Ok, no other explanation, cabin fever, I had to do something….

(Apple Quicktime movie)

You can also find this on our Facebook page if you don’t have Quicktime

Oh, and it’s snowing again now….

Here’s just a couple of quick shots from a recent engagement session we did. After a few weeks of trying to get the weather to cooperate Raquel, Nicholas and I decided that we were just going to to brave the elements and have some fun and do their engagement session. It was a beautiful day…except for the wind! The wind wasn’t our friend but we managed to make it work as we toured around downtown Middletown and did some shooting and got to know each other a little bit better.

Couples who have worked with me knows how important I feel that an engagement session is. It is a chance to get to know each other so that on your wedding day it isn’t the first time you have had me pointing a camera at you. As a wedding photographer we are asking for special access on a very important day and it is much easier if we have developed a strong relationship with our clients and sessions like this go a long way toward that goal.

Thanks again Raquel and Nicholas!

Just a quick post today about an event that I had a chance to participate in yesterday. For those that have followed the blog for a while you know how important that education is to me. I am always trying to learn more so that I can better serve my clients. Last month while attending another photography event I was asked if I would give a talk to the NYC SmugMug User Group (SMUG) during their monthly meet-up at B&H Event Space. I happily accepted because it is a chance to share some of what I know with the rest of the photographic community and a chance to make some new friends. I have been fortunate that other photographers have shared and continue to share their knowledge with me so it was an easy way to pay it forward. We had a great turnout and spent a couple of hours talking about equipment, such as Radiopoppers, and other various little gadgets that help me to do what I do. Hopefully everyone that attended had as much fun as I did. If you were one of the attendees and have any feedback for me please feel free to drop me a note via the contact page or add a comment to the post. Click for larger image. Thanks  Rob Munroe for the tweet and the picture!

Thanks SMUG for the invitation to share and thank you B&H for their generous use of your Event Space!

First of all, congratulations to all the Valentine’s Day engagement brides! If you were one we’d love to hear your story. You never know, we might have something special for you too!

Here we are more than halfway through February and as you can see, the blog has been barren. I am glad that my New Year’s resolution wasn’t tied to the blog…

Resolutions aside, we are going to get back on track here. With all the various social media such as Facebook, Twitter and the like it can bet tough to decide which one gets the attention. And when you do a short Twitter burst you sometimes feel like you that doesn’t warrant a post. It can be crazy to keep it all straight but we are going to work better to do that. We are also going to start adding more more little tips and things to consider to help add value to your photography dollar. The economy has been tight lately and we want to help provide the best value we can for our clients. And with 2010 booking up quickly and 2011 inquiries rolling in we should probably get things rolling. So here we go!

Today I want to post a link to a sunrise/sunset calendar. One of the things that, as a photographer, we often have to take into account when planning your session is the location and time of day, especially when it comes to wedding photography where we often don’t have a lot of extra time to be setting up elaborate lighting and we may cover two or three locations throughout the day. One of the first things I do when I get a wedding inquiry is to look at the date and time of the ceremony and do a quick guesstimate of how much time we might have for any outdoor photographs. The summer months are usually not much of an issue but in the beginning and at the end of the year this is one of those little items that can sneak up on you if you aren’t careful. Let’s say you want to do some outdoor photographs to capture the scenic venue you have selected and your ceremony is around 5pm. Well that shouldn’t be too much of a problem if your wedding is in July, but if you are getting married in November or December it is a bit of a different situation as the sun may be down before your ceremony is over. That’s not to say that there aren’t ways of capturing the beauty of that venue after the sun has set, but it may be different than you had been envisioning and it’s certainly worth discussing with your wedding photographer. Here is a link where you can take a peek at some of those sunset times. www.sunrisesunset.com