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! 

Juli and Willie

I wanted to subtitle this post, "The Best Wedding Present Ever," because I truely could have done an entire blog post about Juli's amazing present to Willie. However, this post is not about her wedding present, it's about her fantastic wedding. I don't think I've ever seen the level of family participation in the wedding preparation as I did at Juli's. She got ready at her parents home, while her family ran around putting the final touches on the reception site -- their backyard.

When the van arrived with the flowers, I was a bit floored by the never-ending supply of flora that was carried into the house and yard. They were, in a word, stunning arrangements. The bouquets were some of the most beautiful I've seen. Juli told me she told the florist she wanted each of the bouquets to be different and unique, but similar and ended the direction at that. They each had a unique flower, but all the same color palette. I don't think florists often get brides who give them so much artistic freedom, and in the end, Juli was thrilled with result. This is one of the bouquets with the rings.

Meanwhile, Rich was with Willie and the groomsmen getting ready. I loved this portrait of the group. It's difficult to get a shot like this -- to get the reflection well-lit and sharp, you often have to blow out the skin, but Rich nailed it and was able to keep all the detail.

At Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, Juli walked down the aisle with her father and a piece of her mother -- that's her mom's veil. She changed into a shorter one after the ceremony, but I thought it was a really amazing gesture. Plus, the veil worked perfectly with her absolutely stunning (though, I'm told, quite heavy) lace and beaded gown.

We only shot a couple of quick portraits on the steps of the church. Again, this is why I totally love having the both of us shooting -- Rich took this informal portrait (that also set the stage for a Fourth of July weekend wedding) while I was setting up the second shot of the bridal party.

Then we headed back over to her family's land for some more intimate portraits of the two of them. When I went out to Juli's parent's house a few months ago, we chatted around their table and Juli mentioned she wasn't sure where to do the portraits. Then we walked out back and I saw the small lake (they call it a pond, but it must be 50 feet across), perfectly landscaped gardens and the grape fields. And I thought, "Huh, I think this might do." These first two, again, are a simultaneous moment -- I'm able to set up a posed shot, and Rich can get a little creative with the angle, without taking extra time to set up different poses.

This is one of my favorite shots of the day, because I love a daytime silhouette, and you don't often get the right lighting and the right landscape at the same time. But they had a beautiful hill, some grape fields, and the sun in the right direction to make it work.

Okay, so I've already raved about the flowers, but I have to give a shout out to the cake, as well. It was straight out of a Martha Stewart magazine. She had each tier separated by a different color of fresh flowers, and I think it's just gorgeous.

As I mentioned before, Juli had a surprise present for Willie that made the rest of us recent brides look terrible. Seriously, how do you compete with a Mister Softee truck arriving at the reception?

As you can tell by his affection for the truck, Willie loves Mister Softee. Apparently, he's known to chase the truck down, and, rumor has it, that the Mister Softee in his neighborhood knows him by name. Clearly, Willie was thrilled by the present, and he made sure everyone knew, he married the best woman, ever. And seriously, with a surprise like that, I think he just might have.

After everyone got their ice cream, it was time for some dancing under the tent. Juli's parents worked so hard, personally, on getting all the details to work perfectly for the wedding. I'm told, shy of setting up the tent, her dad did almost everything else. I think it was a family effort, though. One of Juli's bridesmaids told me when she'd talked to Juli earlier in the week, she was busy toasting walnuts for the salads.

The evening wrapped up with a spectacular fireworks display. From across the "pond," her uncle set off a phenomenal 30-minute show. It was a perfect way to end an amazing day, and Rich and I were so thrilled to be a part of it. Congratulations, you two.

Jeff and Cherae

We got to shoot two amazing couples this past weekend and we are really, really excited after going through the photos for our initial edits. The first couple was Jeff and Cherae, who got married at the Statler Towers in the Terrace Room.

I want to digress for a moment before I get into the photos. Alyssa always goes with the Bride while I hang out with the groom and his party for our "getting ready" shots. This means I don't get to really see the cool, bridal behind-the-scenes stuff until I see the photos Alyssa is pulling for our final edit. Since I'm not around before the dress goes on, I get to experience that part of the wedding vicariously and only through her work. What I love about her photos is how she very purposely unveils the bride's day, moment-by-moment, little-by-little through her images...

She always catches the little things...like Bride and Dad checking out the dress...

And, of course, getting dolled up for the walk down the aisle...

I really liked this one that I grabbed from behind one of the Terrace Room's pillars as Cherae was making "the walk" with her parents. All three faces tell the story: Dad is thinking about his little girl and her future with the new man in her life - so he's focused on Jeff. Cherae is positively beaming at how all of her friends and family have come to celebrate her love. On the right, Mom is barely holding back tears of joy.

Speaking of beaming, I hate to be super cheesy - but Cherae's smile was easily brighter than the Statler's huge windows, streaming in the afternoon light.

Soon, the marriage was complete!

After the vows and the formal portraits, the four of us headed down to Niagara Square to get some more posed shots with Buffalo as our canvas backdrop.

Then it was time to celebrate!

This wedding rocked - Jeff and Cherae were an awesome couple to work with (Thanks guys!!!). Check back with us tomorrow and we'll have some photos from the other wedding we shot this weekend up - Juli and Willie!

Jenn and Dennis

It's obviously become a huge trend among modern wedding and portrait photographers to blog about their weddings and other photo shoots. I think the general idea is that it lets you reach out to your most recent clients while you're editing their event and show them a few sneak peaks so they get excited about your work. Maybe more important to some shutterbugs, though, is that it also shows everybody your most recent work. I think most photographers are like us and have galleries on their site that are at least a year old or more...I love our blog, but we're awful at updating the site!

For me, the most important part about blogging is quickly becoming the opposite of the first point above. When I blog a few photographs from a wedding of a couple like Jen and Dennis, I totally get excited about wrapping up the editing and getting the images ready for delivery. It really energizes me.

When Alyssa and I are watching a wedding day unfold in front of our cameras, we're working our butts off to capture moments and get exposures just right, etc. When we get back to the studio and start going through our selection and post-processing of an event - that's when we can really step back and appreciate the magic of a couple and their passion for one another.

Sorry for rambling, but Jenn and Dennis put it all in perspective for me this morning. What a fantastic couple:

Alyssa captured this "moment between" while she was setting the girls up for a more posed portrait of the bridesmaids...I love it. Alyssa told me Jenn's maid of honor is just off-camera and may or may not have been the source of hilarity.

Meanwhile I was hanging with the man himself, looking debonair despite what I imagined was a decent case of the butterflies. I could never tell because Dennis was just very relaxed and happy to be marrying Jenn. Some couples overly stress about the details of their day, and I'm sure they did in the days prior at least a little - but on the big day the important part was being together.

Alyssa took up position above while I shot below. Did I mention she is completely addicted to capturing other peoples' flashes?

She's also into reflections - like the mirror on the organ!

I was into Jenn's mega-watt smile, which she was saving for Dennis when they knelt at the altar.

This was a shot I really dug from the reception at Kloc's Blossom Grove in West Seneca, just outside of Buffalo.

And then I started playing with some guerrilla off-camera flash. Basically, I'll sync a radio-control unit to one of my small flash units and set it off from some oddball location - usually to create a cross-lighting or back-lighting effect for something different. This is Dennis helping Jenn out with the family tradition of the wedding wine skin while his dad looks on.

In this shot, Alyssa is doing her best ninja impression, holding the flash behind them while I snap away - good thing we wear all black suits!

And one last one for the road...Congratulations, Jenn and Dennis!