Once again, the busy summer got the best of me and I am a few months late to posting but I had to share some photos from Alex and Paul’s engagement session which we did earlier this summer. Since I will be photographing their wedding next year, we wanted to do an engagement session so that they had photos for their save the date cards and so we could work together before the big day. We decided on Ringwood State Park for a location and we ended up having good weather all day, with some great lighting to have fun and get creative with. Alex has her own jewelry business so she made this beautiful engagement ring herself and she is also making the rings for the wedding along with some other custom pieces for the wedding party, which is am beyond excited to photograph! I just upgraded to the Canon RF 100mm 2.8 macro lens for my Canon R5 and I am very impressed with the image quality in Macro mode for ring shots. This was my first session using this new lens and I am looking forward to having this be a regular lens in my arsenal. Can’t wait for the rest of the sessions that I have lined up for the remainder of the year and I hope everyone is having a great summer!
Veronika and Kyle had a beautiful courthouse wedding this summer and I was so happy that they chose me as their photographer for the day. Having worked together for their engagement photos, I had a great idea about what they were looking for and knew that we already worked so well together.
The weather was looking iffy so I spent the afternoon the day before scoping out some spots we could hopefully go for a quick portrait session before the rain started. We started at the Mahwah courthouse and did our family portraits right outside as soon as that was over. While their families headed to the restaurant they had picked out for a celebration dinner, the 3 of us went to the spot I had picked out for portraits. We had nice flat lighting thanks to the overcast sky and they were both on cloud nine. Those emotions truly showed in their photos. We wrapped up just as the rain started falling so the timing could not have been better.
What a year it has been! I have a few more posts that I will work on for the rest of my sessions to round out 2023 so please come back soon. Thank you for reading and I hope everyone is having a great fall season!
There is something so special about photographing a proposal; the genuine reactions of everyone, the romantic atmosphere, and being able to enjoy and celebrate such a special moment and share that with my clients. When I got the call that Joe was proposing to Alexa and they wanted me to be there to photograph, I was ecstatic. Her mom had a beautiful area set up outside by the pool with a sign, balloons, and chilled champagne waiting to be opened for the celebration. Alexa was so surprised and happy and her family were all so glad they they could be there to witness it and share that moment together. We got a very quick portrait session in while they were still reeling with excitement and I got some genuine emotion and reactions captured on camera that we were all so happy with. I feel so lucky to have friends and clients that trust me with capturing such a monumental day and I can always look back on shoots like these with joy. It has been a busy and eventful year, but I still have a few more posts left for the summer so please come back soon!
As I am booking weddings and events for 2023, I wanted to make a post about Amber & Connor’s amazing wedding at Maritime Parc in Jersey City, NJ from the end of last year. The couple did the ceremony in Mahwah, NJ at a friends house with a beautiful autumn backdrop and a handmade archway and decorations. Amber and the rest of the crew did an absolutely fantastic job putting it all together and we we were blessed with some great weather for the entire day.
After the ceremony, we headed to Maritime Parc for the reception and we were able to squeeze in a portrait session before dinner with a stunning sunset and city backdrop. It was great to be able to have a nature and city backdrop in the same day; something I often don’t have a chance to experience and shoot.
With both families being super fun, everyone laced up their dancing shoes and the good vibes and fun continued well into the night. What a special day and as always, I feel so lucky to have the best clients, many of whom have become friends as well over the years. I cannot wait for wedding season 2023 to start!
Well this year is certainly flying by. Last weekend was Jason and Eliza’s wedding at AURORA in Brooklyn and it was nice to have a city wedding as a change of pace from my last wedding at the beach. They did their first look at the William Vale hotel and we stopped for a quick portrait session at Domino Park before we got the venue for the ceremony. I was so excited when they told me the had rented a vintage taxi cab for photos since I have only had a few other couples do that and it always adds such a unique touch to the photos.
The food was incredible and included hand made pasta, fresh fish, and a mix of delicious desserts (my favorite being the chocolate cake with pistachio gelato). We had great weather all day and everyone ate and danced to their heart’s content. I am gearing up for my last wedding of the fall tomorrow and will be back soon with another blog post for that one. I hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful fall weather that we are having!
Welcome back! I have been so busy this fall that I completely forgot to make a post about Carolynn and Casey’s wedding from the end of the summer. They got married right on the water in Scituate, Massachusetts and we could not have had a more perfect day. The weather was great and they had a New England seafood boil with full lobsters and steamer clams for dinner. Not to mention some of the best clam chowder I have ever had at cocktail hour.
They also had their dog there for the ceremony, which I am always a fan of. It was nothing but good vibes and good food all day with music, corn hole, and of course a whole lot of love. We had a beautiful colorful sunset to end the day and the sky really put on a show for us. I have some editing to do for my fall weddings but check back soon for another post and gallery. Thanks!
I hope everyone had a great summer and is enjoying the nice cool temperatures we are getting in the Northeast as Fall approaches. I just finished having my website redesigned and am able to update this blog again. Last month I had an engagement shoot with some great clients at a local Botanical Garden.
We started an hour before sunset to give us more chances of finding shady spots with nice flat lighting. There were still some nice pockets of golden hour light, so it was perfect and I had plenty of options when editing afterwards. We had time for an outfit change and found some nice spots while making our way around the gardens to all of the locations I had planned out beforehand.
I mainly shot on the Canon 5DSR that I recently purchased and this was only the second time I have used it aside from a trip to Tennessee my wife and I took earlier in the summer. I am very impressed with the image quality on the 50MP sensor especially when cropping in post production. Since the ISO capabilities are where this new workhorse lacks, I always carry my Canon 5DIII with me as well. For this shoot I was using the Canon EF 70-200mm 2.8 and the Canon EF 24-70mm 2.8 for portraits. I always use my Canon 100mm 2.8 macro for the engagement ring shots. While I love my full-frame setup and have been using it for close to a decade now, I think I may have to switch to mirrorless for this upcoming wedding season. I have some more editing to do from recent weddings and events so check back soon for more. Thanks!
It was great to be back at Perona Farms the other weekend as Brittany and Johnny’s wedding photographer! My wife and I were married there back in 2019 in the barn as well, so I had plenty of spots in mind for portraits. Unfortunately, we had a very rainy day but that did not stop our couple and guests one little bit. Everyone was in the best mood all day and the wedding party and family were great to work with and very easy-going for group photos. The couple even had the same DJ as we did for our wedding, the always fantastic Danny C Entertainment. Danny had the dance floor full even before the first course came out; guests of all ages were out there having a blast. The bride and Groom’s son andrew stole the show on the dance floor as he was breaking it down with the rest of the kids and the adults alike. It was so great to have back-to-back wedding weekends again and I am looking forward to working with the rest of my couples for 2021 as we navigate through these times that have made events as a whole an uncertainty. I love being back out there with my gear and capturing these special moments that my client’s can treasure forever. Congratulations Brittany and Johnny and cheers to a happy and prosperous rest of 2021!
A huge shoutout to all of my couples who had weddings booked for 2020 and have had to reschedule; I am so glad that were able to find dates and work together this year! Last weekend I photographed Tom and Kylie’s Wedding at Minerals Resort in Vernon, NJ to kick off my first wedding of 2021. I have been to the venue in the past and had a great time as a guest, so I was excited to work there as a photographer as well and be on the other end of the lens. We got lucky with an overcast day for photos and a perfect temperature for an outdoor wedding. The spot we chose for first look had wisteria hanging from the lattice and ivy along the walls which made for some great photos, then we stopped at a few other spots for portraits before making our way back for the ceremony. We were able to get all of the bride and groom portraits, family, and group photos done before cocktail hour which is always the goal so the bride and groom can enjoy the rest of their evening while I swoon over the photos from the portrait session. Their band put on such a great show as well, coming out on the dance floor with the guests and showcasing the talented drummer with an awesome solo to kick off the night. I could not have asked for a better couple, venue, and group of family members and guests to work with. I am currently gearing up for another wedding this coming Sunday at Perona Farms, which happens to be where my wife and I got married so Holy nostalgia. Let the wedding season begin!
Last weekend I had the pleasure of capturing another couple’s engagement in New Jersey. Matt proposed to Chelsea at their home and had the entire deck decorated with a rose petal trail leading from the garage. He even had bandannas made for the dogs and put out all of their old cards from the years that he had saved. Guys, take notes! Seriously though, everything was perfect and the rain held off just long enough for us to get our photos in and even get some drone footage. Matt then had a surprise lunch at his and Chelsea’s favorite restaurant with all of their friends and families waiting so I hurried over there to get set up for group photos before she arrived. When you have love, friends, dogs, and good food, there’s really nothing that can go wrong. Here’s to the weather cooperating and to celebrating Matt and Chelsea! Congratulations guys!