Buffalo Wedding Photography by Nickel City Studios

We initially planned on doing Diane + John's eshoot last month, but we were rained out (weirdly prophetic of how the *summer* would shape up) and rescheduled for yesterday evening down at Evangola State Park. We had hit up the park once before, but it was Memorial Day, and there were thousands of people there. When we showed up yesterday (a gorgeous, though overcast day), we pretty much had the place to ourselves, so that totally rocked. Diane and John brought their dog, Kimo, along for the shoot. I love that - because I consider our two dogs our girls, and prior to Murphy, they definitely would've been on any family shoot of ours.

It was a beautiful afternoon. I think I beat the point into the ground every time we do a post in a location like this, but THIS is Western New York. Like, there are beautiful beaches and tons of boats out on the water and it is a stark contrast to the life we lead in the city, but it's only 30 minutes or so down the road. By the way - alternating colors like Diane and John wore for the shoot work great for photographs...particularly if you're into outdoors-ey shots where we'll have a lot of green to pop the couple out of.

This was the first shot of yours I saw after we got back last night - I love it.

Thanks! I can't pass up a crumbly old wall :)

Or brick walls for that matter :)

Hey - if it works, it works. I think it was right about this moment that John said something about Diane "owing him" for agreeing to the shoot. I would like to give a shout out to all our future grooms who may not be super excited about getting their picture taken, but still tackle the shoot like champs. I get it - I don't like getting my photo taken, pretty much ever. But, I, like all men in committed relationships, understand that there is a time and place to do things that our significant other wants to do. Nothing beats some nice photos of you as a couple. So, to all the guys who get dragged by us through the Alyssa tri--fecta of beat-up walls, tall grass and brick, I personally salute you for doing so with a big smile.

I personally salute you?? You make it sound like you're not also taking photos and making people stand near ridiculous things too, pal.

They've got these boats lined up off the beach, so we played with them for a few minutes too, because, well, why not? :)

You guys look adorable, and we had a hard time narrowing down shots this morning from the next set...

And then we saw a silhouette opportunity that could not be passed up. Rather than get into a fistfight about whose shot made the blog before we shoot an all-day wedding today, we decided to include them both...

Because we'd never really wandered around Evangola much, John mentioned a pond, so we headed over toward it and saw this great little area.

And then we hit the pond that had a ton of geese pooh around it, but miraculously no geese in the water, so we had a great clear reflection going on.

I asked Diane and John to lay down on this slanty hill, and she was like, "Uh, I'm gonna trust you on this one." Thank you! That's all I ever ask - I think these came out so pretty.

So, we had seen this covered bridge the last time we'd driven through, and when we got back, Alyssa totally wanted to play with it. Can you spot the photographer?

:) Sometimes I gotta do a little climbing to see if my idea might work. I think this might be my favorite from the whole shoot. Thanks, again, guys for coming out last night - you guys are awesome, and I seriously cannot wait until the wedding! It's going to be so gorgeous - I'm so ridiculously excited about it!!

So, there we were - deep in the heart of the jungle, AKA, behind the back of the old Central Terminal, with Vicki and Brian...and I'm not going to lie, I was a little concerned they would hat e the location. After all, it absolutely looks like the "after" scenes in the "Life After People" show, and while we love new places to shoot, we needed a couple who were willing to let us try something new and be totally cool with it for the location to work.

And they totally rocked it. :) It was kind of a difficult shoot because Brian couldn't take his hat off. Let's just say he's been wearing his hat to work outdoors for a little while without rocking some sunblock, so we were a little limited in our posing of them because we didn't particularly want to take Vicki's eyes out with his brim. :)

I can't believe you called the man out like that. I had the exact same bald-man-who-wears-a-hat-in-the-sun-all-the-time, half-tanned head look when we were stationed in Hawaii. It was all good.

I'm not calling him out! But I am explaining why some of the photos have a different feel to them. We spend a lot of time with our couples with their faces close together. Anyway, I'm totally a nervous nellie when it comes to train tracks, but we played on them for a few shots, and I really loved everything about this one.

There was an open door that we popped inside for about 13 seconds to snag a couple with a cool brick texture, and it was ridiculous. There were seriously stalagmites (stalactites, who knows the difference) forming in there.

Probably my favorite of yours, Rich!

Thanks! Yeah, we recently met one of the guys who is heavily involved in the restoration process - and that place is going to need every ounce of enthusiasm the volunteers show. It kindof looks like a war zone right now, but it's definitely a visually cool place to work with a couple. I dig the juxtaposition. I liked that Brian is a big dude, too - first of all, he could probably toss Vicki about 40 feet in the air and second of all, if you've never been to the Central Terminal - it's kindof full on in the ghetto.

And this is, without doubt, my favorite shot of yours from the evening...

Thank you! I was pretty pleased with that one, too.

The sun was starting to get yummy, so we popped out of the shadows for some awesome sun flare. I'm so into sun flare right now :)

Dude, we're always "into" flare - it's just one of those things...

We played around at the front of the building for a few minutes longer. I really wish I could've seen the building when it was built. It's still kind of breath-taking - I imagine it was stunning then.

Agreed - New York State is kindof crazy not to consider a NYC - Toronto rail line that passes through Buffalo. From the outside, it's one of those no-brained things that will probably never happen because NY State government is one of the most ridiculous things ever implemented by humans...and for the most part they could really give a crap about what happens in Buffalo.

Hey now, you haven't been a resident long enough to have that kind of bitterness! Vicki also wanted to hit up some Elmwood/Delaware Park shots, so we headed over to Elmwood and Bidwell Parkway...

...and I loved this shot. The flare was crazy awesome!!

We've got more flare than a chain restaurant.

By this point, we were having a great time. There's always a point during a shoot where you go from it being just a photoshoot to just hanging out and having fun with cameras. It might be a subtle difference, given our style, but it's a difference you can feel when things really start to flow, and we're just talking about everything under the sun.

Which is cool - I really like getting to know people beyond the hey-we're-the-photogs bit. It makes the wedding day more awesome. And Brian and Vicki's wedding is totally going to be pretty sweet. I think Vicki is just going to stun everyone in her dress. And as for Brian's head, Vicki thought he'd look pretty sweet in a top hat and monocle. :)

We played at the church for a while as Vicki's a fan of the old churches in town, and they're always pretty cool to shoot around. Stopping and photographing around Elmwood always gets people to kind of check you out. I think everyone is kind of hoping they come across TO getting his photos randomly taken in Elmwood Village. :)

You can't even make it through a blog post now without mentioning Eldorado, can you? We are pretty excited about maybe making it to training camp if at all possible - it's going to be a heck of a year. Anyway, here's Vicki being STUNNING.

I love, love, love this one too, babe.

Those all make me smile...

So, we only played on Elmwood for a little while because Vicki also wanted to hit the cool stone bridge in Delaware Park.

I love the light in this shot. It made me a little giddy when I took it.

Our absolutely favorite photo from our own wedding is us walking away from the ceremony, holding hands...so I get a little sentimental every time we shoot that idea. I think it resonates with a lot of couples - kindof heavy-handed imagery, but definitely appropriate given that we're always getting together with our wedding couples at the start of something big.

Thanks, guys, for hanging out with us. You guys did fabulous, and we can't wait to see you guys again soon!!

We shot Caitlin and Matt's eshoot Tuesday, but didn't blog yesterday as it was Rich's birthday!! He celebrated turning old by eating breakfast chimichangas, blue crabs and one horrifically homemade rolled ice cream cake. Anyway, so we had to shoot Tuesday as Caitlin is currently up in New Hampshire, but it was totally threatening rain all day. We were really nervous about the impending rain, but Matt was super optomistic, and it ended up being a little drizzly (we ducked into a parking garage during that part), but a mostly pleasant evening to shoot. And since it was overcast, the sun went down a little earlier than usual, so we played with some off-camera lighting, and I got one of my favorite e-pics, maybe ever.

My birthday was very much awesome. Lots of good food, some great family time, and we even got the chance to go see a movie together, which happens maybe twice a year if we're lucky. I definitely don't feel old, though. If anyone is wondering about the levitating truck wheels in the above photo - that's the Thursday at the Square stagetruckthingy, which is jsut where we randomly ended up after dodging the rain all across downtown. Where we started, though, was at Pearl Street where Caitlin and Matt first met.

I have to say that the folks at Pearl Street are amazing. Seriously, twice we've had couples want to shoot there, and they have been so awesome with allowing us access to their building. Plus, it's gorgeous. Plus, it's a seriously sweet place to hold your wedding, too!

I adore Matt and Caitlin - seriously, within, like, five seconds of our starting the shoot we were talking Lost! It's always nice to be able to hang out with our couples and get to know them on a more personal level before the wedding day when things are a little crazy. And I always appreciate getting to chat with other Lost fanatics (or theroists, as the case may be).

Some studio executive better step up the plate with a new show after the next season that has the level of story-telling and character development Lost has had to this point. I know it's a lot to ask, but I'm not looking forward to that show being over at all. Anyway, after spending a few minutes kicking around Pearl Street, we walked down toward the waterfront...but some rain made us think we should head further into the city and see what we could find along the way (i.e. doors, parking garages, whatever) to duck in to if it really got bad.

I love this shot - I'm such a crappy Buffalonian... I don't even know what road this is under, but it was fun!

That's obviously the 190!!! Note how it goes directly next to where the hole in the ground that used to be the Aud?? How have I only been here three years and know the city better? We ended up right at the baseball park and took advantage of the limited greenery around the picnic benches there.

Oh! I guess it is :) Anyway we hadn't shot over at the ballpark before, and it was about then that the skies started dripping a little, so we used the covered areas to our advantage! :)

We decided to walk a little east, and we cut through this parking log, and I love this shot, Rich. I think it came out perfect!

Thanks - I like these next ones, too. Bricks are always a winning background....

Probably not a place we would've stopped had the weather been nice, but I loved this shot, so I'm so, so glad we did!!

Gotta love ECC's athletic building being a little funkier than its art deco and gothic surroudings, right? This shot is great....

And, inevitably, we ended up in a parking garage as the daylight totally escaped us and it started to rain more heavily. We worked it out, though. If it doesn't rain the rest of the summer I think we've hit our index mark over the last week - the rain has jut been crazy, particularly for us and our preference for photographing outdoors with mostly natural light. Things have a way of working out, though, if you just relax and go with what's available and what's happening, and I'm really happy with what our parking garage part of the evening yielded.

Me too! Luckily the parking garage was empty (which is why they probably noticed us and tossed us out fairly quickly :) ), so we were able to get some pretty sweet shots.

Yeah, I hate getting thrown out of places for photographing, but I'd rather just get a photo and move on. I think this is my favorite from inside the garage...since my definite favorite, favorite is not-quite-so-inside the garage...

This is my favorite of yours, Rich. Perfect! And MAD props to Caitlin and Matt for inexplicably listening to us when we asked them to hang out of the parking garage five floors up.

Yeah, you have the best ideas when it comes to that sort of thing...I definitely would not have considered holding my camera out of a parking garage at arm's length and at 1/20th of a second...but it worked! Good thing I'm a human tripod.

aaaand eventually the rain stopped threatening our gear's life and we took a few parting shots in lafayette square (like the first one). Caitlin and Matt, thanks for braving the rainy night with us, and thanks for bearing with us and our antics (and yes, the only reason we don't have behind-the-scenes shots for this post is because either one of us was holding a light for the other or holding on to the other's legs to keep from falling off something). Hopefully we'll see you guys again soon!