Wedding Photographers Know How to Party

25 savvy and talented (and might we say fashionable) photographers joined us for a cruise on the Boston harbor last Friday night... thank you Pictage for sponsoring our party! Here's Matt with a gaggle of super gorgeous 80's babes:

We're going to mail a prize to the first person who can correctly tell us what year Matt got that Cheap Trick t-shirt.... to enter the contest just send us an email with "Cheap Trick" in the subject line.

(image hijacked from the super talented and fun Feds' blog).

Family Portrait Time!

Yay, we finally got family portraits done! Our good friends Justin and Mary came up from Connecticut and spent a whole day with us... they just posted some of their favorites from the shoot on their blog and I'm reposting a couple here:

Yay, thank you Justin and Mary! We can't wait to see them all!!!

Wine Flight

Yummy... what a fun way to spend a summer evening. Wine tasting while waiting for a table at Sophia's Grotto. The entrees were good, but what I learned was that several small plates would have been more fun and completely satisfying.

A Bar Mitzvah Like No Other!

Enna and I recently photographed Adam's bar mitzvah at the Franklin Park Zoo. This was pretty cool way to celebrate a bar mitzvah. The Thursday before the party I did some formal portraits at their temple, then the family hosted about 150 of their friends for food and drinks at the zoo's rain forest two days later. The gorillas seemed to enjoy watching everyone watching them and also had fun giving the occasional scare by beating on the plexiglass. The zoo gave the kids a behind the scenes tour, and towards the end of the night everyone played a serious game of Family Fued.

Here are some fun shots from the event...

Adam

I love this shot of his hand opening the scroll

Family in suits

Family out of suits:)

Adam and his siblings

A couple of the guests:)

The entrance to the rain forest

The rain forest cave was lit with these amazing light boxes

A fun before and after with the green screen

Adam at the end of the night

Mazel Tov Adam! We had a blast!

Hilary & Ryan

This year we had a record number of couples hire us without ever having met us in person. Most of these couples live in NY, DC, CA, or elsewhere. Some came from strong referrals, and some found our site while surfing the web. It's always fun when we finally get to meet the couple in person for the "get to know you" shoot and we are able to walk around the city and talk and bond before their big day. When I opened the door to meet Hilary and Ryan they were standing there with the warmest smiles on the faces. We hung out in the studio for a bit looking at albums, then headed out to the Arboretum (which didn't last long due to rain) and then downtown to Copley Square.

Hilary and Ryans wedding will be at the beautiful Wianno Country Club this September. This will be a perfect venue for them and we can't wait to see them all dressed up for the wedding and meet their families and friends.

A few from the shoot

A Rare Movie Date

Matt and I went on a rare date last night to see Dark Knight.

This is a fantastic thriller! Our enjoyment of the movie was made bittersweet by the knowledge that we won't see Heath Ledger in another performance. He carried the film, and at each brilliant scene or line we found ourselves contemplating this sad point.

Part of what made his performance so great is the camera work that was paired with Ledger's Joker scenes. Look closely - the filming is more loose, shakey, close, and just a bit crazed... this was a perfect method to convey his crazed and unpredictable character.

These more fluid and spontaneously shot scenes are a great example of how photography and film techniques can shape the emotional impact of an image. I want to encourage fellow photographers to take inspiration from the film making here - a perfect composition with perfect focus or stopped motion does not always convey the physics and emotions of a scene as thoroughly as shooting with a more intuitive and fluid approach....

It's a Small World:)

One thing that I love about our job is being on a Get To Know You Shoot (engagement photos) and discovering that we have the same friends as the couple we are photographing. Christine and Jamie are getting married this August and are having a "green" wedding. Everything is local and environmentally friendly. After the shoot we went out for a coffee and started talking about Jamie's new venture as a self employed caterer. I started talking about my good friend Chris who used to own a restaurant in Boston and what do you know... Christine used to work with Chris's wife Sam, and they are good friends as well. Enna and I will be posting photos of a recent camping trip we had with Chris and Sam here soon.

So it's a small world after all:)

Christine and Jamie live along the Charles River, so for their shoot we walked around the Cambridge side of the river. The first time we met we got caught in the rain and were completely soaked by the time we made it to cover. The second time we met the sky was an amazing blue with beautiful clouds. They were so much fun to photograph and are going to have such a great wedding. Christine's bridesmaids will be in bright summer colors and Jamie's groomsmen will be in seersucker pants with ties to compliment the ladies.

Here a few images from the shoot. Can't wait to see you two in a few weeks!!

Julia

Julia's bat mitzvah is this September. Enna and I photographed her brother's bar mitzvah and unfortunately we wont be able to photograph Julia's because we are booked for a wedding in NY on the same day:( Enna and I have become good friends with her family over the past few years and they are so much fun to photograph. Our weddings couples get a complimentary engagement shoot, or as we like to call it, a "get to know you shoot". I like to offer a similar portrait session when I am asked to photograph a bar/bat mitzvah, and while I am unable to be at her event, I was honored when they still wanted me for her portraits.

When I do a portrait I want to know about the person. I learned the importance of this while interning with the late, great Arnold Newman. Julia is a bookworm! She loves to read, especially Harry Potter, and spends a lot of time at the library. So for her shoot we started at the library, then spent some time around the family home. She was a natural in front of the camera and I know she is going to have an amazing bat mitzvah.

Here are just a few from the day.

Mazel Tov Julia!

On the stairwell of the newton library

Finding good details is so cool. I love this shot of her hands with the textured wall.

The stairwell in the family home had such amazing natural light.

The one above and the one below were taken on the dinning room table. I just loved the reflection and the curtains lit from the sun outside.

From Russia with Love

Anna (from Russia) and David are getting married this summer here in Boston. When we met up for their engagement shoot we stopped at a train station to check it out and it fit them perfectly. I always try to find new places for each couple so that my engagement shoots are unique for them. I had worked in a subway before, but this was the first time I had used a train station and it was a blast.

A few shots from the day

Gorgeous Wedding Album!

Okay, if you're a client of ours you know that we are SUPER picky about our albums. And you don't even see the "behind the scenes" work that goes into our album designs... we spend many hours making the preliminary design and final draft of an album, and retouching each image that will be in the final version. We have favorite techniques for incorporating favorite images in the album, pacing the story and graphic elements in order to ensure that looking at the album is an emotional and narrative experience. So we were flattered and honored that our album company decided to feature one of our recent books on their website.

Scott and Priscila's red-themed wedding called for drama, elegance, and quality, and we knew that a Queensberry Album would be a perfect fit.

Here's a snapshot of a few of the page spreads... read the whole story here.

Kim and Jeff: A Wedding Portland, Maine

Kim and Jeff's wedding was very romantic. They are each others' best friends, and this was evident throughout the day.

The color red was incorporated everywhere... my favorite red element was Kim and Jeff's instruction to their friends to wear just a "touch of red"... everyone's clothing was different but they all were complimentary and it looked very elegant.

Kim was just glowing all day:

I had a bit of competition on the photo front:

I was very impressed by all the great dancers!

Congratulations Kim and Jeff!

Ilana & Paul

Enna and I have become well known in Boston for our unique way of documenting Orthodox Jewish weddings. Our approach is simple, but it can be difficult to accomplish due to the energetic and spontaneous nature of the event. One of our favorite moments of the day is always the Bedeken, or "veiling of the bride". The men (who have been in another room to this point), parade the groom out to see his bride, led by musicians, and there is often singing and dancing. As they approach, the crowd separates to reveal the bride sitting on her throne. Tradition has it that this is the groom's opportunity to lift the veil to make sure it is his bride. But there is much deeper meaning to this ritual. The veil signifies the individuality of each even when united in marriage. It is also a reminder that although a woman's physical beauty may vanish, the beauty of her spirit never will. The family members' and guests' energy and excitement bring the emotion in the room to an all time high. After the groom has lowered the veil, the bride is blessed by the fathers and the grandfathers and it is all so beautiful that we never want it to end. But, just as fast as it began, the Bedeken does end and the men dance off , sometimes quite boisterously carrying the groom on their shoulders. The Bedeken is always an amazing photo opportunity. Getting in close to capture this moment charged with excitement and emotion is always moving, and Enna and I have cried while taking these images at several weddings. Ilana and Paul's wedding was no exception for show of emotion and support from their family and friends.


Ilana and Paul

Ilana praying before the bedeken

Paul is paraded out of the tisch for the bedeken

This is my absolute favorite moment for the orthodx jewish wedding, when the groom visits the bride on her throne during the bedeken

Paul with his brother and sister

Ilana with her sister and mom

We were able to make some amazing light for the ceremony

TV celebrities Bart Simpson and Mr. Burns even joined in on the dance floor fun

I believe this is Ilana's father, Dr. Waxman showing off his flexibility. Things happen so fast on the dance floor it's tough to pay attention to who is doing what.

Mazel Tov Ilana & Paul! We had so much fun, thank you for inviting us!