Tori and Brian's Engagement shoot

Alyssa and I had no intention of the doing the Black Friday two-step yesterday. As much as I would love to help our floundering economy out by buying a sale-priced kitchenaid stand mixer (Alyssa and I have an unnatural love for kitchen appliances, and were close to pulling the trigger...I mean, who doesn't want a mixer that has a pasta-making attachment?!?), there is just no way we're trying to pull off early morning shopping with the boy. A few years ago I went to Best Buy and bought this MP3 player at, like, 4 in the morning. After standing in line for about two hours to get this crappy little gizmo, I promptly lost the receipt that would have let me fulfill the mail in rebate offer that would have made the thing an actual good deal in the first place. I gave up early-morning shopping after that.

Besides, Alyssa and I (and Murphy at 5 - thanks, pal) woke up from our tryptophan-fueled comas to stare out at the bleary landscape of Buffalo in late November...and wait a damn minute. There's no snow on the ground...the sun is shining like crazy...and we have a great-looking couple to shoot in the morning!?!? This, of course, brings us to Brian and Tori.

We started at this random, funky bridge on the UB North campus and kicked it from there. Alyssa spotted the bridge earlier this summer, so I knew we'd be back to it. Frankly, though, we could have shot Brian and Tori in a closet and been fine - they were like old pros posing for us...

Right off the footprint of the bridge, well - I don't know what kid of plant this is - but it looks awesome when the sunlight is just right and everybody's smiling :). I think it was the last engagement photo shoot we posted that Alyssa talked about how a lot of times we'll pull similar stuff for the blog because our thought process is so similar...the same thing totally happened here. The next four are me, Alyssa, Alyssa then me again...

Photography is pretty simple stuff at its core - light, compostion and an interesting subject. When you have a couple like Tori and Brian, I have a hard time considering what we do a job. These guys were awesome to shoot, just awesome.

We wrapped things up at UB and decided we'd celebrate the city-loving part of Tori and Brian's relationship by shooting for a while in Allentown. 

Thanks for the "what in the hell is the photographer doing down there?" look, Brian...I have been known to lay down on the job.

This photo is easily my favorite of the day. I had exactly one frame left on the card I was using and Alyssa was working on the set-up...so I popped in, shot this and immediately knew I had the exact feeling we'd been working to capture. 

Thank you, so much Tori and Brian! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy turkey day, everybody. Alyssa is absolutely rocking the kitchen right now - we are going to eat very well tonight! I'll probably take some pictures, too, because it is going to be epic.

So, in light of it being Thanksgiving, I think it's best to post some photos of the thing that I know we're both most thankful for: our son Murphy. The past two  years have been an absolute blur with moving here to Buffalo from Hawaii, having the boy and starting the business as our full-time gig. We never could have done it without a lot of luck, all of our great clients and a ton of love - which is were Murphy comes in.

Having a kid makes you work harder, care more and laugh longer about every part of your life. It's been a blessing, and we're incredibly thankful parents. 

So, we just got a hold of Alyssa's father's old camera collection and there's this one little Kodak Brownie that Murphy immediately took to...

I hope some day we'll have him in the darkroom with us, pushing 1600-rated tri-x and tweaking the neg carrier enlarger...you know, if film even still exists! Case in point: Murphy was definitely wondering where the LCD screen is on this particular model:

Alyssa and I (and Murphy) hope everyone reading this is having or had a wonderful day with their families and friends. Happy Thanksgiving!

Alyssa edit: I just also wanted to share a pretty rad Thanksgiving story -- something I'm also greatly thankful for. My dad died a few years back, and his camera collection has been at my sister's house since. I was in the Navy, and when you're living on a boat, it makes life difficult to have a camera collection. So, we're unpacking the cameras, and Rich comes across a binder that was tucked away with the cameras. As it turns out, it was my dad's negatives. I thought they were lost, but here we found his most precious shots. We immediately pulled out our lightbox and lupe and went to town seeing some of my dad's shots that we'd never seen before -- all circa 1970. I'm so greatful to have these negatives, and it's kind of amazing when you open an old banana box, and find your dad's life in pictures, sitting there, unnoticed. It was an absolutely amazing Thanksgiving surprise and something I'm truly grateful to have today -- just a little slice of my dad back with us.

Dennis and Julia

We headed down to Pittsburgh yesterday to shoot Dennis and Julia's engagement photos. I'd never been to Pittsburgh before, and Rich has only driven through, so we were pretty excited to explore the city. I have to say, I came away very impressed with the city, but there was actually more snow on the ground down there than there was in Buffalo! So, I just wanted to point that out because my entire life, when people find out where I'm from, the immediate reaction is, "Oh! You get a lot of snow!" So, at least for now, Pittsburgh is snowier.

We had some excitement when we first got into town, too. I heard this weird :snap: sound and looked over as this GIANT light pole nearly fell on a car about 50 feet away from us. Luckily, that was not a sign of things to come at all. We had a totally awesome time planning our shoot over lunch.

First, we headed down to a waterfront park, right across from Heinz Field. Julia and Dennis first met in college, but lost touch. Years later, they ran into each other at a Steelers game, and then, again, the next week at church - and they eventually started dating (Dennis admits he totally stalked Julia for a while until they started dating...but that's okay, though, Rich totally stalked me too :) ) . We hung out and took some portraits with our very brave, shivering couple. Ummm, notice the snow piled by the stairs -- they didn't wear jackets the majority of the day!

My point-of-view above, Rich's below. We love shooting together because it allows us the flexibility of taking one event and seeing it in multiple ways. We have a few versions of that going on from this shoot that we'll show you in a minute...

The one tree with leaves in the park. I think we officially can't pretend we're shooting in the fall anymore. You see how Rich "warmed" the shot up in Photoshop?

Here's the second instance of us shooting the exact same thing, completely differently. Rich went with the silhouette using a telephoto lens, and I went for the architectural point-of-view. Best part - we were standing directly next to each other :).

We wandered around downtown a bit and headed into this mini-park above the restaurant where Julia and Dennis had their second date. Rich and my first date (no joke) was to watch the Passion of the Christ. So, not really first-date material, and we were laughing about that with Julia and Dennis, and as it turned out, that was the first movie they watched together, as well! What an really strange coincidence! Anyway, at the site of their second date was this park with this really cool tree.

And fun vines...

And, for one very brief moment, the sun made an appearance!

And across the street was this random giant orange public art piece. Rich says it looked like a wacky 70s-era piece, so he went with that feel for the processing.

Then we took a coffee break -- since it varied between 31 and 33 all day (every time we passed a time/temperature sign, the masochist in me couldn't help but look!), it was very needed. Then we headed into Dennis' neighborhood. We stopped in this garden by the coffeehouse, and Rich and I both took almost identical shots for the blog... including which ones were black and white! I thought it was funny that sometimes we see things so differently, and then sometimes, we're seeing it exactly the same!

Rich up, me down.

Rich up, me down! (Rich's note: I love processing photos to make them JUUUST right - but you always hope for a shot like the one right above this sentence. I saw it, shot it, and that's exactly how it looked coming out of the camera, no cropping or touching up - they just looked that good!)

So, Dennis and Julia, being big Pittsburgh fans, really wanted a shot with the city skyline in the background. We headed over to this park, and I saw this fantastic bridge I wanted them to walk across... of course, I probably should've thought about the decline of the bridge and the layer of ice covering it! Sorry, again, Dennis!!

A crazy, awesome relief/mural on the side of a building!

And that does it from our time in Pittsburgh! Thanks, again, Julia and Dennis, for having us come down and for showing us around. We had a blast and can't wait to see you guys again. You really do have a great little city, and you are a spectacular couple. We'll talk to you soon!

Holiday Portrait Sessions: Leo

Our good friend Leo stopped by the studio earlier today to get his holiday portraits done. Just a reminder: we're still booking holiday portraits until Dec. 7 -- our mini session is $60 for a half-hour session. Space is filling up for the season, so book yours today!

Jennifer and Mike

When we're first meeting with couples to explain how we work, it's super important to us that we hit it off...well, let's just say that when I met with Mike and Jennifer, we definitely had a good time..the meeting lasted for about three hours! I knew I had just met a couple of extraordinarily likable and friendly people, and I couldn't wait to shoot their wedding. So, this weekend was finally the big day!

If I had to choose, I would definitely want to do "dress shots" in rooms with funky murals ALL the time.

And the gorgeous tiara...

We hung out as Jennifer and her ten bridesmaids getting ready (and, believe it or not, all ten are sisters or sisters-in-law!!). Here's Jennifer getting her hair finished -- it looked gorgeous, of course.

After a bit, Rich headed over to hang with Mike and the boys... and rocked this sweet ring shot! Mike told Rich about how they had custom rings made - and the jeweler promised to break the ring molds so they're truly one-of-a-kind. That's pretty awesome.

Jennifer finished getting ready and looked stunning. It is such a joy to be around brides who are just soooo happy to be getting married!

Her aunt did all the flowers for the wedding -- they were perfect.

So, a friend of Jen's dad has this totally sweet vintage Cadillac, and he drove Jen and her dad to the church in it.

Rich caught her as she arrived.

And then it was time for the wedding. So, you'll notice Mike is wearing plaid. They had a piper pipe them in, and I totally dorked out -- my dad and grandpa were both pretty solid pipers, and there's that weird nostalgia every time I hear one. But not too many couples we shoot rock one at the wedding, so I was pretty stoked to see all the Scottish nods... only thing is, neither Jennifer nor Mike are Scottish. There's a reason for the tartan, though....but we'll get to that later... for now, some ceremony shots.

Here's Mike being stoic before the big walk...

And the ring bearer and flower girl...

I love the looks couples give each other during the ceremony. Rich caught this adorable moment between Jennifer and Mike.

So, I'm walking from one side of the back of the church to another, and I glance over at Rich as I often do, and I see him totally checking out his competition rocking their cameras. And WE get called the paparazzi!

After the ceremony, the did a bubble exit, and although it got a bit brisk after the sun went down, a lot of their guests braved the cold to give them a spectacular exit.

So, we get to the reception and freakin' Don Cherry is hanging out by the gift table, and out walks Mike whose changed into a very, very sweet jacket. That's when I found out that Mike is not Scottish, but just really, really likes Don Cherry.

Just one last thing - so, we don't actually see each other's shots until after we're done editing, whether it be a blog post or a full wedding's edits. So we both separately picked a bouquet toss photo to blog this week - almost the same exact moment! I think Rich's version (the bottom) is really funny...I mean, c'mon girls, clearly only one of you is really going for those flowers!

That's all for us - we'll be back blogging some baby photos later this week. Leave Mike and Jennifer some love in the comments!!!

Christine and Mike

Christine wasn't a dog person -- for years Mike wanted to get a dog, and she told him absolutely not. Apparently she softened up, because not only is she the proud mama of the cutest cockapoo, Rushford, she loves him so much she wanted him to be a part of her engagement photos! So, Rushford hung out with us over at Bird Island Pier to start the engagement shoot...

We call this one "The Family Portrait."

Normally, I'm saying, "look at those eyes!" about our humans, but I can't help myself. He's so cute... Look at those eyes!! And get this - he doesn't shed...a dog lover's dream.

Christine and Mike are both marathoners (and Mike is a one-time ultra-marathoner!!) and the Buffalo marathon goes right past the pier and old bridge area,which is how they came up with the first location for our shoot. We love shooting "urban landscapes!"

Hey, it almost looks warm in this photo, doesn't it? You can barely tell it was 40 degrees out. Believe me, there was no need to gently encourage Mike and Christine to get closer during any set-up.

Totally smoking!!

This is one of those great examples of what Rich is doing while I'm doing something else! My photo up, Rich's photo down :).

So, we found the one tree in the area with some leaves still on it and played around for a few minutes, because I refuse to admit it's winter. Just because the furnace is roaring away doesn't mean anything!

This was my favorite shot of Rich's... seriously, Christine and Mike are really bubbly, friendly, talkative people, and we spent the whole shoot talking! This photo is amazing. It looks like they are the only two people on Earth...even though there's a dude with a huge camera about 6 inches away!

Look at those eyes!! (okay, so Rushford didn't have the only gorgeous eyes at the pier)

Then we decided to head up to Hertel Ave to shoot a few more photos. Christine and Mike used to live in the neighborhood, so it was cool to shoot them in their old hang out. You know, if you're going to do an engagement session, make it reflect you!

Christine got the whole room-full-of-flowers proposal as a TOTAL suprise, so I thought them wanting to shoot in front of Romeo and Juliet's on Hertel was too cute! Mike is the classic romantic lead. And seriously, how jealous am I? Did I ever mention that Rich proposed to me while driving down the street. So romantic... so, I have to live vicariously through awesome proposal stories like Mike and Christine's. (Rich Edit: Good Lord, Alyssa brings this up ALL the time, you know - seeing as how we shoot couples in love for a living. Here's what really happened: I got the surpise word that I was leaving for Afghanistan (you know, war) in THREE DAYS, and so I brought it up in a conversation driving around Honolulu because I was madly, passionately in love with Alyssa and knew she was the one and didn't want to miss my chance. She agreed, and then we found out we actually had about a month to plan before I was gone over seas (I did leave three days later for training in California). I could have handled the proposal better, yes, I admit that...but now we're bickering on our blog - you did this, Alyssa! By the way, we celebrated our four year anniversary last month! :) It's been the best four years of my life.

(Alyssa re-edit: You proposed while driving the car. Now get out of my blog post!)

Here's another awesome shot of Mike and Christine Alyssa took...I'll give her back her blog post now. :)

Anyway, thanks, again, guys for coming out and braving the cold for the shoot. I know it was a bit brutal, but you guys were absolutely fantastic! We can not wait to shoot you again this spring!!

Adelaide

Miss Adelaide stopped by the studio earlier today for a couple of quick holiday portraits. She was absolutely adorable, so I wanted to get a couple quick shots up of her ridiculous cuteness! Thanks, guys, for coming by -- it's absolutely amazing to watch her grow. I still can't believe how fast this year has gone -- she's precious!

Lisa and Jim

Meet Lisa and Jim -- guess where they met?

When I first met Lisa and Jim, they told me they were not really photo people; they didn't know much about photography, and they didn't have many photos of themselves, etc. I can totally relate to not having many photos together -- either Rich or I always have the camera on any family outing, so we really don't have any nice photos of ourselves as a couple. That's why I love doing engagement sessions -- it's really fulfilling to be able to give a couple beautiful photos of themselves, especially in places that mean something to them!

Lisa and Jim are downtown people, like us, so they decided that since most of their important moments (meeting, first date, engagement) happened in the Elmwood Village area, that would be the perfect area to do their engagement portraits. And I totally agree -- if I were having them done, I'd probably do some cool urban portraits too. I love this city!

Then we headed over to Bidwell Park to that funky Griffis piece that's there.

Okay, so these are my favorite photos of the day. Seriously, aren't they gorgeous?? I cannot wait to shoot Lisa in her wedding gown!

My favorite of the day, period. I think it's smoldering!

I love a couple that's willing to get dirty for me!

I've been absolutely dying to shoot someone under this lion on Delaware Ave. A little more of the plaster is gone after each winter, and I don't think the Lion is going to last all that much longer. Anyway, L+J were up for it - so we shot!

Rich and I always shoot the same thing in very different ways...and I guess I must have popped up in a few of his frames :) He'll get over it. This is me and my very, very favorite lens working in close!

The rock shot...

And here's some cool, Rich "hand geometry" :)

So, since we were in the neighborhood, we had to stop off at the first date location! I love this shot of Rich's!

So, we're walking past this door, and I just yelled that I loved this shade of blue and that we should come back and take some photos in this doorway. Lisa was like, I guess that would be pretty appropriate, since that's where my mom works. Crazy, right? And that would be insane and random in any other city, but there's that weird Buffalo thing here where everyone's connected.

Thanks, guys, for hanging out with us -- I know it wasn't super warm, but we had a blast with you two, and we're really excited about shooting your wedding next year. It's going to be fabulous!

Holiday Portrait Sessions

Hi everyone! The holidays are almost here, and we're currently booking our 2008 holiday portrait sessions. We are offering our full family session (both photographers, 1 1/2 to 2 hours, $200) or holiday-only mini-sessions (solo photographer, 30 minutes, $60). All sessions need to be completed by Dec. 7.

We're also now offering photo greeting cards and fine art cards through our proofing site for our 2008 portrait and bridal clients. Just make sure to order by Dec. 1! Happy Holidays!

We've been so busy shooting lately, that our blogging has been a little lax this week. We promise we'll be better this week -- and here are a couple shots from a wonderful family's shoot last week:

Kristin and Jason

We met up with Kristin Saturday morning at Birgit's where she was getting ready for her beautiful fall wedding. She looked stunning and the great staff there finished her off by putting her veil in.

Then we headed back over to her parent's house to get ready. Her bouquet was absolutely stunning and had some pussy willow tucked in the back. As a girl who was forced to attend way too many Dingus Day parties growing up, I have to appreciate that!

Before she knew it, it was time to get her dress on -- it was a stunning gown. I love gowns that actually lace up in back -- it took a while to get the laces even and perfect, but it looked gorgeous when she was finally in it!

We took a couple quick portraits at the house before hopping in the limo bus to the church.

Kristin and Jason got married at Christ the King Chapel over at Canisius College.

Jason absolutely lit up when Kristin finally got down that aisle.

I know it's a little random to include a receiving line shot, but it was a beautiful day and Kristin wanted to go outside, and I loved this shot.

On the steps of the church.

Then we headed over to the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society for some bridal party formals.

Kristin and Jason's reception was at the stunning Williams-Butler House. It's a breath-taking venue, but they're in the process of deciding whether or not to hold weddings there in the future, so Kristin and Jason were potentially the last couple to have their party here. It would be a shame, because it is such a gorgeous venue.

The speeches!

And finally it was time for the first dance -- thanks for having us with you, Kristin and Jason. We hope you love Hawaii, and we'll talk to you soon!