Megan said YES!

November 9, 2008 will be a day neither Tim or Megan will ever forget! They both got a beautiful night in Central Park where Tim proposed to his love. I was able to capture the moments right after the proposal and spent a little time with them when neither could stop smiling from ear to ear. Absolutely amazing! Congratulations guys! Tim! All that planning and 'lying' paid off my friend! :)

Laura & Chris 11.1.08 - slideshow

This was my last wedding of the year and reminded me why I love to photograph weddings.....

Laura & Chris 11.1.08

What an honor it was for me to finish my wedding season with an absolutely gorgeous wedding! Laura and Chris got married in a beautiful Fall November day. There is nothing like fall in the northeast, and these guys were gifted with an amazing day!

These guys reminded me why I love doing this. The joy and love they felt for each other was palpable throughout the whole day.

I'll post their slideshow later this week. in the meantime enjoy these couple images.

Joe Buissink Workshop Recap!

It's been almost two weeks since I got back from Oregon attending Joe Buissink's workshop and I wanted to post this cause this workshop was so impacting and I met some very cool people and awesome photographers whom I now call friends from all over the US and the world!

Joe's main focus during the three days we were in Oregon was to dig into who we were as photographers and have plenty of time to shoot and opportunities for feedback. We had some beautiful models (Shanna, Kristina, and Danielle), who were great to work with and loved trying the dresses on three different shootign days. The girls joked around that this is as close to married as they wanted to be for now!

Joe was gracious in his feedback and critique and always finding somethig to encourage us by not only as photographers but as people. He knows that who you are has a huge impact on how you shoot and how you capture what's in front of your lens, whatever that may be.

Overall it was an incredibly worthwhile trip and what I took away from it is a deeper love for photography and a desire to keep learning and to keep getting to know who I am as I continue on this journey as a photographer.

I think Joe hosts these workshops once or twice a year. I would recommend anyone who is serious about wedding photography to go. You will not regret it!

Here's a few of the images from the last day of shooting (I only got to shoot Shanna on this last day) and also a few that my friend Lisa captured of us in action and of course the group! Major props to Salvador and Lana and Igor for coming all the way from Mexico City and Moscow, Russia just for the trip! They each added a special flavor to the week!

Laura & Chris

I had a fun time getting to know Laura and Chris today. They are my last engagement photo shoot for the year as well as my last wedding coming up November 1st! It's been a great year for me having the honor of documenting over 30 weddings and I am so excited I get to finish off with a bang with these guys! 

Can't wait for the wedding!!! :) 

Joe Buissink Workshop Day 2...

Been meaning to post this for a couple days. Got to shoot a lot while at Joe Buissink's workshop and learned a lot from the master. Here's some model shots from the second day. I'll be posting some more later this week and a summary from the amazing few days I had there. I have to get to bed...my flight to NY is early this morning....

Joe Buissink Workshop..Model Shoot...Day 1

This afternoon we went out in groups and shot models for a couple hours. We could only choose one lens and had to stick with that lens for the whole photo shoot. I picked my 35mm 2.0 lens and shot in 'P' mode which Joe is a big promoter of. This was a huge challenge for me because I shoot everything in manual, but I figured I would give it a shot and see what happens. After shooting over 300 pictures We had to select 5 which we will show and critique in our morning session tomorrow.

Here's my well 6...Which one should I cut out? I couldn't decide....

Joe Buissink Workshop Day 1

I'm in Eagle Creek, Oregon at the Joe Buissink workshop for the week. This morning I woke up for the first day of the workshop and as I walked around the retreat center found some amazing landscapes and unique trees, plants and spiders! I walked through one of the spider webs like the one here!





I'll be posting some images form our afternoon shoot with some models. It was lots of fun and can't wait for tomorrow!

Sharon & John

I'm in Love!!!

Israel Day 7...

So our last official full day in Israel came to a close today. But not before we visited some spectacular sites. First of was the ancient city of Bet She'an, which is over 4,000 years old! The ruins at this place were amazing and you really get to see just how amazing the Romans were! I love these dudes!

Next we made a nice stop at the natural spring of Gan Hashlosha. These pools of fresh water have been around since forever and it is believed these may of been the place where Gideon chose his warriors. The water felt so good and it is like a little oasis in the middle of this dessert area. Later I found out that TIME magazine named this the most beautiful site in Israel!


The day could not have gone without some adventure and we found it in the way of trying to find a passage to the Jordan River. We drove into some back roads trying to find a spot to head to the river but ended up in an area where it is still closed off for land-mines! We were close to the border with Jordan and it probably was from wars from the past. We decided to forgo the river idea and head back to the main road. Fun though!


And on the way back we ran into one of the cultural landmarks of the western world! :) Of course we did NOT stop there to eat. Instead we stopped at a local place to grab another delicious Shwarma! mmmmm!


So I've left the best for last. Tomorrow I get to swim at the Mediterranean (if my master lets me). Then we head down via train to Tel Aviv and back to America. I'll be doing full posts in the next few days of my experiences more in detail so be on the lookout for those!

Israel Day 6...

Today was Jason and I's first time on the road alone. Up until now we had the infamous Brent who is a local American who has been living here for 13 years. He has been giving us the five star treatment and has been showing us all around. But today it was just Jason and me on the road! Of course we did NOT get lost driving and ended up everywhere we wanted to be at the exact time we wanted to be at! We are awesome like that! :)


Before this trip people were asking me what the heck I was going to Israel for and I had a vague answer, so finally when I got on the plane with Jason in NY, I got the lowdown as to what I was going to be doing. I'll give you the full version at some point but one of the main things is collecting images of archaeological sights and ruins all over Israel. Like the one below at this site called Tel Hazor. Some of the ruins we have been seeing are over 3,000 years old!!! I just can't fit that in my head! This one below is the part of an entrance to the gate at this ancient Canaanite city. Too cool!


We made a mid day break at the Sea of Galilee and had what they call here 'St. Peter's fish'. It's basically Tilapia from the sea of Galilee fried and served right on the plate like the one you see below! I've never had fish like this, but this was a treat! and of course we had humus!


Our final stop for the day was the city of Tiberias. We drove up as high as we could on this mountains side that the city was on and we could get this amazing view of the Sea of Galilee and imagined what it must of been like 2,000 years ago.

Two more days left...tomorrow we got a couple more ancient ruins and then we're going to swim in the Mediterranean...I hope...

Israel Day 5...

Today was another great day. Visiting Nazareth we got to see a little village recreated out of ruins and modeled to show what life in First Century Nazareth was like. We got to view Nazareth from the top of a nearby mountain (they said it may of been the one where they tried to throw Jesus off the edge!). We also got to eat some amazing Israeli food! Probably the best we have eaten so far on the trip.

I will put up more detailed pictures when I get back to New York, but for now these will show you a bit of what I'm experiencing.....

Iarael Day 4.5......

I wanted to post a few more images tonight before letting you all know about my day today. These pictures are from yesterday's visit to the old city in Jerusalem. As you walk the streets it's just incredible to see the variety of the different sections of the city. Jews, Arabs, Ethiopians, tourists! Reminds me of Queens with all the variety of people, smells, food, etc. I'll post a few pics from today's trip to Nazareth in a bit....

Via Dolorosa...


Muslim quarter of the old city...