Posts Tagged ‘engagement portraits rochester ny’
Soooo I might be a little cavalier about parking rules. And…maybe….I don’t pay as close attention to where I should park during a photo session because I get so excited about the light…that all I’m thinking about is getting to it! So when I finished at a location with Colleen and Mark — there was a little present under my windshield wipers. Yuck. Sorry parking lot people. I didn’t notice it wasn’t an “everyone can park here” lot…I promise I won’t do it again. ::sigh:: I couldn’t resist snapping this image though! Funny, right?!
But that’s not the important part of the story. The most important part was the ENTHUSIASM Colleen and Mark displayed for Sugar Mountain Bake Shoppe (on Alexandar St). They insisted it was amazing and could not believe I hadn’t been there. Colleen even went so far to post today’s special cupcake on my facebook!
So I had to go.
I brought my mother.
And guess who was sitting on the porch eating cupcakes?! Yup. Sugar Mountain’s BIGGEST FANS IN THE WORLD! ::laughing:: Here’s what they look like without cupcakes:
So. Then I had to try them myself. One of the owners approached us with a sample of their vanilla cupcake…
Oh. Em. Geee.
So…SIX cupcakes were purchased. And they are so beautiful I had to drive straight home and document them for all time…
Say hello to today’s dessert: Rootbeer Float. Very Vanilla. Caramel Apple. Lemon Raspberry. Pink Lemonade.
They are sweet. yummy and Colleen and Mark were absolutely right. They are DELISH.
Here is my unbiased foody review: They. Are. Yummy.
(My mother likes them too. Her opinion is worth more than mine. She cooks. I don’t.)
Also — I didn’t tell anyone I was writing this. I wasn’t paid to promote Sugar Mountain. I just liked them.
Now I have to go walk around the block 158 times. Cuz. That’s. a lot. of. sugar.
In the days, weeks and months leading up to a wedding, I get to know my couples pretty darn well, and always look forward to the calls and emails from my brides. Seriously…when they have all their photos and married life is well underway, …I miss them. ::sigh::
Shannon and Kieran moved to Baltimore shortly after their wedding, and I love that Shannon sends me little updates, notes about how things are going and just generally to say “hi!”. I LOVED working with these two!!! I mean, how could you not?!?!
Adorable. Right?!?! And SO funny together!!!
So when Shannon started her own blog, Shananigan, it gave me the idea to have her “guest blog” for me about what it was like to be a Tammy bride. While I was thinking more of a eye-witness report of insanity and chaos, Shannon wrote such a sweet and amazing review. I don’t normally post testimonials, but this one was so touching and down to earth, that I had to put it up. So here is Shannon’s post in all of it’s un-cut awesomeness. And just for the record, I totally don’t remember saying anything about Kieran’s eyelashes haha!!!
Tammy is quite possibly the most amazing photographer in all the land. Seriously. This isn’t a joke. She could probably turn water into wine if she tried. I first met Tammy last Fall when we met for a consultation. Tammy immediately put us at ease and you could just tell she knew her stuff. Plus, she liked my fiance’s eyelashes, which was cute. Anyway, I wanted an urban theme for the photos, she picked the place, and the pictures were AHHHH MAAA ZIIING. These things were individual pieces of art. Plus the entire process, from setting up the initial consult to receiving the final photographs, was extremely smooth. Tammy and Jess were always available and promptly responded to anything I had questions about; whether it be when I would get my proofs to why phone books still exist in this digital age (though I’m not sure we came up with a great reason for that one).
Then come the wedding photos! All I can say is I have fallen in love with this woman (and her pictures are alright too). She is so extremely talented it is not funny. Plus she has the best sense of humor and personality. She created such a great rapport with me that I am really going to miss her!!!! I feel like I am losing an appendage and am honestly thinking about getting married again so I can have more pictures take. Ok, that may be a little over-exaggerated. But, she is great to work with and creates wonderful pieces of art. I recommend her to everyone, even if they need a passport photo. I mean, you want to look good when the customs guy in Aruba looks at your photo right!? She is amazingly talented, extremely personable, and just plain cool. Plus, she has Jess working for her too. Bonus.
Double bonus. (haha that was Jess interjecting. but…true. very true. ::grin::)
It was such a joy working with these two!!! They always made me laugh – still do! – and their wedding was so inspiring, such a gorgeous, elegant celebration of their incredible love.
So thank you, Shannon and Kieran!!! I can’t wait to see what adventures are coming next for you! And you’d better keep blogging about them. 
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?!?!
Everyone likes to open presents. I love to see the delight and wonder in people’s eyes as they wrestle with ribbons and pull off paper and ooooo and awwwww over what’s inside. And……I know my brides are going to be opening their fair share of gifts. The martini glasses and quesadilla makers, blenders and Le Creusets. There is so much wonder and excitement when couples first see their wedding images, when they can first relive their incredible day without all the hustle and bustle and nerves of the wedding day. So we thought, why not couple the wonder of opening an amazing gift with the wonder of receiving and seeing your wedding images??!!! Totally makes sense, right?! Right. So…a fabulous new husband and wife just received another wedding gift…
Wait. What? You mean you don’t know what this is?! ‘Cause you got to open it, Silly!
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You still don’t know what it is? Let’s open it a little more!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!! And along with images and other sundry necessities, there are also a few little surprises. No. I’m not telling you what they are. You’ll just have to wait to find out. ::wink wink::
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.
I love – just LOVE – shooting engagement sessions in Manhattan. The color. The texture. The action. It’s always an adventure.
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.
Flu.
Travel.
Catch up.
Someone said something nice about me – -holla!
A tiny sneak peek. SO MANY MORE NEED TO BE POSTED. And will. Soon.
I admit it.
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!!
Um.
Busy week.
I was lucky enough to be able to travel to NYC to photograph three of my couples who are getting married either next month…or next year. I had soooo soooo soooo much fun.
I also got to spend some time with my OWN son who is a senior this year {sniff} and take his senior photographs. How amazing is that? Amazing I tell you. Amazing. I love him soooo much and it was bittersweet taking those pictures. I’m so proud of him.
I love watching the transformation women especially go through during a photo session. Every.single.girl who walks in my door is uncomfortable and uneasy. When they leave — they are relaxed and happy. Always. Trust me on this. One of my girls today said as she was walking out the door — “I feel like I just had a spa treatment”. ::grin:: I thought that was the coolest testimonial ever. Maybe that should be my new tagline. Tammy Swales: Just like a trip to the spa. ::laughing::
I am constantly amazed and awed by my clients. It’s not easy, is it, to stand in front of a camera. All of our insecurities come bubbling up to the surface — every mean thing that anyone said to you in high school and beyond is right on the tip of your tongue. I watch…and watch…those insecurities get tucked away one by one during my photo sessions. I watch people become THEMSELVES. And that, my faithful and incredible blog readers (hi mom) is why I do this. Keeping it real. Keeping YOU real. I love that.
So. Watch with me. All these beautiful talented silly friendly solemn thoughtful people I get to photograph.
Wow.
And yes. I know a pic appears twice. It’s late. I haven’t had caffeine. Plus I like the pic! ::laughing::
And also. I love this one….
So yeah. A good week. A good one.
8.31.2010
Also…how many of you noticed there were only FIVE cupcakes in the photo? One…had an accident. Yeah. Thats it. The dog ate it. Or…something. ::grin::
8.31.2010
Those are some SERIOUSLY gorgeous mounds of sugar (and beautiful pictures, too)!
9.01.2010
Ummmmm…..yeah, I noticed there were only FIVE. I figured it didn’t survive…..kinda hard for those yummy cupcakes to survive ever. And I’m not telling you how I know that
lol.
9.01.2010
Who could blame a dog or anyone for eating the sixth? Besides, I don’t think it would fit on the chair. When I go to Rochester this weekend I might have to pick some up for my family. Of course there’s no guarantee that they can survive the trip home.
9.02.2010
i hate you a little right now; i’m in major diet-land…and these…they are tempting. deeply, deeply tempting.