I've worked with Erke multiple times and when you see the results, you understand why.
We did this shoot in Dumbo which is a very popular place to shoot since it provides this kind of scenic background. This happened to be a very cold day but Erke was unfazed by the temperatures.
Until next time - and I'm confident there will be one...
I was hired by a company representing the WTC Netherlands Alliance Magazine to photograph Marloes, a Dutch lawyer from Amsterdam, currently living in NYC and working for E&Y. We took a variety of shots starting with these...
As I'm sure you can tell, we spent our time together in Time Square. This felt like the best setting for her since she's showcasing her time in NYC and to non-New Yorker's, what's more characteristic of NYC than Time Square?
I was thrilled to see that a few of these images made it to the WTC Netherlands Magazine. Thanks to Frank van Bergen from ASEGA Media for finding me for this gig and to Marloes for taking some time out of her busy day to capture the snapshot of what her life is like now in NYC.
World Trade Center Netherlands Alliance Magazine #6 - TOC
World Trade Center Netherlands Alliance Magazine #6 - Full Article
A company that I've worked with before, Mastiff LLC, called on me again for photos of a new employee, Bryan. He interned with them before and now he's been hired on as a full-time employee.
We went to nearby City Hall Park to grab some photos while the weather was still warm. Later, we joined the others for some group images near the office. Love the repeat business and look forward to working with this group again soon.
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.
I consider Debbie to be a great friend and client as well. Debbie is the CEO of Stride and had an upcoming speaking engagement. She needed updated images for her website and to give to event organizers so we met up in the city to capture these images. Fortunately, we had a nice day in the city to shoot. We walked around for about 30 minutes and stopped at a few locations I scoped out prior to us meeting. Here are a couple favorites of mine.
Late fall in NJ can be a great time to shoot outdoor. On this day we had some nice cloudy weather that most photographers love.
With some research, I found a location within the Great Swamp that worked great for Nick & Nirali's family shoot. We had this cute family walk a bit and huddle in for a few poses.
A few images I liked from a little more walking around the grounds.
Some individual shots of the kids. The older children were a little more willing to step out on their own. For the youngest, mama had to tag along for that shot.
Rupa has become a good friend and valuable business contact over the past couple years. She owns Bottle & Bottega in Berkeley Heights, NJ and she recently asked me to snap some photos of her young family.
I was fortunate enough to have this great location picked out by her. It has all the qualities that I look for as a photographer: great light (open shade), nice scenery that's not distracting, limited number of people around. This had all those things.
Given that it was a little chilly outside and we're working with small children, we moved quick and tried to keep things interesting to keep the energy high and positive to get some great smiles like I got here.
Cute family. Lots of fun.
Something that I think every business strives for is repeat work. It strengthens the relationship and helps to solidify that you’re a good match with that client. With Stride, and more specifically Debbie Madden, I’ve been working with her on creative projects for a few years now. She’s been growing her business and has some new hires that needed headshots so they called me to do the shoot.
Lucille is the Head of Talent at Stride and comes from the General Assembly and Google most recently. Here are some favorites from our session around the streets of NYC.
Lisa is also new to Stride and is the VP of Engineering. She’s worked with Debbie prior to Stride at Cyrus and comes from London where she worked for The Guardian. She told me she had one headshot from that time that worked for all occasions and didn’t fancy being in front of the camera but got comfortable quickly after some initial shots.
I look forward to continued interactions with this great group of people.
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I received a call from Michele a couple weeks back and she knew of me from an event I shot at Bottle & Bottega in the summer. She and her fiancé were planning a civil ceremony in a town close to where I live. I was happy accommodate them and be one of the 5 select people at this event.
I stopped by the courthouse the day before and was initially a little concerned. The parking lot and the courthouse weren’t going to make for very interesting images. I started to wander around the neighborhood a bit and pretty quickly discovered this really nice park right next door. Yay! It had plenty for me to work with and I mapped out a path of things we could walk through in a short period of time.
After our quick shoot in the park, we walked over to the courthouse. There were two other couples waiting to be married but Michele & John were first. The judge was pretty funny. His name was Mr. Fullylove - and he joked about how appropriate his name was for his purpose in the days events.
Ten minutes later, Michele and John were married! Congratulations to you both!
I've been using a new service called Thumbtack to obtain business. So far, so good. The way it works is that a person in need of a professional service, like photography perhaps, would post a request for...oh, I don't know - headshots let's say. As a service provider of said headshots, I have the opportunity to bid on the request. If the requester likes the quote and my profile, they can respond and offer me the gig. Amy did just that.
Amy's an actor in NYC and her agency wanted some new headshots done for her portfolio. There were some pretty specific things they were after so we focused on that first and then did some other things to play a bit later in the shoot.
I called on Nicole, a makeup artist I'd worked with in the past. She's great! Very reliable, does great work and is always willing to help with more than make-up duty.
We started with a variety of colors and tops on black since part of the requirement was to get some clean shots of Amy with this variety. These are some of my favorites.
Whenever I do headshots, I like to get some that probably lean more toward beauty shots vs. a traditional headshot. Here are a few that I liked of that set.
One of the fist things Amy mentioned to me when I met her in person is that she is challenged with *not* smiling. I had to stop and think about that for a minute since I would say its much more common for people to struggle with having a nice, natural smile on camera. Sounded like a challenge to me to come away with at least a few for her that she was a bit more serious. As you can see from the featured image in the set above, she nailed it. She even knew of a technique that I believe Peter Hurley invented called the "squinch". Essentially its 'squinting your eye lids in a way that portrays confidence'. We had fun playing with the look.
We then moved onto another location. The set of three above are actually shot in natural light (which I don't tend to do very often). I've shot in this location before and really like the options it gives you as an artist.
Only a few feet away from the previous set with Amy sitting on the bench, there was a post I had her stand near for a few images with a blazer and a set of glasses. Again, with the goal of giving the agency some options with making Amy more marketable.
Finally, a few from the same location as the blazer but with just the green top and a bit more casual. It was a real pleasure working with Amy for the first time. She is as nice and down-to-earth as she is beautiful. As the shoot went on, she also provided laughs "on the set". I'll leave you with a few silly faces that came through in the session that got us all laughing.
Ralph reached out to me through Facebook and asked if I could help him put together a set of images that would look different than other classmates with a city setting. I've recently become more familiar with SOHO and opted for that area to shoot in. As it turns out, it fits well with Ralph's other interest which is fashion. He has a blog that he keeps on the subject.
We started with a colorful setting in front of a door and wall that has graffiti and some kind of paper mâché.
To add to the NYC feel, I had him head down the subway stairs and then stop for a break in the Vive la crepe for something to drink.
We finished with a stroll down the cobble stone street and then to some more formal shots.
Thanks Ralph for letting me show you around SOHO. We definitely captured the urban vibe of NYC.
I liked this location so much that I had to go again. I had a day off recently and organized a shoot with Aneta which, as it turns out, is from Prague and visiting with her boyfriend for the summer. Glad I caught her why she was here in NYC.
Helping out, in more ways than one was Seqoiya, the MUA that operates under Pure Glamour. She was great and helped with both hair and make-up and also helped with some lighting too.
I scouted out the next location but it was a little further than I wanted to go. I came across these stairs and knew I had found our next spot. It's a little funny (now) how long it took to get these shots with all the time we spent waiting for people to clear the stairs.
Recently, I photographed the wedding of Erin + Brian with a good friend of mine, Erin. No, that wasn't a typo. Two Erin's.
I started with the groom and his family. We grabbed of shots of the family and I also had the pleasure of coming up with some shots of the rings. Although I've received mixed reviews (you know who you are), I happen to like this one and when I showed it to the groom he seemed to like it too.
These images were from two different times in the day, but both of the grooms side. I wanted to do something a little different with the groom at the table. They had a suite at the hotel so it provided me with the decoration for the rings and this great table for the groom.
Finally, some images of the church, the newly married bride and groom and some refreshments from the cocktail hour.
I'm feeling like its time for a drink, you?
Shefali and Neil were introduced to me through a former co-worker and friend. I was asked to capture their proposal. It's hard to believe that was almost six months ago.
Shortly after, we scheduled a date to shoot the engagement. We set a date - then had to move it. We set another date and got to the venue only to realize that none of us had read the "Hours of Operation" very well - it was closed when we arrived. Rescheduled again. Then, rain. Yikes! It really shows the character of this couple as they remained determined and flexible. As you can likely guess, our determination paid off. Yea!
We met last Friday at a place called the Grounds For Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ. It's about an hour's drive for each of us and we arrived around 7:00pm, after work, ready to shoot. We strolled into the park to find our first setting.
We were off to a good start. There were so many great places to shoot here, it made it easy to grab a couple of Shefali looking stunning and a nice image of Neil in his formal attire.
Here's one that had such a great setting with trees on either side...
Neil was looking for some camera time here...
Some playfulness...
And one more of Shefali..
Congratulations guys! I wish you all the best on your wedding day which is fast approaching! August 11th.
