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Tag Archives: Mass. wedding photography

William and Anisha – Massachusetts wedding photography

June 13, 2011 – 11:40 am

Wanting to post these photos before they get stale – but seem to be at a lot for words. Instead, I’ll just fire a few random thoughts:
The location was the Seaport Hotel at Boston’s World Trade Center – in a word fabulous! Beautiful facility, gourmet food, a staff that went beyond helpful and an event coordinator that defined professional. Don’t know what it costs, but check it out if you’re getting married. Here’s a link to the hotel.
The only thing that outstripped the facility was the couple! William and Anisha are truly an incredible couple. Quiet, understated, elegant.
A totally unexpected moment – Anisha who is part Indian, was given a Mangalsutra during the ceremony. She had no idea it was coming. The Mangalsutra is a necklace worn by Hindu women as a symbol of their marital status – the Eastern equivalent to a wedding ring. She had no idea she would get one – what a wonderful surprise.
So the bottom line is the wedding was wonderful – I left for the drive back to New Hampshire knowing I’d made a bunch of new friends and some pretty good photos as well.
Here’s a few from the day.

[caption id="attachment_1021" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="The Mangalsutra necklace."][/caption]

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Anvi and Augustine – Mass. engagement photography

May 21, 2011 – 9:06 pm

Boston Public Garden – a beautiful spot but tough for an engagement shoot. Why? Well, the list is long, but the big two are parking ( or lack of) and crowds.

Originally when Anvi, Augustine and I had talked about an engagement shoot we were looking at a few parks outside of Boston. Later Anvi asked if we could go to the public gardens.  I mentioned the problems but she clearly wanted to go to the gardens…and after all its her wedding. OK, we’ll do the gardens.

I drove down to find that there was an accident tying up traffic on Storrow Drive – the backup was all the way to beyond the bridge leading into the city. Chose an alternate route ( even though I knew I’d lose my GPS signal in the O’Neill tunnel) – came through the tunnel, driving blind with no satellite signal, made a few guesses and about the time I acquired a signal I was in front of the public gardens…still not sure how I did that.

Most of the meters were bagged – a film crew was working in the area – and the car was overheating. Not feeling good about this at all! Circled the gardens a couple of times, finally snagged a parking place, grabbed my gear and sprinted to the meeting spot. Anvi and Augustine were late…they had to deal with the same lack of parking, but we connected and off we went.

Its funny how I can be a little down about things – but that all goes away when the shooting starts. Ok, for all you “hate-to-get-out-of-bed and go to work people, all the can’t wait till the week’s over folks…I really can’t relate. The fact is I love what I do. Yeah, I know – I’m really lucky! But I digress.

Dealt with the crowds – they really weren’t as bad as they could have been, think the possible rain kept some away. Anvi and Augustine were a joy to work with – we knew we were running just ahead of thunderstorms and shot a bunch till they hit. Spent 30 minutes or so under a bridge by the swan boats, talking, looking at photos in the back of the camera, then at it again as the storm passed. Having so much we even pushed the limit on the parking meters. Finally wrapped it up and parted excited to do the wedding. Can’t wait, what a neat couple!

Here’s a few photos from the shoot.

 

 

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Anisha and William – Mass engagement photography

May 1, 2011 – 10:08 am

Got a call from good friend and colleague Mark Morelli – a friend of his was getting married, was I interested. ” Sure, Mark, what’s the contact information?”  Ok, the fact is I’m not a big phone lover. I’ve never been good at small talk or schmoozing on the airways, much better at both in person. However,  two minutes into this call and I was hooked!

It quickly became apparent that Anisha was simply amazing. We talked like we had known each other all our lives – and I was ready to shoot her wedding before I had even met her!

Two weeks later and I met her and fiance William. Wow! We sat in their house, talked then went strolling around Chelsea – the waterfront along the river, the Tobin Bridge in the background, apple blossoms bloomed that day – it was all perfect. The more we talked, walked and shot, the more I came to feel like family to these two – their wedding is in a month – it will be hard to wait.

Here’s a few photos from our session.

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Zhen and John – Mass. engagement photos

January 25, 2011 – 9:38 pm

My usual deal is to include an engagement shoot as part of the wedding contract. Its a win-win situation. I get a chance to start a working relationship with a couple so I’m not trying to figure out what makes them tick at their wedding.

The couple gets used to being photographed and dealing with my personality. Additionally they get a start on a “family” album. So often couples have individual photographs but few of them together.

One of my wedding couples from this past year passed along my contact information to  Zhen and John. A few emails later and we agreed to meet in Gloucester to do an engagement shoot.
It was cold and windy – not cool, not chilly, but downright bone-crunching cold!
I had on my heavy winter jacket but Zhen and John were a couple of real troopers. They wore light sweaters, Zhen was wearing heels and scampering along the rocks better than I was! We shot at a few locations along the ocean, occasionally getting away from the water to hide from the relentless wind.
These are two people who are absolutely nuts about each other – heck, they did all the work – I just documented their total love for each other. At the end there were three pretty frozen but satisfied people ~ we all had had a great time on the shoot. The light was pretty flat and overcast but some post processing work added snap to the photos. I have to say that of everything we shot, my personal favorite was when Zhen jumped up on a stone, suddenly being taller that John and gave him a great big kiss in front of this beautiful stone wall of a building.
I processed it two ways – as a straight black and white and as a sepia tone.
Jump in here – what way do you like it better? Comments welcome!

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Lisa and Joe – NH engagement photography

May 11, 2010 – 4:43 pm

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.

By Jay | Posted in esession, portraits, Uncategorized, wedding photography | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Cody and Ryan – MA. engagement photography

May 5, 2010 – 6:36 pm

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.

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Shelby and Mark – Ma. engagement photos

April 28, 2010 – 10:07 am

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.

By Jay | Posted in esession, portraits, wedding photography | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (6)

Deena and Sean – Mass. engagement photography

April 21, 2010 – 3:28 pm

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.

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Nicole and Joe – Mass. wedding photography

March 27, 2010 – 7:36 pm

I shot Nicole and Joe’s wedding in late February – what a splendid time! The wedding ceremony was in the Acadaemy of Notre Dame where Nicole went to school – a former monastery turned into school – you could feel the history in the hallways. Then off to the Andover Country Club for the reception, with a major surprise on the way. The wedding party was in a bus in front of me and as we came down an exit ramp I spotted a car in the median strip with flames coming from the rear wheel. Nicole’s dad spotted it to because the bus stopped and a tuxedo-clad father of the bride came running out with a fire extinguisher in hand. He’s a professional firefighter and duty took over.

Can you imagine a guy in a tux fighting a fire?!

After putting it out, he cautioned the occupants to stay clear of the car until the fire department arrived, then looked at them and said, ” Sorry to run but I’ve got a wedding to get to!” And we were off to the reception. I swear, do this long enough and you’ll see the most amazing things!!!

The reception was great, not anti-climactic at all – I knew many of the guests from a wedding I had done in October, second shooting the wedding was good friend and colleague Roger Ramirez and shooting video was good friend and amazing video artist Sean Cusick … it was like old home week!

The only thing missing was a gentle snowfall – Oh well, I guess you can’t have everything.

And here are a couple of really nice photos from Roger:

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Racheal and Patrick – Mass. wedding photography

October 13, 2009 – 8:20 pm

Saturday was Racheal and Patrick’s wedding – the ceremony was in a Catholic Church in Massachusetts and the reception moved to the Pelham Inn in Pelham, NH. These were two huge Irish families – and all I can say is the Irish are no slouches when it comes to knowing how to party! After the couple’s first dance, there were never less than a hundred people on the dance floor – young, old, it didn’t matter – everyone was there to dance and celebrate.
An added treat for me was the presence of videographer Sean Cusick ( http://www.memoriesinhighdef.com ). It’s the second time I’ve worked with Sean and if you ever need a video guy, he’s the man. So often Video and still shooters are more focused on who owns what turf – to the detriment of the job at hand and the clients – but Sean is an absolute breath of fresh air to work with. Always aware of where I am, what angle I’m shooting…and never in my frame! I think its because we have such respect for the other’s craft that we work so well together. Additionally, Roger Ramirez ( http://www.chariotphoto.com) was there as a second shooter, so some serious photo/video work was happening!

By the time we reached the Pelham Inn, it was too dark to shoot the formals outside – and the temperature had dropped into the downright chilly zone, but Racheal and Patrick – both of whom are snowmobile enthusiasts – were psyched to venture out to the lighted gazebo for some photos – they were way beyond the frost setting in! We added a couple of small strobes to just fill the light a bit and came away with a cool portrait of the couple.

Here’s a few photos from a great day.

10-10-09 RACHEAL and PAT wedding 10-10-09 RACHEAL and PAT wedding 10-10-09 RACHEAL and PAT wedding 10-10-09 RACHEAL and PAT wedding 10-10-09 RACHEAL and PAT wedding 10-10-09 RACHEAL and PAT wedding 10-10-09 RACHEAL and PAT wedding 10-10-09 RACHEAL and PAT wedding

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