Quick trip to Colorado to visit our friends Tatum and Adam in Tabernash, Colorado. On this trip, we skied a bunch, hiked a bunch, snow shoed a whole bunch, and snowmobiled. Throughout the week, we visited many of Colorado’s top sites. From Winter Park for skiing to Rocky Mountain National Park for every winter activity imaginable we did it all in just 4 days.
Congrats to the newly engaged couple, Ryan and Hannah!
The back story to photographing this iconic NYC proposal | Ryan and I, worked out a day and a location for his marriage proposal. The location would be Central Park’s Bow Bridge and the Bethesda Fountain on Saturday. Both locations are great places to photograph proposals in New York City and both capture iconic NYC points of interest. However, as we got closer we saw it was going to rain/ snow on Saturday. Although, we had a plan B indoor location, it wasn’t what either of us had planned. Most importantly, it wasn’t what Ryan wanted.
I reassured Ryan that I could photograph in the rain if he wanted to go ahead with his original plan. In fact, I’ve photographed countless marriage proposals in Manhattan and Brooklyn in the rain, sleet, snow, and extreme heat. But we agreed to reschedule and it was going to be for the better.
The solution was moving the proposal to Friday. Ryan and I were in constant contact about the new date, new time, and even the new location. This new location was where they went on one of their first dates and had great views of Manhattan looking South.
Former Sen. Joe Lieberman, who represented Connecticut in the Senate from 1989 to 2013 and was chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, spoke to Yale alumni at the Yale Club in New York City. I photographed the event from the sides of the room and from several empty seats in the back of the room.
Playing the role of the Yale Club NYC Event Photographer for the evening I really tried to photograph all angles and perspectives. I photograph from the sides of the event, behind the speakers (remote camera), above the audience and through the audience, to make it feel like you too were sitting in the audience as you view my photos.
I’ve known Ali and Conor for almost 10 years. So, when they asked me to photograph their save the date photos in a mini-engagement session I quickly said “YES!”. Our location was Ali’s parents house in Sands Point, NY. The house, which is now sold, is special not just to Ali and Conor, but myself. It’s where all of us and our friends hung out throughout college. If we were home from school we were at Ali’s; Winter, Summer, Fall, or Spring.
The house is even more special to Ali and Conor because it’s where they first met. Throughout our engagement shoot we took full advantage of the warm weather. We went out on the dock and walked around the house taking a bunch of photos while the sun slowly set. As I photographed the couple and gave posing tips I reminisced about all of the memories had there.
Recently, I captured a full day conference for Shalom Hartman Institute at their Morningside Heights Manhattan, NY office. Most of the photos were candids and some were a bit more staged. The staged photos aimed to show “engagement” and a “shared learning experience”, all of the keywords I often hear in Higher Education Photography. I’ll admit it is always tricky to stage shots during a live conference, however I usually can find 5-10minutes here and 5 minutes there at the end / beginnings of sessions to do my thing.
That’s a wrap, 2019! My very last photoshoot of 2019 was a super fun family photo session with 9 month old Jayden and his parents, Mina and Jon. Our photo session was at their family’s beautiful and open home in Manhasset, NY.
Mina and Jon’s son Jayden was a lot of fun to photograph. He was super curious and didn’t mind dressing up in his new pajamas.
Photographing families in their home makes for the best photos. Everyone is comfortable and the kids have all of their favorite toys right there. Especially for little kids, home photoshoots are the best, not only because home is where the toys are, but because it’s easy for everyone. We were even able to pause for Jayden’s 30 minute nap and pick right back up again when he woke up.
Toys: On family photo sessions I always recommend brining a few toys. Children, young and old, need a distraction. It’s hard to constantly smile photo after photo, and still look happy. A toy break can be a great mood booster and a nice way to relax.
Snacks: Even this photographer needs a snack break from time to time. Bring snacks to our family shoot. It’s a huge mood booster and even a bargaining chips to get the kids to pay attention and behave.
Budget time: Budget time in to your family photoshoot for snack breaks and time to play. Not all of our photos have need to be posed photos. Sometimes the best photos are of the kids just being kids…. even if it’s on the floor. Posed family photos are great, and so are candids.
