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Tag Archives: Massachusetts

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]

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

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.

 

 

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

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.

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

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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Angela Ordained! – Mass. event photography

December 13, 2009 – 10:30 pm

Saturday afternoon I was on a road trip to Concord, Mass for the ordination of our good friend Angela Herrera. A short time after we landed in New Hampshire, Angela and Carlos and their two children came to Boston so Angela could attend Harvard Divinity School. They were good friends from our tenure in Salem, Oregon and it was a real treat to reconnect with them.

After almost three years, Angela was ordained as a Unitarian Universalist minister. It was so cool to hear speaker after speaker note the qualities that we had known about Angela since becoming friends almost 13 years ago. I sat in the balcony and felt like I had known a celebrity back when she was just a new Mom, part of a Mom’s group that I used to call the crunchy granola Moms. And now here she was – the focus of the beginning of her dreams. People came from Harvard, from Concord and Salem, ( both Mass and  Oregon )to witness and share the moment.Carlos was almost floating with pride that his wife had accomplished this milestone.

The most powerful part for me came when the entire community – friends, family, congregation, professors and mentors all put their hands on Angela in a show of community support that put chills down my spine.

And now Angela is Reverend Angela…and to think, I knew her when!

12-12-09 ANGELA HERRERA ORDINATION0010_2_4_tonemapped12-12-09 ANGELA HERRERA ORDINATION 12-12-09 ANGELA HERRERA ORDINATION 12-12-09 ANGELA HERRERA ORDINATION 12-12-09 ANGELA HERRERA ORDINATION

By Jay | Posted in Personal Project, photojournalism | Also tagged , | Comments (1)

Herrera family photos

December 17, 2008 – 12:01 am

When we moved to New Hampshire from Oregon – with a four year rest stop in Minnesota – we left some very close friends. One of them was the Herrera family. Angela and my wife were members of the “Cruncy Granola Moms” ( not their real name!) a group of young mothers who wanted to get together and talk about alternative ways to raise happy and healthy children.

They and an ever-growing number of other Moms would meet – the Dads were in charge of childcare those nights – monthly or more often.

We became very close friends of Angela and Carlos, our daughter and their’s were friends and it was one of the big losses when we left.

A year after we landed in New Hampshire, the Herrera’s came to Boston – a friendship renewed! When Angela called to see if I would do a family portrait this year, I was honored beyond belief. We had a great time wandering through the woods in Cambridge – and happened upon a set of abandoned railroad tracks which was the high point of the shoot. Here’s a few photos from the shoot.

By Jay | Posted in portraits | Also tagged , , | Comments (1)