Blurbs from the life of a wedding photographer

Connecting with people and networking is so important. Every day there are opportunities that people pass by because they didn’t know they exist or didn’t know the right person at the right time. While taking Brian Lucier’s web design class at MassArt I saw an opportunity present itself to connect with my fellow classmates and further my business at the same time.

Halfway through the Summer term we all presented out design concepts in front of the class. We critiqued each others work and Brian showed us how to structure our pages. A recurring comment people got was “I want to see your face on the site!” or “Where is your headshot?”. *ding!*

I always arrive to early anyhow so I thought I could use that time more productively: offer inexpensive headshots to my fellow classmates.

Right away I got some responses to this (which I shot today) from Mark, a graphic designer, and Beth, who designs custom (and very awesome) stationary for all kinds of occasions.

Not only did I get to meet two cool classmates and see a little bit about what they do, but it opened new resources: custom wedding invitations and thank yous, and maybe some new graphics for my web page and business cards.

I know I’m a slacker about updating my page. But I’ve been on a roll lately. If you haven’t seen the new design and the 4 galleries I’ve added then you should definitely reload my page and see some of the awesome weddings I’ve been shooting lately. The gallery navigation has been moved to the right hand side of the page from the bottom if you’re having a hard time finding it.

Version 3 of the site is under progressive updates. I will be moving the gallery bar to the right hand side. I’ve already resized the background image spaces and added social media icons. I also plan on adding new galleries of the weddings now featured in my default background slideshow when you load the site. Exciting, I know =)

Hey fans, just wanted to point to my most recent album design. Kimberly Frattasio’s wedding was exciting to photograph. As much enjoyment as I get out of taking pictures at the event, I get really psyched when I get to produce an album for the happy couple. This album was no exception, I got to use a wide variety of images and new features of Adobe CS5 and Lightroom 3 to take my creativity to new limits. Here are the results.

In other news I plan to update my blog more often. A site redesign is pending. I’m working on Lisa O’Haire’s wedding pictures. As if that isn’t enough, I’ll be publishing a series of new articles on stuff that excites me in CS5 and Lightroom 3. Adobe, you are awesome!

Long time since I;ve updated my blog, it’s awful I know. I’ve been busy doing a lot of work, learning new ways to do things. Anyhow, to the point. I had the wonderful opportunity to shoot these three gals yesterday. They get their pictures taken every year for their mother’s birthday/mothers day, isn’t that so sweet? I was so excited while shooting since I could tell they were having fun and we were getting some great shots. When the models have fun, I do too!

Speaking of models. I had the distinctive pleasure of shooting a model/actress/dancer that had a role in the movie coming out “Bride Wars”. She warmed up to shooting very quickly.

I’ll be posting some other work I’ve been doing soon as well as some new Lightroom and Photoshop things.

Well, it’s new to me at least. The site is called Seim Effects. This site has a bunch of free actions that includes a little bit of everything: skin toners, time savers, glow effects, black and white conversions, water marking tools, etc. The lightroom section has brush presets which I haven’t really seen the need for yet. Most of the brush style work I tend to do in photoshop because it’s better than lightroom for that type of thing. The rest of his presets aren’t very many and mostly are just different versions of stuff I’ve already posted, not too exciting. However, the blog has some more useful videos tips and info so check it out by all means.

So I was asked by a friend the other day to help revive the old color slide film look for some of his father’s photographs. I rooted around the web for a while and found a great site: http://lifeindigitalfilm.blogspot.com/. His presets bring back the lovely films I used back when I processed film all the time like Kodak Tri-X 400 and TMAX, as well as some films I never used that much. He also has the aforementioned color slide presets on his page. Check it out if you’re a LR user and enjoyed using any of these films, I believe there’s 34 in one BW pack and a few more in the color slide pack.

Cheers to Presets Heaven for the headsup!

It certainly was a happy Halloween for Billy and Jillian, congratulations you two! I met them through Cake Connections in Abington.

I love it when I get to go to the rehearsal / dinner and meet everyone in a casual environment. They had a short rehearsal at the church and headed over to the Abington Depot afterwards. I got a sneak peak at the masks for the reception and met the bridal party, the brothers, cousins and parents. You guys are quite the lively bunch, but I suppose I figured that out as soon as I was contacted about a Halloween wedding.

I started shooting at Jillian’s mom’s house, getting the preparation shots, everyone excitedly waiting. This was my first wedding shooting with my lovely assistant LeeAnne, and I was quite happy to have an extra set of hands and camera coverage. After all, I can’t be in two places at once right? At her mom’s place there is a lovely tree in her backyard as you can see, gotta love the fall:

The United Church of Christ in Abington where their ceremony was held is exceptionally nice on the inside. I had been there after meeting with Jillian and Billy for the first time in order to get a feel of what it is like to shoot in there with the sun setting through the floor to ceiling windows. It produces some very dynamic images with the couples walking down the aisle, beams of light shining on them and highlighting their presence. I think it worked out pretty well, but I’ll let you be the judge:

I just want to take this space to thank the bride and groom as well as everyone else in the bridal party. I was very pleased with everyone’s smiles and keeping their heads up while walking down the aisle. As much as I love pictures of people looking at their feet, I think your pictures came out much better =) Speaking of feet, we had quite the choice of footwear didn’t we? The men sporting classic Chuck Taylors with the ladies in heels.

The reception was held at the Monponsett Inn in the large ballroom. I took some beautiful shots as the sun was setting by the gazebo and the water. But, I have to keep some things secret so you’ll just have to wait to see them. You won’t be disappointed Nobody was shy on the dance floor, or taking off and putting on the garter for that matter.

Now that’s just what every bride wants to see on her wedding night, right?

I certainly got my exercise at this one, over 2000 images to pore over for the next couple weeks.

Till next time!

Welcome to my new blog. Still working on making it pretty and usable. Bear with me while I learn how to use this

Evelina waiting for Ted to come outside before the wedding...

Evelina and Ted’s wedding last weekend was great. After going to the rehearsal party the day before I really felt like I got to know more of the people, and they got comfortable seeing me with a camera around them taking pictures. Hopefully I will get a chance to post some of the pictures soon, the came out wonderful. I used mainly black and white for their session which was nice for a change of pace from previous weddings. Not that I mind color, but I think there’s definitely a special feeling that can only happen with black and white.