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Lisa and Joe – NH engagement photography

The forecast was for rain – cold, windy rain – and the plan was to do the engagement shoot at Plum Island next to Newburyport, MA.

Emails back and forth for three days leading up to the shoot – and finally at 8:30 that morning Lisa said, “Let’s go for it, no matter what.”

Now that is my kind of bride! We met at the entrance to the island, I stowed my truck and the three of us headed for the beach, much of which was posted off limits because the plovers are nesting right now. That didn’t matter – there were so many choices for great places to shoot we could have stayed there forever.

The rain never materialized, the temperatures weren’t nearly as chilly as predicted – though it wasn’t t-shirt weather – and we had a great time.

The absolute moment came when Lisa and Joe kicked off their shoes and waded into the water…yep, next was two people screaming their heads off…it is the North Atlantic after all … and they came bursting back onto the beach. Sadly or smartly, I didn’t get the picture of the reaction. Call me a wimp if you want, but I had stayed on dry land! I’d like to think it was a smart move.

Here’s some photos from the session.

Cody and Ryan – MA. engagement photography

I do an engagement shoot as part of my wedding package – it gives us a good start on a working relationship, we get used to each other’s quirks and styles, and the fact is that most couples don’t have many pictures of themselves – lots of pictures of their partners, not many of them together. It’s a nice opportunity to get a start on a collection of “couples” pictures.

The conversation starts with defining a good place for the shoot – a place or environment that has some meaning. As a general rule, that’s a pretty easy process, but Cody and Ryan were stuck for ideas until they said, what about Wellesley College? Turns out Cody is a graduate and they spent part of their “dating” life in that environment.

What a great idea! The campus is beautiful. We hiked around the pond on campus – it was quite a trek since areas were still flooded from all the rains, then meandered through buildings and the chapel. One thing that struck me was nobody paid much attention to us as we shot here and there. Guess I’m not the first person to end up shooting portraits of a couple on the campus – we were as much a part of the landscape as the ivy-covered brick buildings.

Here’s a few photos from the day.

Shelby and Mark – Ma. engagement photos

The New England weather has been so topsy turvy this year – a mild fairly snowless winter, torrential rains and floods in early spring, then hot summer-like temperatures followed by cold, windy, drizzly late spring…those who think global climate change is a farce must have their heads stuck in the sand.

What’s that got to do with an engagement shoot? Well,  scheduling has been a nightmare – and I’ve totally given up on paying any attention to the weather forecasts!

Mark asked Shelby to marry him while the two were at Hampton Beach in New Hampshire, so it seemed a natural place to do their engagement photos.

Forecast, warm, overcast, occasional rain.

Reality, like a fall day – bright sky, chilly and windy!

Shelby was a trooper – she had a jacket but was committed to being in a short sleeved shirt for the photos…Both she and Mark gutted out the temperatures while I was pretty toasty in a sweatshirt and jacket! When all was done, most of the photos I was holding her jacket, she never turned blue from the cold and we had a great shoot.

Here’s a few from the day.

Deena and Sean – Mass. engagement photography

Deena and Sean are Massachusetts natives now living just outside Washington DC. When they decided to get married, the choice was pretty easy – back to Massachusetts. A few weeks ago they were back home for a visit and we took advantage of the time to do an engagement shoot. Given that they are baseball fans – and opening day was just a couple of days away, shooting around Fenway Park was a natural.

It was a perfect day – cool, breezy, and there was the feeling of baseball in the air – Spring in New England! An added bonus – good friend and Boston photographic legend Mark Morelli came along for the shoot. Mark is an exceptional Boston editorial photographer who I met when we were attending the Art Institute of Boston’s MFA program.

Not all the following photos are from Fenway – after the area around the park we wandered through the victory gardens and surrounding areas. The first photo, by the way, is Mark in front of the House of Blues.

Chris and Kim – NH engagement photography

Been sort of on the wagon from the blog lately – lots to catch up on, tons of pictures to share and other interesting items to pass on as well, so look for a spate of posts coming in the near future.
Not in any sort of chronological order of what’s been going on, let’s start with an engagement  shoot I did  with good friends Chris and Kim.
Chris is a former student of mine at McIntosh College – I met him in my second term of teaching in a location lighting course. We’ve remained close over time – he’s sent me a bunch of work and I’ve reciprocated likewise,  a few barbeques here and there, lots of phone calls answering photo questions. His specialty is motorcycle photography, he’s a fixture at New Hampshire Speedway – if you want some mega-cool photos of you and your bike, here’s a link to his website.
A lot of women have tried to domesticate Chris – Kim was the only one to succeed – she’s even gotten Chris out on the dance floor at a few weddings where we’ve both been there. If I hadn’t seen him dancing with my own eyes, well let’s just say I wouldn’t have believed it!
They’re getting married in October and in advance of their wedding we spent some time along the old mills in Newmarket shooting photos – here’s a few from our shoot.

Amanda and Scott – Mass. engagement photos

This morning I spent a  breathtakingly beautiful late fall morning – warm, reasonably dry, given a brief overnight shower, a gentle breeze -  with Amanda and Scott shooting engagement photos. The location was Willard Brook State Forest in Ashby, Mass and they couldn’t have chosen a more beautiful spot.

This is a couple who are clearly in touch with the environment -the fallen leaves on the moss covered rocks were as slick as ice and they scampered over them like mountain goats as we explored locations for photos. The mid July wedding will be at another spectacular location – Pat’s Peak Ski Area in Henniker, NH.

When I started to edit the photos, I decided to try another ShowIt slideshow – figured that I should try to remember how I did the first one. this time it took almost no time to produce the show so it was blog ready – I guess I remembered more than I gave myself credit for – and the fact is that the program really does make it doable…thanks again David Jay for making this great piece of software available!

So….here’s a slideshow of Amanda and Scott – can’t wait for their wedding!

Caitlin and Andrew – NH engagement photography

Last week I had my nose buried in the computer trying to catch up on a pile of pushed-to-the bottom-of-the-pile processing when the email alert sounded. Understand that I’ve made this sort of commitment to ignore the email for a while to get the work done, but my eyes are going buggy and – so much for the commitment – I open the email.

“Jay, I know its last second but could we do our engagement photos tomorrow or Saturday?”
I’m shooting a wedding Saturday but I’m dying to get behind the camera instead of the computer…and Friday promises to be just  more editing and processing.

Salvation!!!
You never really know until you start shooting, but Caitlin, a nuclear engineer, and Andrew, a police officer are about as comfortable in front of a camera as is possible. We met at the Great Bay Discovery Center late in the day and walked and shot until it was too dark to focus. We shot all over including going out into the marsh grass for some stunning photos – just keeping moving enough  to (almost) keep the mosquitoes at bay.
Fortunately for Andrew and I, Caitlin is a mosquito magnet – we had precious few bites to show for the adventure.10-2-09 CAITLIN AND ANDREW EXETER HEALTHCARE10-2-09 CAITLIN AND ANDREW EXETER HEALTHCARE10-2-09 CAITLIN AND ANDREW EXETER HEALTHCARE10-2-09 CAITLIN AND ANDREW EXETER HEALTHCARE10-2-09 CAITLIN AND ANDREW EXETER HEALTHCARE10-2-09 CAITLIN AND ANDREW EXETER HEALTHCARE10-2-09 CAITLIN AND ANDREW EXETER HEALTHCARE10-2-09 CAITLIN AND ANDREW EXETER HEALTHCARE10-2-09 CAITLIN AND ANDREW EXETER HEALTHCARE10-2-09 CAITLIN AND ANDREW EXETER HEALTHCARE

Joanna and Ryan – Maine wedding photography

News flash – it was raining in New Hampshire last Sunday. It seems like its been doing that a lot lately…and two engagement sessions scheduled to boot.

I called Joanna and Ryan – “What ‘cha want to do?” Not even a moment’s  hesitation – “Let’s shoot in the rain!” was the response, then ” The rain won’t hurt your camera, will it?”.

We met in Vaughn Woods State Park in Maine and had a great time. The light was pretty subdued ( almost nonexistent in the deep woods) so I used a small flash with a warming filter. Put the flash on a lightstand and remotely triggered it…instant late afternoon looking sun! We must have looked like quite a sight, wandering through the woods, pouring rain, slickers, rain boots, photo gear, laughing all the way! But it was raining pretty hard so there weren’t any others to either gawk or laugh at us.

As we emerged from the woods the rain turned torrential so we headed for a small picnic shelter to finish shooting.

Ok, so we all got a little muddy, but nobody slipped on the wet clay or went tumbling into the river, the camera equipment all still works and I’m thinking we ended up with some very fun photos – here’s a selection from the shoot.

6-14-09 JOANNA and RYAN6-14-09 JOANNA and RYAN6-14-09 JOANNA and RYAN6-14-09 JOANNA and RYAN6-14-09 JOANNA and RYAN6-14-09 JOANNA and RYAN6-14-09 JOANNA and RYAN6-14-09 JOANNA and RYAN6-14-09 JOANNA and RYAN6-14-09 JOANNA and RYAN

Ashley and Shaun – NH wedding photography

New Hampshire weather being as fickle as it is, Ashley, Shaun and I kept getting weathered out on our plans for an engagement shoot, but managed to squeeze it in short days before their wedding. We caught a beautiful day to meander around Portsmouth’s Prescott Park and the area around it. Highlight of the day was a boat of fisherman watching the shoot and yelling their congratulations to the couple.

The advantage to doing it so close to the actual wedding day – it was a great way to relieve the stress that builds as the date approaches. 6-2-09 ASHLEY and SHAUN6-2-09 ASHLEY and SHAUN6-2-09 ASHLEY and SHAUN6-2-09 ASHLEY and SHAUN6-2-09 ASHLEY and SHAUN6-2-09 ASHLEY and SHAUN6-2-09 ASHLEY and SHAUN

Katie and Nate – NH wedding photographer

I met Katie at the vet where I take my dog. Sid ( the dog) was a cute puppy in for his first set of shots and Katie was swept away! We talked and when I found out that she had a boyfriend, I popped the question: ” Are you guys thinking about getting married? Do you have a photographer? Here let me give you a card and a CD of samples.”

Months later – and a few trips to the vet for more shots and the like, I got an email from Katie. “Nate ( finally) asked me to marry him – we’re getting married in the fall – will you be our photographer!”

So the other day I finally met Nate and the three ( I left Sid at home) of us wandered around Newmarket shooting engagement photos. Katie is a natural – should she change carrers, she could easily model and it didn’t take Nate long to warm to the process. We had a great time…now I can’t wait till their wedding.

Here’s a few photos from the shoot.6-4-09 KATIE and NATE6-4-09 KATIE and NATE6-4-09 KATIE and NATE6-4-09 KATIE and NATE6-4-09 KATIE and NATE6-4-09 KATIE and NATE6-4-09 KATIE and NATE6-4-09 KATIE and NATE