Leslie & Brandon – Rochester Wedding Engagement Photography
This past weekend I photographed an engagement session for Leslie & Brandon, two Fairport natives whose wedding I’ll be photographing in a few weeks! For this engagement session, I traveled to Erie and spent the afternoon talking with them about how they met, various stories growing up, oh and taking some photographs along the way too. :)
Engagement photos are a great precursor to wedding photographs – Leslie and Brandon were able to get a feel for how I will photograph their wedding, and I can get a good idea of how they react to the camera. During the photography for their Rochester wedding, I’ll be able to draw on the engagement session to achieve more fluid and less invasive wedding day photography. As a Rochester wedding photographer, I’m committed to delivering the very best wedding photographs – engagement photos are one way that I differentiate myself and offer truly exceptional wedding photography.
Here are a few of my favorite photographs from Leslie & Brandon’s engagement session. Enjoy!
Sarah & Brian – Belhurst Castle Wedding Photography – Geneva, NY
In May I’ll be photographing the wedding of Sarah & Brian at the Belhurst Castle in Geneva, NY. Today was the first time I had an opportunity to met with them (they currently reside out of state), and I’m even more excited to be a part of their wedding day! I spent the afternoon touring the grounds with them in preparation of their wedding photography – discovering areas to shoot their formal wedding photographs and to get an overall feeling for the schedule of their wedding day.
The events coordinator, Carmen, has been a part of Belhurst for over 20 years and she was extremely helpful at answering Sarah and Brian’s wedding-day questions and putting them both at ease. Part of the stress of planning a wedding is answering the question, “Who’s going to do what – when?”. Belhurst’s attention to detail and customer-oriented approach is exceptional, putting any wedding-day jitters to rest and reassuring the wedding couple that every detail is masterfully and thoughtfully taken care of.
The possibilities for wedding photography on the grounds of the Belhurst Castle are more or less limitless; it really depends what style of wedding photography the bride and groom gravitate toward. For Sarah and Brian, I’m going to concentrate on edgy, sexy, fashion-inspired wedding photography with a look similar to that in a high-end magazine spread. We even discussed some ways of shooting the formal and bridal party wedding photographs in unique and different ways to really punctuate the desire for artistic and truly original photographs.
I brought my camera along and took a dozen or so photos while walking around the Belhurst grounds, talking about the wedding day in general and specifically the wedding photography. I’ve included a few of my favorite photographs below (I really like the photograph of Brian looking out at Geneva Lake and the photograph of Sarah silhouetted while standing next to the wrought-iron door inside the Belhurst Castle).
Two Beautiful Rochester Weddings
Well, it’s officially been over two months since my last blog post, and so much has happened I don’t even know where to begin. I’ve been extremely busy with my wedding photography, school, and life in general.
Last week I returned to Salmon Creek to photograph the wedding of Rose and Jeremy Norred! On October 11, 2008 – Rose and Jeremy were blessed with absolutely perfect autumn weather complete with royal blue skies and warm, 70-degree weather. Their wedding was held outdoors on the grounds of the Salmon Creek C.C. with the reception being held at the same location.
The early-evening fall light was absolutely picture-perfect! With the sun hanging low in the sky and a lush, green canvas to photograph the formal wedding photographs against, it was truly a wonderful time all around. :)
My day began early in the morning, traveling from Rochester to Brockport to photograph wedding preparation photos of the bride. I spent a few hours at Rose’s house, photographing everything from the wedding party getting ready to Rose and her family applying make-up, before riding over in the limo to Salmon Creek. I was especially excited to use a new 85mm, 1.8f lens I purchased a week or so before the wedding, and I couldn’t have been happier with the results.
That new lens affords me the possibility of shooting weddings in very low lighting conditions, such as churches, chapels, and dim wedding reception halls; however, I’m able to maintain a very high shutter speed (resulting in crisper images).
The pre-ceremony and formal wedding photos were my favorite out of the day’s worth of shooting, in which I ended up with over 2,500 photographs between me and my colleague, who was instrumental in helping document such a magnificent wedding day. But, the best part for me is hearing about how satisfied clients are when the see their photographs. That’s worth every second I spend with my camera and my eye behind the lens – when a client writes and tells me just how happy I’ve made them. :)
On September 27, I photographed Tami & Joel Hebert’s wedding in Hamlin, NY which is just outside of Rochester. It was a beautiful fall day with the wedding ceremony being held at St. John Lutheran Church and the reception following at the Salmon Creek C.C. After shooting a few wedding formal pictures at the church, we made a quick stop for more formal wedding photographs at the Adams Basin Inn right alongside the Erie Canal.
The Inn is absolutely gorgeous and perfect for outside weddings (for those of you looking for your future wedding). The innkeepers were extremely friendly and very accommodating. :)
Salmon Creek C.C. is barely a minute down the road, which made for a quick drive to the reception where the real fun began! ;)
I had an amazing time photographing Tami and Joel’s wedding; Tami’s such a special lady and Joel is a really nice guy too – they truly are a wonderful couple and I’m honored to have been a part of their special day.
Mobile Rochester Wedding Photographs.
I had to get up early this morning and participate in the community walk around for the home owner’s association that I’m a board member of. Basically, we had to walk around for 3 hours and make sure owner’s were taking care of their homes. After we completed the walk around, it started raining. And, it rained pretty much the rest of the day – washing out any chance of outside yard work. :(
I ended up puttering around the house, not really focused on any one thing. I was pretty drained both mentally and physically from the 3 hour walk around. I don’t like feeling that way because it is as though I’m being unproductive.
It was an early night for me, ending up going to sleep around 10pm – falling asleep to “Who Killed the Electric Car.” I think I got about 33 seconds into the film before waking up the next morning. :) I watched part of it at work on Friday, which led me to purchase the movie on iTunes Saturday afternoon.
Man, I love my iPhone. I was able to download the movie for $10, transfer it to my phone, and watch the movie on my TV via my phone. That – is pretty cool. :)
I also keep a selection of my most recent wedding photographs on my iPhone so I always have them to show whenever people are interested in hiring me as their wedding photographer. People in Rochester, NY and Upstate, New York are really nice to work with, and photographing weddings in Rochester is a lot of fun too! I really enjoy meeting with new people and photographing their weddings! :)
Lots of Wedding Photography!
Ooooooo, Friday the 13th!
I decided to spend some time at Starbucks just down the road to work on some school things and to just change my scenery for a few hours. I spent about 2 hours there transcribing journal entries and just clearing my mind of the chatter from the past week.
I’m not sure what the meditation process is, though I’m excited to learn about it in forth coming chapters from my stress class. I wonder if writing can be a form of meditation, specifically free-form writing where one just writes his or her thoughts down as they flow from his or her mind through the veins, reaching the fingertips as they strike the keys on a keyboard.
I do find that leading up to writing, if it’s something that’s been assigned to me, I am hesitant, I feel pressured much I am at work to produce creative works. I’m much more relaxed writing at my own pace, when I am not congested with racing thoughts or consumed by deadlines. I’m also much more productive as well.
This weekend, I need to work on a wedding photography proposal for a high school friend of mine who sent me an inquiry about shooting her wedding photos in 2010! I also talked to the ex-husband of an old acquaintance of mine; he is getting married in August and is looking for a wedding photographer. I offered him my card and drafted a few different wedding photography package options. I’m also getting ready to sign a contract to do some family portraits in July 5 – it’s gearing up to be a busy but productive summer! :)
I’ve also recently implemented my strategy for accepting credit cards and I’m excited to start offering that service to customers! :)
Finger Lakes Wedding Photography – James & Luba
Congratulations to James and Luba Mason on their marriage May 31, 2008!
I had the pleasure of photographing their wedding on Keuka Lake in Upstate New York this past weekend, along with my good friend Craig. It was a beautiful wedding with the ceremony taking place at Garrett Memorial Chapel and reception at the Esperanza Mansion – a truly remarkable setting for a gorgeous wedding couple.
Here are a few of my favourite images. Enjoy!
