Over the past year I’ve been approached by a growing number of small business owners in the area who are looking for headshot photography for their websites. These professionals are actively seeking to create that first memorable image of WHO they are and what they stand for and to give potential clients a clear picture of what they can expect when they call.

This is exactly what Jeannie Michalski and Adam Militello had set out to do when they came to me. And can I just tell you…these guys…

COOLEST. LAWYERS. EVER. Seriously. They are hardworking…

They are smooth and no-nonsense…

They are down to earth, genuine, warm and caring…

And…and they are hilarious. I don’t remember the last time I laughed so much during a shoot! OMG. It was so wonderful to see two people who believe so completely in what they are doing, who are striving to create an incredible company and who still LOVE to laugh!!!!

Classic.

Jeannie and Adam…You ROCK .

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.

The great thing is, it just so happens that this year I have A LOT of couples from New York. Some are getting married in the NYC/Long Island area. Some who live down there now are getting married in Rochester. And one couple is holding their wedding in an AWESOME old bank in downtown Albany!

Lots of NY couples means…lots of NY engagement shoots! WOOT WOOT!!!  It also means some very strategic planning and a good deal of heated negotiation with the weather man.  All of that has paid off, though, ’cause this last trip down was SUCH a success!  Allison and Gregg and Leslie and Brad were totally fantastic and, let me tell you, between the lot of us we have some ROCKIN’ scheduling skills. What better way to spend a gorgeous spring day than marathon-shooting two adorable, fabulous couples in Manhattan?!?!

There really isn’t any. I mean seriously. SO much fun!!!! Allison and Gregg, Leslie and Brad, you made my day.

I try really hard to look at things differently — sometimes when I’m driving I choose the weirdest locations and think…now WHAT would I do if I HAD to shoot there? ::laughing::  I know.  It’s a little weird — but FUN and CREATIVE!

I was driving to Wegmans for dinner and as I came around the corner — literally around the corner from my house — I noticed a field I haven’t ever really LOOKED at before.  And the sun on the field made it look…ethereal.  magical.

So…my good friends, Lilac and PJ were scheduled for their maternity session — and thank goodness they were up for anything — because I took them right to this grungy light filled field.

Look.  It is magical.  ethereal.  And Lilac and PJ?  It’s so much fun for me to watch them get ready for their first child…the questions they ask…the classes they take in preparation…this child will be so loved.  SO loved.

So here’s a couple from their session.  Magical right?

Yeah.

Maternity Session in Rochester NY

Fast forward to the fall when I get an AMAZING call from Mary — that she and Ryan were engaged!  They are getting married this fall — and as it should be — they BOTH glow when they are together.  Ryan loves animals and nature as much as Mary does — I can’t wait to see what crazy details they come up with for their wedding day.

As the day approached for their engagement shoot — I was watching the weather and realized that the day we were going to shoot was supposed to be AWFUL — so I shot a quick email and basically BEGGED them to shoot with me TODAY as it was sunny and pretty and I really really wanted a nice day for them…needless to say — they said yes, and although it was CRAZY cold out — we still managed to have fun with their cool dogs and great light.

I can’t believe I got all four of them in the same frame…sitting at the same time!

The light!  The light!

This field was awesome.  I don’t know if Mary and Ryan LOVED being all up in the brush — but it LOOKED cool.  And that is what is important in photographs, eh?

I’m not afraid to tell you this:  I took this one only for Mary. 

Dear Mary and Ryan.  I had fun.  I love your dogs.  And you two are so great together.  Love Tam.  PS:  Please bring dogs to wedding.  ::grin::

very rarely do I mix and cross over these groups with each other.  So…since I thought it might be interesting to push everyone into one slideshow (read:  laaazzzyy ::laughing::) — so that there’s a record of 2009 visually all together in one place.  It’s pretty cool.

Some images you’ve seen…some you haven’t.  And no, this isn’t EVERYONE who I worked with this year — that slideshow would be about 4000 hours long (not really — but I wanted to fit it into one song – -so this is my best shot)…so I pulled images that appealed to me TODAY.  If I worked on a slideshow tomorrow — it would be completely different.  So…gather what you want about my mood today — here is 2009 in 4 minutes.  Put your seatbelt on please.

Click on the image.  Ra ra ah ah ah….

And the images are SMOKIN’!!!!!!!!!!

and…what about THIS!!

Oh.  And in case you were wondering?  Here’s what Mary had to say about this.  (hey.  she said I could, right?  so I AM!):

OH MY GOD!! MY LITTLE JOE!!
wow, that is soooo coool!! i’m am just about bawling looking at those!

they DO ROCK, they are just full of emotion!  and look at little joe’s smile. oh my God. wow.  you really did such an awesome job Tammy, thank you so so so much!  you caputred the love for sure, wouldn’t have wanted anyone else to do it!  and that really is not that easy to do, when you have not ever met the person, dog or horse before!!
You’re awesome Tammy!!  Thank you so much for your talent and effort.  That’s why I picked you – because your eye captures the emotion, and the “real” moments.  Thank you for that excellent christmas present you just gave me of a WHOLE blog post, whoa!! You’ve totally made my whole day, week, and winter…I’m going to just be salivating over these images for weeks & months to come!  Thank you for understanding my love for Kill & Patty, and having the heart to capture it.  Your work is just amazing!
I can’t wait to give you a hug in person,

WITH MUCH LOVE,
Mary

(ps…feel free to use any of my comments for testimonials if ever needed!)

You are hearing it here first.

I am utterly and completely addicted to color.  Vibrant, muted, pastel, jewel…it doesn’t really matter.  Colors just SING to me.  Every day.

A lot of my clients worry when the weather is bad…and you know what my response it?  It’s perfect.  Cloudy = soft beautiful light and VIBRANT colors.  Fall weather?  Bring it on baby.  LOVE the light and color at this time of year.

I think if you spend enough time looking at what I do (like me… because…yeah.  duh.) you’ll start to see some common things emerging:

First:  I LOVE people.  I love interacting, talking, playing, laughing, goofing around.  I think that shows up in the images.  Typically my clients are very comfortable with me and if they are NOT — they’ll tell you it  doesn’t take long for that to go away.  I’m a button pusher.  If you’re shy I push you to be in front…if you’re loud — I might make you do some quiet beautiful shots…it’s just…fun to play.  That’s the only way I can express it.

Second:  The color thing.  I can’t help but put people in colorful settings and SURROUND them with it.  And the funny thing is?  I can’t tell you how I do it.  I am not consciously looking for it — it’s just so much a part of how I see things that it just happens.  I love that part.  It’s why taking photographs is so magical to me.

Third:  Not soooo traditional.  ::laughing::  I can do traditional.  I have done traditional…but always just a leeetttllle bit of tammyitis sneaks in and they have some strange little twist.  Again.  Can’t explain it better than that.  I want my images to say something.  I want you to look at them and laugh or cry or FEEL something.  Traditional photography — wedding photography — is a little flat for me.  I want emotion darn it!  EMO-SSSHHIIOON.  ::laughing::

So.  There is my soap box for the day.  It’s fun, blogging.  I love thinking about what I want to say and how I am going to say it.  I love choosing images to help me show you how amazing my clients are.  And I LOVE when you COMMENT!  ::wide cheesy grin::

Here’s What’s Happened in Tammy’s World This Week:

A wedding in which the entire wedding party CONVINCED ME ( it’s ALWAYS the other way around) that they could climb into a dry creek bed for photographs.  I was worried.  High heels + Little Stones = Tammy Worry  But it turned out incredibly.  LOVE the light and the viewpoint.  This wedding rocked the house.  Wait until you see the slideshow — details were off the HOOK by Stacy K.  (duh).

A portrait session with the coolest girl who wanted to document her love for her horse and her dog.  They’ve hung together for years and she decided (I think she told me it took her two years?  OMG) that it was time to get photographs — she loves taking pics too — but as with all of us — there are no pics of HER in the ones she takes.  So this was her opportunity to be on the other side of the camera.  And the farm.  And the fields.  And the barn.  I was in HEAVEN.

An impromtu — hey can you photograph a civil ceremony on a Tuesday?  wedding.  This couple cracked me up.  We’d never met.  It was POURING and somehow we rocked out the images.  Nevada was GORGEOUS.  And they were totally into letting me be creative.  So even something so simple — turned out amazing.  I’m so glad they hired me.  I took one of my all time favorite images at their wedding.  Can you tell which one it is?  Seriously — did you KNOW City Hall looked like that on the inside?!  I thought we were in an Italian Villa!

An Engagement session in which I did absolutely nothing but laugh and watch two people have fun with their dog and their boat.  And yep.  I ended up in the water (just mid calf, nbd).  But it was a moment when I was thinking…WHY DID I WEAR A SKIRT?!  WHY TAMMY WHY?  (Answer:  no clean laundry.  oh wells. )  Also…one of the shots (I’ll let you guess which one) made me laugh so hard…omg.

A wedding with a couple who just lit up the day with their happiness.  I LOVED photographing them.  And her father’s backyard?  Seriously?  Crazy.  They were super good sports about all my crazy ideas — and I LOVE what we did that day.  The images rock.

Also – I’m finishing up senior season and maybe, just maybe I’ll do a load of laundry this week.  It could happen!  (stop laughing.  it COULD!  ::grin::)

Here’s this week’s crazy in the VIZ:

Oh PS:  If you’ve gotten this far then you’ll notice that I also went to a football game.  it was cold.  and my big fancy lense was USELESS from far away.  So I amused myself by photographing the entire game from the tops of the player’s heads.  Cuz you know.  It was fun.  The image above is one of my favs.  Touchdown!!

So.  If I talked to the powers that be — or I guess that would the The Powers That Be — and said…”hey.  so.  I have some cool ideas for senior sessions…what do you think about sending me some amazing senior girls.  yeah.  oh.  and…some sun…and oh…i dunno…a corvette…and a blue dress…some music…and… also the girls should all be sweet and funny and cool”

That would completely cover my sessions with Kate, Holly and Brittany.  Seriously.

And while I’m at it — how about a couple of IN-CREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL brides who absolutely ROCKED out their weddings?  Yeah.  That would be Jessica and Suzanne.  I’m so lucky.

A Tam Week To Remember.

Love You All.

Also — a note to seniors.  I am almost 100% booked.  And by that I mean like…99.99% — so if you’re thinking of working with me?

You know what to do, right?

Yeah.