Couple | toastphotoblog

This weekend was a little different for me, I wasn’t the photographer at a wedding, but a guest! That didn’t stop me from bringing my camera though. Being a photographer at a wedding compared to a guest is a whole different experience. I went to my cousin’s daughter’s wedding for six hours and it flew by! Photographing a wedding can be twice that amount. It was really great and relaxing to see all of my family celebrating this happy occasion, I was so surprised to see how quick it went. It was also interesting to compare my style of photography to the photographer’s at the wedding that day. Many photographers today like to shoot away and take a million pictures, then narrow it down to a select few. Being an old school guy I like to wait to catch the photo just at the right time. At the end of the day I may have less photos, but they’re all the shots you will love. If you wait for the moment, you’ll end up getting it. Here is my favorite shot I took that day, congratulations Nicole and Kirk!

I’ve been going to Bear Mountain for years, mostly to ride my motorcycle on it’s amazing roads. The first time I went there I couldn’t believe that such a place existed so close to NYC. When Chris, from Double Image, asked me to shoot Rachael and Jimmy’s wedding at the Merry Go Round Pavilion, I thought “Wow this is going to be really cool”. I went there a week ahead to scout for some good backgrounds since this was the first wedding I was shooting there. All the locations had to be close to the hotel, because it was a little wet and muddy and I didn’t want Rachael’s dress to get dirty.

The day of the wedding was very challenging because it was suppose to storm. Luckily, the rain held out and we were able to shoot all the family photos outside. This was also very helpful, because the lighting in the pavilion wasn’t great. Also, since it was just me with no second shooter it was a little challenging to be in the right place at the right time while staying out of the videographers way. It all worked out well in the end and we were really happy with the results. Rachael and Jimmy’s families couldn’t have been nicer to me and it was great to see everyone so happy on their special day.