Dance Photos in NYC

As usual, there's a backstory to every shoot.  Months ago I wanted to setup a shoot with dancers to do something creative.  Just a personal project.  I spent the time thinking through all the logistics and concepts, did lots of planning, set a date and - it rained.  Ugh.  

Fast forward a couple months and I thought I wanted to pick up where I left off but it was very last minute and none of the original team was available.  Fine!  I still want to do it so I'm going to post something online to see what I can put together.  Lucky for me, Erke answered my casting call and Alexa was available to help with make-up - and boom.

I started with headshots.  We only took a few because we were limited on time and I really wanted to see this girl jump.  I was NOT disappointed.  I picked this location from suggestion from another photographer and it was perfect.  It has all the elements I wanted: interesting but not too busy, very NYC but not something you see all the time and open shade which is so much easier to work with.

Dance Shoot Crew:

Model: Erke
MUA: Alexa
Assistant: Tom Spota

Amanda + James

​Even though this wedding was last August, its still pretty clear in my mind.  This couple was probably the most casual about rules and tradition that I've seen in my time shooting weddings.  They weren't concerned about hanging out together when getting ready for the day.  They were however concerned about having friends and family around to share in their day. 

Amanda and James had fun.  All day.  They also showed such sincere engagement toward each other.  Starting with some hair and make-up, we shot in a small hotel room with lots of activit.  This was a favorite of mine.  A little set-up but you'd never know - oops, I guess I just spilled it.

I also love grabbing details of things that are around the room like a shot of the bags on the couch.​

All love on this face as she stared at her soon to be husband during the ceremony...​

​There were also some pretty cute little ones on the dance floor later that night...

This last one here was at the end of the night with them going strong...​

Nicole + Ryan

I met Nicole and Ryan on their wedding day when I was asked by Dan (a fellow photographer) to help cover the event. Dan and I joined Nicole, her mother, and the bridesmaids in the bridal suite to capture some details (shoes, dress, hair & make-up, etc.).  Nicole seemed so at ease as she sat for the finishing touches on her hair. Being surrounded by such close friends and family helped, I'm sure.  One of the favorites from the morning was this one of her making sure all was good through her compact mirror. 

 

I only stayed for a few minutes with the girls then drove to get some time with the groom for his preparations. Once I rounded the corner to the grooms parents' house, I knew I was in trouble because I noticed the party bus had already arrived.  My first thought is that I had very limited time to get what I needed.  As I entered the house, I said hello to Ryan and asked how much time we had.  He said, "About 10 minutes.  Is that enough?'"  Sure :-)  We can make that happen.  We set up a couple scenarios. Snap, snap, snap and they were on their way.

When I got to the church, I had a quick look around and saw great opportunities to get some interesting perspectives during the ceremony.  They had a balcony in the back and on either side of the church.  I was able to roam about to get images from unexpected vantage points. 

 

Next, we're off to Jersey City for the reception at The Liberty House.  I quickly moved around to capture the setup of the food and decor.  Here are a couple of my favorites... 

 

This day was one of the hottest of the summer, so we were fortunate that most of our shooting was indoors; however, we did get outside for some of the formals.  With such a nice backdrop of the NYC skyline, we took the opportunity to work it into the shot. The girls were particularly silly which I loved.  

The rest of the night was focused on capturing people having fun.  No problem at this wedding!  They had a great band called Night Moves which were fantastic, especially when the bride joined in toward the end of the evening to lead a Billy Joel cover.

 

Marian & Antwan's Wedding

As a follow-up to my previous post for the wedding of Marian & Antwan I wanted to put together an album layout from the images captured as a second shooter.  It doesn't give you the entire flow since my role is to help the primary shooter get what he needs.  There were however, a few opportunities for me to capture images and what I'm posting here is a result of those moments.  I picked out a few of my favorites to give you a sense of how I experienced the event from start to end.

 

I arrived in the morning with the task of shooting the groom getting ready.  Uh, didn't work out exactly because they were already ready!  Hmm...go with it, right?  So, we shot a variety of shots with the guys in the house where they were getting ready.  There was a really cute little boy that I wanted to feature.  The image below is the result.  I also shot some reflection off the party bus as the guys were waiting to jump in.  Kind of different.

Guys prep

This was a Egyptian couple and the church had some interesting detail.  By the way, I was really thrown when people were chanting in the ceremony.  Everyone has their traditions and it's interesting to be an outside observer.  Just wish I had some audio to share with you to give you a sense of how it sounded.

Church Detail

Bride & Bridal Party

Since the priest was running a few minutes late, I was lucky enough to get a few minutes with the bride to shoot a couple images.  She was beaming on her special day and is as nice in person as she appears to be in pictures.

Bridal PartyCeremony

A couple shots of the bridal party and a quick capture of the bride and groom during the ceremony.

Just Married

This shot of Marian & Antwan just after they exited the church is one of my favorites.

Reception Details

First Dance

Finally, a few of the first dance as bride and groom and the dance with their parents.  Congrats guys!  This was the first time I worked with Mike and his crew, and they were such a nice bunch of guys.  Two were shooting video and we all had fun working this event.  I'd love to work with them again.