about wedding photography in Massachusetts and Rhode Island

Limited Wedding Service – You can afford

For many new brides a full day of service, and a formal wedding album are not necessary. It could

be that this is a second wedding, or the service will be held at a nice restaurant, a resort setting or your home.

For someone to do a nice job photographing the service and to take creative well composed pictures of the families is all that is desired.

And as minimal as this is, well composed photographs capturing the spirit of the day will be enjoyed forever.

I offer a service that is priced to meet your needs. I will be there to photograph the service and to capture the emotions of the day. Images that will always be yours and allow you enjoy those moments.

I will be there to  photograph the day and provide assistance when necessary. After the wedding, I will carefully review the photographs, and carefully custom crop and color balance the images.

The images will be provided on a DVD and will give you all kinds of options.

Web sites offer a variety of services. You can  design an album or photo collages. Or create a slide show or simply print all of your proofs.

For Bob and Lisa’s wedding, I was there for several hours. I loaned them my camcorder and a guest videotaped the wedding. I provided a sound system for the service and I provided three hours of service, for much less than what you would think.

Call me or email me for an estimate. I will be there for your day. If you need, I can make a DVD camcorder available if you have someone to use it. I also have a sound system that can easily accomadate a 30×30 room and provide good sound for the ceremony (on loan for the duration of my engagement).

Posted on August 15th, 2010 by admin
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Engagement Portraits

Share the moment with the people closest to you.

So many people are happy for you. Share the moment with a well designed image of the two of you.

There is nothing more beautiful or more priceless than a beautiful portrait of the two of you at this point in your life.

(click on the above images)

Share the moment. Create a facebook page. Post information about your wedding. Allow your friends to share your happiness.

When planning for the photography of your wedding, I like to meet you a least 4 to 6 weeks before your wedding to talk with you about your day. What is the timeline. Did you want to be photographed in the church after the ceremony? Did you allow time in your schedule for this?

Where will we be photographing the families after the service? At the hall? In a park? What are our plans for rain, if it should happen?

Who will be at the wedding. Do we want to photograph these people? Are you thinking of a giving them a gift portrait?

During one of your visits to the studio, let’s create a portrait image of the two of you?  Studio portraits are nice, because they feature the two of you. They are usually close ups with special attention to the face’s and your expression. These images have so much more meaning and value to everyone.

And now that you have these images, they can be used to make place cards for the table, for postings to face book, for gifts to friends, for thank you notes both for your shower and for the wedding.

Because these images work so well, I include studio portraits in all of my album packages.

Posted on April 17th, 2010 by admin
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Jenn and Paul – Nov

This was such a pleasant wedding to photograph. I had photographed Jennifer for her Senior Portrait. So Jennifer knew me and appreciated the service and attention to detail she received for her high school senior portrait session.

The wedding was mid November and  had a strong Christmas theme. The day was cool and it was raining.

But our bride was strikingly beautiful and our groom rugidly handsome. Their was one small problem. Our bride was petite and our was groom tall. Standing beside each other their was a dramatic difference in head height. That was a challenge.

The weather was cold and it was raining, but our bride was happy and cheerful and that is all that counts. She lit up the room and I just had to capture the sparkle and the brightness that came from her smile.

The wedding was at an older Catholic Church with great architecture. The reception was at the Lakeview Pavilion. I knew I had plenty of great opportunities for solid weddingphotography. More importantly, I had a happy bride.

Because of the bad weather, the scenes that I would be working in would be limited. The first rule of wedding photography is to make your collection as varied as possible. That means taking advantage of every visual opportunity that you are presented with.

Following the service I photographed our Bride and Groom in the church.

It is important that you talk to your couple about this possibility. You need to get permission prior to the wedding. Getting permission the day of the wedding is too late.

When looking for permission, it is best to talk with your couple and have them talk to the pastor who they are working with. Pastors will always work with their parishioners.

When we arrived at the Lakeview Pavilion, I re photographed the parents and families against a traditional background, to add variety to what the bride would be receiving. I used most of the available time to work with our bride and groom and just feature them. The Treetop Room offered a glass background with a scene to the lake in the background.

You can never spend enough time with the bride and groom. But more importantly, did your couple schedule enough time into their plans for the day, for you to work with them.

By reviewing the schedule of the day, you should be able to identify any concerns regarding photography services for your couple.

Posted on March 21st, 2010 by admin
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Kim and Mike – September

Kim and Mike’s wedding was in early September. I started at Kim’s parents home in Foxborough and then we were on to church, St Mary’s in Foxborough. St Mary’s is a beutiful Catholic Church, in the middle of Foxborough. It has a beautiful side yard, a very nice look to the facade and a long looping driveway.

Inside, the setting is modern. The modern look is not as dramatic or striking as the architecture of the older church’s.

I needed to photograph a number of groups of family immediately following the wedding service and needed to do this on the grounds of the church. Many of the children in these groups would be going home and would not be at the reception. The reception would be at the Highland Country Club in Attleboro.

Every wedding has a life of it’s own. This wedding was different in many ways and there was a lot of photography that needed to be taken at every stop. It is so important in these feature rich scenes, to work quickly, think about your flow, and try to utilize all of the scenes, in different sets of images.

All of the settings were beautiful, the weather was perfect and our couple attractive. What made this wedding special was that Kim was a happy bride and Mike a very easy groom to work with.

At Kim’s mothers house, we spent at least 45 minutes with her family and with Kim. I photographed a variety of scenes with Kim, her parents and her sisters. There was a lot of posed work and some photojournalism.

At the church the ceremony was colorful and it was all photojournalistic. After the service, the receiving line presented me with a 15 minute delay, waiting for all of the people to pass through it. I photographed a number of candids of people going through the receiving line as well as interaction with groups of guests. I also located groups of families and photographed these family groups in nice scenes on the grounds of the church. Care was taken to make each families background scenes different.

I then took our bride and groom back into the church to photograph our bride and groom in a church setting. Given our time line, this session had to be brief. There were a number of families with young children waiting for us. Having the children in a good mood, with happy faces is important. I can’t keep them waiting.

I photographed all of the family groupings in the side yard. Always careful to change directions so that the backgrounds were always different.  I was careful to keep the groups in the shade, to control the direction of light, get a great quality in the color of the images, and control and add depth to the backgrounds. It also helped to keep all of our people comfortable and present us with a smiling groups.

It took 30 minutes, but we photographed all of the family groups and children.

At the country club, the emphasis was on our bride and groom and our wedding party. Their was a scene the bride wanted to be photographed in and had arranged with the Country Club staff. I did multiple groupings with our wedding parties and parents and photographed our groups several times being careful to have totally different backgrounds and looks.

The reception party was well attended and my goal was to photograph and feature our bride and groom having fun at their party. This was all as it happened with minimal direction.

It was a long day and our couple new there would be a lot to show them. Mike and Kim committed to an album design and I met with them to design their album with them. We finished the design session in one night, but it was a good 4 hours of their time. It was worth it, knowing they had complete control of the album design process. One nice feature was that there was no limit on the number of images per page. It just had to look good and be tasteful. I didn’t want to cram images in, just to up the image count. It is never about the count, it is about the look.

Posted on March 21st, 2010 by admin
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Holly and Barry – September

Holly Walsh, our bride, was a friend of Marc’s sister. Marc’s sister was a bridesmaid in Marc’s wedding in August. Marc’s wedding was at The Villa at the Ridder Country Club. 

Evidently Marc’s sister was so impressed with the work we provided Marc, that she gave me a great buildup. Holly contacted me sometime following Marc and Lina’s wedding  to photograph her wedding.

I was a little concerned because initially I understood that Holly wanted me to photograph her reception party but not the wedding. The wedding and the reception party were on two seperate dates.

This wedding was interesting. The service was taking place at St. Mary’s in Hanover. Only our Bride, Groom and immediate family were in attendance. The reception would be at Holly’s brothers house in Plymouth the following week. The reception party would be attended by all of their friends and it would be a pretty good crowd.

My first thought was that the wedding was as important as the reception party and needed to be covered.

In talking with Holly, I came to realize that it would be immediately family at the wedding. A much smaller group. My thought was that a wedding of this nature might even be more interesting, and ofter more opportunity for images that would have even more emotion and impact.

After talking with Holly, I convinced her that I should be at her wedding. I was fortunate, in that, I had both dates open and was able to work out an arrangement for Holly that would allow me to cover both events.

Because of the split in dates, and sensitivity to cost, coverage would have to be provided by me alone. When hiring assistants, I have to pay them for an evening. I am asking someone to give up their Saturday or Sunday. I have to pay them a four hour minimum.

I arrived at the church about 45 minutes before the service. I checked out the scene, the church grounds, the direction of sun, and all of the available areas in the church.

I believe both of Hollies brothers and her father were police officers, so getting the guys to relax and have fun with the photography and the service required a little coaxing.

I was able to work with all of the families and photograph multiple combinations of everyone, including some great environmental photographs of the scene. The service was sweat and tasteful. It provided a great opportunity to focus on our couple and their families.

After the service, I brought the couple out onto the steps of the church. There was a nice overhang that blocked the sun and provided an opportunity to do a little available light photography.

The following week, the assignment was simply to get a lot of candids of the activities and the guests. The house and grounds were very nice. There was so much to photograph. Interestingly enough, Holly had a number of images from the wedding on display. People were impressed with my work from the previous week and everyone was quick to work with me.

You don’t often see the same people twice. The second time around everyone is much more comfortable with the photography. That is really helpful when working with the men.

That party might have been my best reception party coverage of the season. There was just so much going on and I got it all.

Holly knew that I was a wedding videographer in an earlier life and had asked me to take some video. The camcorder I use  is a high definition, miniature camcorder. The quality is OK but not what I consider pro level. I videotaped scenes from the toast and her dance with her father. I included the video on the DVD slide show that I delivered to her. There were copies for her parents, brothers and the grooms family. The DVD slide shows are always a big hit.

Holly was so thankful for my talking her into service for both the wedding and the reception party and working out my schedule so that I could be there for her.

Posted on March 19th, 2010 by admin
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Marc and Lina – August

Marc and Lina’s wedding was at The Villa at the Ridder Country Club. The wedding was scheduled for 7 pm, outside at the gazebo.

Marc had contracted me for four hours of service. I was able to work with him and his bride an hour before the service, cover the service and then two hours of the reception party. For this wedding, four hours of coverage worked out well.

There were approximately 100 guests in attendance.

The garden area was very nice, but the facility accomadates two weddings and I had to work with the other wedding in terms of getting access to areas of the garden. Marc had given me the impression that we were the only wedding, so I had to adjust my game plan on the fly. The other wedding was scheduled a little earlier than ours, so the other photographer had grabbed the best area to work in.

I was on site early,  so I had plenty of time to review the area, talk with staff and make the necessary adjustments. I was ready for our couple when they arrived.

Marc was from Boston, Lina was from Columbia. Lina had a beautiful dark complexion and was strikingly beautiful.

Even though it was a four-hour commitment, I had help with me. I knew that there were tight timing issues that had to be worked. The photographing of families before the wedding. A very strict time line and practically no time after the service to photograph our couple in the beauty of the natural scenes all around us.

We had to work fast and I wanted to get any number of combinations and variety of images prior to the ceremony. Because the ceremony was outside, I had to be sure to finish the photographing of families a full 30 minutes before the ceremony. Our bride always needs to have a few minutes to herself before the service. I made sure that happened.

You couldn’t ask for a nicer setting. The weather was with us. We had blue skies and a cool breeze.

The sun was setting behind the gazebo and the sun was creating some difficulty in regards to lens flare, but nothing I wasn’t ready for.

The ceremony provided us with so many great images. Lina was stunning and her mother and father were so proud of her. They were a very handsome family.

Following the ceremony, we were only able to photograph outside for a few minutes. I knew time was going to be a problem, so I used all of my time and available light to photograph the couple. We photographed the families in the Villa.

Even though I only had about 90 minutes of time to finish my coverage,  I was able to get all of the required images. The schedule didn’t allow much time to photograph everyone dancing and having fun, but I was able to get a good number of candid and dance scene’s to complete the coverage. It was a full package and completed the coverage.

Marc and Lina were so pleased.

They too were leaving immediately for their honeymoon. I surprised them by having a photographic slide show on the web within three days of their wedding. I was able to post all of their wedding images to the internet before the week was out.

I surprised them with gift sets of images that they could give their parents. I had these gifts available for them upon their return from their honeymoon.

Posted on March 2nd, 2010 by admin
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Christine and David – July

Christine was a beautiful bride and David a perfect groom. What more could a photographer ask for? Our wedding started at Christine’s home. It included her parents, her wedding party and aunt’s and uncle’s.

It was a beautiful summer day. I don’t know how she did that?

It was great to have an opportunity to work with our bride and her family. The groups were fun to work with.

The ceremony was at Our Lady of Help Christians Parish on Washington St in Newton. One of those beautiful old Catholic church’s that Boston is known for. The ceremony was unique. Following the ceremony, I photographed Christine and David in the church. You just can’t walk away from the chance to get great posed images in that kind of an architectural setting. The backdrop of the alter area was stunning. We then wen’t outside to mingle with the guests and I photographed family groups on the church grounds.

The settings were beautiful and I used the overhang of the tree’s to block and control the direction of light. This enabled  available light photography.

We then were off to Post Office Square and the Langham Hotel. Unfortunately, we only had about 20 minutes of available light when we arrived. The sun was already below the horizon.

David is from Ireland and all of his family was there for his wedding. What a great group of people. Does David’s family know how to have fun. And David’s mother danced solo to to a number of Irish tunes.

By the end of the day, I had so many great images to show Christine. The images were on the internet in three days and she had fun reviewing all of the images while in Hawaii. I took the liberty of pulling several images of Christine with her parents and David with his family. I set them up as gifts and made sure Christine had them first thing upon her return to give to her parents as gifts. She and her parents loved the surprise.

Posted on March 1st, 2010 by admin
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Jim and Albie – December

I had the opportunity of photographing Jim and Albie’s wedding this past December. The reception was at the Aldrich Mansion in Warwick, Rhode Island. What a beautiful venue. A gorgeous estate with an attached chapel and an expansive back lawn overlooking the sea. You couldn’t ask for a nicer setting.

I started at the brides home. I photographed the bride with her parents and the groom with his children.

The service was at a Catholic Church in Newton. It was a visual delight. After the service, I photographed the bride and groom in the church and photographed a number of family groupings as well.

The reception was at the Aldrich Mansion in Warwick, Rhode Island. It was about an hours ride to the reception site, but well worth it. The backside of the estate faces the ocean.

It was a cold day, and most of the photography was inside the Mansion. It was a Christmas wedding and the estate was beautifully decorated to reflect the season.

There was some posed photography, but much of the service was photojournalistic. I took advantage of every room and photographed the couple and their guests extensively. It was a fantastic venue to work in.

Posted on December 4th, 2008 by admin
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Photojournalism and a few ideas

Key things to think about concerning your wedding photography.

We all know what we like and how we feel about being involved in certain situations. I have had brides and / or grooms tell me that they do not want to pose for any photography? They want the day to be photographed as it happens.

This approach will give us more freedom to enjoy the day but it does rule out some of the photography that would be taken.

I find it is best to listen to the clients and pay attention to what is being said. I do think that it is always nice if we can have some time with the bride or groom during the day to simply feature them. An opportunity to photograph the bride is always a good thing.  The men don’t seem to be as involved as their brides when it comes to thinking about wedding photography.

We hear the terms photojournalism and life style wedding photography. Both terms refer to photographing the day with minimal direction from the photographer. Their is also a trend in wedding photography to provide some directed photography, but in a way that it looks natural, unposed and very casual.

If photojournalism is the style desired, their are those moments where you might want a group picture with your immediate family, parents, aunts and uncles or friends. These group pictures can happen spontaneously.  These groups are important and we should be careful to make sure they happen.   Are there people who you know you must have to make your wedding photographs complete?

When thinking about people who are important to you, discuss these people with your photographer. Make sure your wedding photographer knows who these people are, their importance to you and when he/she might have an opportunity to photograph them.

Posted on November 10th, 2008 by admin
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Recent developments in wedding photography

Over the last eight years their has been considerable change in the wedding photography industry. The driving change element has been the advent of digital photography. Six years ago, many of the digital cameras did not provide a consistent quality of color when photographing in environmental light.  This was the reason for a resurgence of  black and white wedding photography. If the image had poor color,  the photographer simply converted it to black and white and presented it as artistic interpretation. Today, most of the professional cameras provide excellent and consistent results when photographing in mixed lighting situations.

Digital photography offers many tremendous opportunities. The greatest of which is the ability to photograph scenes instantly.

The cameras are getting better and the quality of color captured is excellent.

The automatic light meter can and is easily fooled. Less experienced photographers are easily lost when the camera cannot read the lighting for a scene.

Effective use of electronic flash and the use of available light are areas requiring expertise. It takes a trained eye to see the various qualities of light. When shooting for the quality of light, it is about the subject and the lighting on the subject.

About 8 years ago, Dennis Reggie introduced the concept of photojournalism. Reggie talked about the need to photograph the wedding unobtrusively, with a minimum of direction. The photographer was there to record the day, not make the day. It was about capturing the moment.

Dennis Reggie was a photographer of celebrities. His fee’s were expensive and he was more of a celebrity photographer. One image that jumps out at you is the picture of John Kennedy Jr and his wife in front of the chapel and John kissing his wife’s hand. A beautiful, unscripted moment that found it’s way into many a magazine. So you really think that Dennis Reggie didn’t call to John to kiss her hand? More often than not, those are moments that the photographer see’s and helps the couple to live.

Celebrities are used to being in front of a camera and do not like to pose for candids.

If you are photographing an event with someone of celebrity status, you will typically receive directives from the coordinator. There will be instructions, directing you to not ask the celebrities to look or pose for a candid. I found this to be the case when photographing Bill Cosby. He was a great guy to work with, but his directives were firm. No posing unless he asked for it.

Bill did ask to be photographed with a group of students and for those students, he did request and direct posed photography. But for the rest of the event, no posing and no direction from the photographer.

About 3 years ago, a number of really talented photographers from Australia were on tour in the US. Marcus Bell, Yervant and Jerry Ghionis were in Massachusetts. I had the opportunity of seeing all three of them. Each one held an all day seminar and each one presented a style of photography that was typical of what was in style in Australia.

Their approach was quite different to what American photographers were used to. It was loose; it had a nice relaxed look. There was a lot of spontaneity. And it had a very definite fashion component.

Each photographer provided a certain amount of direction to get the look. So it was more of a compromise style. Posing with direction but with a very relaxed approach. The Australians required a lot more time for photography. They featured both the groom as well as the bride, photographing the men and the women separately and together before the wedding. Their clients allocated several additional hours of time to photography before the wedding. And the photographers did provide a fair amount of direction at times during these sessions.

The finished product resulted in more scenes, more photographs and a wider selection of photography. The Australian photographers created wedding photography with a stylized, and looser look. Their photography also had a fashion and glamour component. In some instances the posing and lighting was much more dramatic.

Would the average American bride want all this extra attention? I think it really depends on the person. You really have to know your client and what they like and feel comfortable with.

All three Australian wedding photographers were accomplished film photographers who made the transition to digital and embraced the opportunities offered by digital photography. It was because of this understanding of photography that they were able to push the limits in posing, exposure and dramatic lighting.

Posted on November 6th, 2008 by admin
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