engagements
So. First let me show you:
Then let me TELL you:
Jillian and Kevin are getting married in October. In Hilton Head, SC. Think that’s going to be amazing?! yeah. me too. ::grin::
Kevin recently opened this super cool performance and repair shop called The Little Speed Shop — and it was the COOLEST location to shoot in…let’s see…I had a BMW…a Maserati…a workshop…yeah. I was TOTALLY feelin’ it! So we played. And played. And then the sun set in this amazing burst of color…
I felt like I was in a movie. Right?
And it lends itself to the conversation about sessions. Jillian and Kevin had a strong point of view from which they wanted the session to go — and that was unbelievably fun! The more thought you put into a session (with me, fo course, never alone!) — the more personal it becomes. It really is about you. About what’s important to you. And if the MOST important thing is that you are TOGETHER — then we’ll just wander around and find cool spots to shoot in. That’s equally as fun too. Just bring cool clothes. And a Maserati.
I’m kidding about the Maserati. I just like typing Maserati. It’s even more fun to say… (you know you just said it in your mind. bonus if you said it outloud!)
Yeah. It’s alllll good!
xo T
Jill and Andy. Yeah. Look at them. You wouldn’t imagine that Andy wasn’t really “feelin” the photograph session, would you? I’m so proud of that! I tell everyone that the first few minutes of every session will (if you will excuse the expression) suck. It’s awkward. It’s scary. there’s a big black camera in your face. Talk about intimidating! But eventually, it all fades away and it becomes fun. And I live for that.
Jill and Andy are getting married next year. Unfortunately for ME — I was already booked for their wedding date. ::sniff:: But a really great photographer is photographing their wedding — so I still got to play by doing their engagement session. I should also mention that Jill and Andy are BEST FRIENDS with one of my brides who will be on the blog later — so we already had a chance to interact at Beth and Marc’s wedding. And they are as terrific and nice as they look. Our session was plagued with drama — security guards! yelling! wind! holes in the road! drama! ::laughing:: But we all brought our A game and didn’t let anything bother us — and the images are STUNNING. Well. Here. You decide…
Right?!
Without going into any detail at all about anything — I’m all visual today.
I want to run around in circles and yell: “The sun is here. The SUN is FINALLY HERE!!”
(disclaimer: no couples were harmed in the taking of these images.)
I have ALWAYS wanted to make one of these videos: have you ever seen the Amazon ad for Kindle? Yeah. So inspiring.
These little clips are not new — there are some AMAZING artists who are creating some absolutely INSANE stop motion clips.
Check this out.
And this.
Cool, eh?
How could I NOT want to make one?
All I needed was some victims…erm…willing and wonderful clients who wanted to try something completely different.
Enter: Melanie and Mark.
Lesson: Stop Motion takes A LOT LONGER than you will ever expect it too. Plus, since we hadn’t tried this before — we faced a lot of “unexpected” challenges…nothing a good roll of duct tape couldn’t fix — but still — we were problem solving ON THE SPOT all day long. ::laughing and shaking head::
Here’s our final product. To put it into context — Melanie and Mark watched fireworks on their first date…and our challenge was to incorporate that experience with the theme of their wedding “Van Gogh’s Starry Night”. Yeah, right? FUN!!
Hope you LOVE this. It was AMAZING to put together and thank goodness I have an amazing team working with me!!
I did my best to embed the link here — but being less proficient that I thought and VERY IMPATIENT — you have to click the picture. But then it will be awesome. I promise.
Stop Motion Save the Date
Sooooo…..there are more stories about this wedding to come. I can’t tell them all now. But this image was SO fantastic, we had to tell its story right away!!!
It was the wee hours of the morning at Allegria Hotel and Spa on Long Island. A tired but very happy wedding party and I rolled out of bed to catch the early morning light. And we all got in the water. Yes…I stood in the ocean with all of my gear. With the tide coming in!! And…well….
It was so worth it. ::grin::
In that long, hectic and seemingly endless stretch of time between when a couple starts planning their wedding and the actual wedding day, one of the things I love the most is to watch all the little details for my couple’s weddings come together and see how the day as a whole takes shape. And I LOVE when my brides get so excited about the things they are planning that they email me or call me, or show up for a meeting bursting at the seems to share their vision! I absolutely love to be involved!!! When my brides are passionate about something, I’m passionate about it as well, and it is all those affectionately chosen or crafted details that make each wedding as unique and as personal as each individual couple.
Every bride’s favorite deets vary. Sometimes they are invitations and placeholders, sometimes they are favors or flowers or the cake. For Julianne it was COLOR! (in particular this brilliant, happy color green. I say “happy” because it’s virtually impossible to look at without smiling)…and her accessories.
Everything she wore that day, from her dress…
…to her shoes…
…to her bracelet….
…every piece was carefully and lovingly chosen, to express herself and her and Eric’s intimate and fun relationship (she was so excited about them that she sent me color samples and a link to photos of the bracelet way before the wedding!) and the final result was a wedding day that was elegant and very playful at the same time!
Just like Julianne and Eric!!!
Personal details are by no means limited to decorations or dress.
When Julianne and I met to go over her schedule she told me about Eric’s famous Michael Jackson impression/dance. By the way her face lit up I could tell that this was something about her fiance (husband!) that she cherished, which speaks to that same sense of playfulness she was creating with their accessories. Sure enough, when MJ started playing during the reception, Eric couldn’t resist the urge to get out on the dance floor! And let me tell you, this groom has got some MOVES!
So whether it’s shoes or dance moves, don’t be afraid to get excited about your details! If you need someone to bounce ideas of off, give me a call and I’ll get fired up right along with you!!! And…most importantly…never ever be afraid to play.
I love first looks. There is something so intimate, so tender, so magical about a bride and groom seeing each other for the first time on their wedding day, quietly and (almost) alone. There is none of the pressure of standing in front of hundreds of friends and family, no particular time-line to get on with (so if the bride has to take a few minutes to bawl her eyes out and then get her makeup fixed, it’s okay!). But mostly there is the opportunity for them to hold their husband/wife-to-be and really soak in the beautiful enormity of what they are embarking on that day. In those moments nothing else exists. No details to finish up, no flowers, no color palettes, no menus, no guests lists, and…dare I say it?…no photographer…which is one of the things that I loved to watch most of all. There is no awareness of being in front of the camera at all. Everything – EVERYTHING – else melts away and it is just them and their love. It is very hard for me not to cry. Which, of course, is why I do. Every time.
When I first met Deb and Gary I was struck by the warmth and intense affection that they had for each other. It was truly wonderful to witness that again in their first look.
Deb and Gary worked closely together to design a wedding day that was so personal and full of details that really expressed them as a couple, from their artistic, quirky personalities to their cultural backgrounds and world views. They wanted their wedding, on a visual level, to reflect a kind of vintage/industrial feel (which they also incorporated into their engagement shoot, in downtown Buffalo), and we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time for portraits that captured that look.
Thing is, there are added practical benefits to first looks as well. Since the bride and groom have already seen each other, it opens up the opportunity to do couple (and even family!) portraits before the ceremony even starts. This is especially a plus for weddings with later ceremonies (which get increasingly tricky as the summer winds down). Since Deb and Gary’s ceremony and reception were in the same room at Pearl Street Brewery in Buffalo, and they wanted to glide seemlessly between the two, we took advantage of the time and light before the ceremony and rocked out portraits!
The tenderness that these two shared overflowed to their friends and family, whom they brought into every aspect of their day. I never get enough of watching two people be so incredibly happy!!! It is absolutely one of the best parts of my job. From their first look to the end of the night both Deb and Gary literally glowed. I love watching days like that unfold.
So…yes. Things are CRAZY around here at Tammy Swales Photography. We are right in the thick of the craziest part of summer and (with the help of an unmentionable amount of caffeine) we are LOVING it!!! Myself and the team have been hard at work, but we realized in a rare moment of breathing recently, that we have been surrounded by some fantastic people. Seriously, I have the most fantastic clients!!! I feel so blessed. And a special shout out to Kristi Hedberg who was a FABULOUS second shooter at both Julianne and Jessica’s weddings!
So…back to work, but first, here’s a snippet of some of that fantastic-ness for you, and a taste of what we’ve been up to lately. August, here we come!!!! And frankly, how can it be August already?!
Aww, heck…why not two snippets?!?!
So here’s the thing about engagement sessions. They are SO. MUCH. FUN. I love how laid back they are. There is so much raw emotion at weddings. So much love, so much tears. But at engagement sessions you’ve got two people, completely in love, and it’s just them in their normal clothes and everyday habitats. There’s no crowd, no gowns, no wedding party, no pressure. Just a boy and a girl (and a crazy redhead yelling directions). And it’s all about THEM. About the love they share and what makes them such a unique and incredible couple. I can’t even tell you how much fun this is for me to watch!!!!!! And how much we LAUGH!!! I’ve literally come home from engagement shoots with my face sore from laughing so much. It really is fantastic to see couples open up and be their crazy, playful selves.
All that said, I’ve had a MAD number of engagement shoots lately. What an amazing way to start off the summer!!! I am PSYCHED beyond belief to shoot every one of these weddings. I am overwhelmed by how each of my couples “get” me and how I work..which is the MOST important thing in getting great photographs.
Sometimes crazy fun engagement shoots take a little extra maneuvering, and my couples really step up to the plate. Literally! Valerie had to do some serious pre-planning to get us into Frontier Field so she and Keith could incorporate their love of baseball into their engagement images. But what a great experience that was!!! And Jessica and Clark impressively managed to get their ENORMOUS (and gorgeous!) dog all the way up to my forth floor studio without event! Talk about hard core…
And Stephanie and Micah were right there when I started yelling “AH! There! Light! Underpass! Run! Now! Go!”
And we NAILED it!!!! We make a great team. ::grin::
I love my couples and I am SO excited for this summer.
I love my job. LOVE. And I feel so fortunate to be able to be right there for some of the most amazing moments of people’s lives. To be able to capture these incredible and beautiful celebrations of love and affection. There are times I come home from a wedding just bursting to talk about everything and then I sit in front of the computer and…and then there is just SO much to say, it’s hard to get down. Adam and Stephanie’s wedding was one of those weddings. I still don’t even know where to begin. But first let me give a shout out to James Bass who helped me so much as my second. There is nothing better…I mean NOTHING better than a GREAT second. James got some AMAZING images — and I can’t wait to second shoot for him in August! Woot!
There was so much love at this wedding. Both bride and groom come from big, crazy, tightly-knit families. But what was really amazing to see was how Stephanie and Adam’s love for each other brought their individual sides of the family together. The tender closeness of the two families and the obvious love that they have for Adam and Stephanie took my breath away. And made me cry. Multiple times.
As you can see, I wasn’t the only one.
As if the ceremony at Blessed Sacrament wasn’t emotional enough, Adam’s mom surprised him during the reception by having his best friend play a song live for the mother-and-son dance. Adam’s BF gave an INCREDIBLE speech written by Adam’s mom, picked up his guitar and started to sing the Beatle’s “All You Need Is Love.” Adam, crying, held his mom close, also crying, while they danced. And then they reached out and brought Stephanie into the the dance, and then her parents and then the rest of their families and then the entire party was on the dance floor. So powerful and so beautiful. Um…yeah. It’s kind of hard to shoot when you’re bawling your eyes out. I’m tearing up again just thinking about it.
All of that love also makes for so much laughter, and let me tell you, this was a hilarious bunch.
I’ve known from the start that Adam and Stephanie were crazy funny, laid back and ready for anything. When they insisted on bringing my couch to the wedding, how could I refuse?! I told them, you can carry it, we can shoot it, so my (apparently very hardy!) Victorian couch followed us around all afternoon in it’s own personal van! And…velvet couch + the grounds of Irondequoit Country Club = OMG.
The dancing and jokes and laughter, the GORGEOUS reception, the warmth and celebration that just filled the entire day…Adam and Stephanie, you are incredibly lucky. Thank you so SO so much for letting me share this day, and your family’s tremendous love, with you.
Yeah. I really do love my job.
12.31.2011
Your work is just amazing!!!