has this magical light that’ll make anyone look like a rockstar. Throw in some cobblestone and an archway and you’ve got a stellar scene.

LOCATION 2: A gallery
Dumbo is stacked with cafes and galleries, but I wanted to utilize a space that actually had room for a big group, and preferably nice lighting. I did some googling beforehand and found a gallery that looked like it’d do the trick. I wasn’t sure if we’d be allowed to take photos, but when we walked inside there seemed to be no one around. Only after we got our shots did someone show up and tell us to leave (lest we be charged the $4000 rental fee). At this point, I think we were all just jazzed to have gotten away with it that we were ok with being kicked out of the gallery.

LOCATION 3: Sidewalk under scaffolding
Any blog reader and/or friend of mine knows I am fond of the grit and graffiti of NYC. I knew of a graffitied block in the neighborhood that’s been covered with scaffolding for years, and I had the wedding party stand on the sidewalk beneath it so they stayed dry. I, on the other hand, stood on the street in the sleet, umbrella in one hand and camera in the other, stuck between the poles that held up the scaffolding. Easy? Definitely not. Fun? Extremely.

I’d also like to add that I did this entire shoot wearing snow boots. Between that and the whole getting-kicked-out-of-a-gallery thing, I’m considering adopting “badass wedding photographer” as a tagline :D

But see? Rain on your wedding day aint so bad. If anything, it makes it more exciting!

Lauren and Dave eloped to NYC from Detroit this summer, and I got to be the lucky one who photographed their New York adventures! Peter of Film Cars drove us around the city in a checker cab (yep, the same one I had the pleasure of jetting around in this spring at Alison & Stephen’s wedding!), from Central Park to the Brooklyn Bridge. Looking back on it three months later, the thing I remember the most is how jazzed we were – all 4 of us. There was so much good energy between us all that made the day that much more enjoyable :)

My sister and her boyfriend came down from Boston this weekend to visit me, and we spent Sunday afternoon wandering around Brooklyn. Yup, this photo was taken in Brooklyn – Prospect Park, to be exact. I have many more images just oozing with cuteness like this one, but you’ll have to wait to see the rest!

(and no, they’re not quite engaged yet – don’t worry, Mom!)

The image below is an example of what I consider to be a ‘fully edited’ image from a shoot:

How did I get there? Well, let’s start from the beginning with the image as it was straight-out-of-camera:
 

1). RAW IMAGE (STRAIGHT-OUT-OF-CAMERA):

You might be thinking that this image is pretty flat, dark, and overall not too polished. And you’d be 100% correct with that assertion. I shoot all of my images in a RAW format, meaning that zero processing is done in-camera. Instead, the goal is to capture as much data as possible, so that when I go to process the images myself, I can do much more with them.

In this case, I wanted to capture the setting sun with its sunbeams, while also keeping the couple adequately lit with light. If I exposed properly for one, the other would suffer as a result. But when you shoot in RAW, you can get away with exposing somewhere in-between the two so that neither the sky nor the people are at the proper exposure, but that both are close enough to being right that I can correct it when I process the image.

Here, since I didn’t want the sun to appear as one bright blob of light in the skyline, I had to underexpose (i.e. make the image darker) so that while the sun beams are visible, the couple is a little too dark. But no worries, Lightroom to the rescue!

2). IMAGE WITH BASIC EDITING – READY FOR PROOFS + IMAGE DISC:

The above image is an example of what the image looks like when I run through my basic editing process in Lightroom. This is what you can expect when I deliver your images in the online proof gallery and on a disc after a shoot. I may tweak this slightly depending on the image set, but this is pretty much my signature style.

However, this image is not polished enough for a print or album. First issue at hand: there are distracting elements in the background. See that girl in bright pink just behind the fence (to the right of Lauren’s hand)? And the tacky signs just over the bridge? And the bits of tree in the upper right corner? Not cute. I want them gone!

 
3). IMAGE WITH MORE EXTENSIVE EDITING – READY FOR ALBUM/PRINT:

After substantial time spent in Photoshop, I was able to remove all those distracting elements. Sometimes it’s just not possible to remove these things and keep the image looking realistic, but in this case it worked out.

I also sharpened the image to better define their facial features, made the image a little less warm, and made a few minor tweaks just to make the image ‘pop’ a bit more. This is what you can expect when you order an album or print from me. Now the image is ready to be included in an album, or printed out + hung up in a frame! :)

Stay tuned for the rest of Lauren & Dave’s NYC elopement photos in the coming weeks!

The night of the 4th was punctuated with a sky set on fire, followed by the famous Macy’s firework show. I saw the fireworks up close and personal 3 years ago, so I’m ok with not having front row seats to it every year. It’s arguably even cooler to watch the fireworks from the top of the Wonder Wheel at Coney Island – I mean, how many people can say they’ve done that? :D We didn’t exactly plan it that way, but sometimes it’s all about being in the right place at the right time. The fireworks were about 13 miles away (based on my eyeballed estimate from google maps) and hence looked pretty tiny, but I loved that we could see the whole park below, and then the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and Empire State Building beyond. It was – pardon the cheese here – pretty magical :)

Back to our regularly scheduled wedding/portrait posts next time. On deck: Cameron & Brian’s engagement shoot!