But who cares?

Neil and Jess braved 12 degree temps and a snow storm for their session.  I wore jeans (WHAT was I thinking) and got completely soaked.

Dana and Mike were fearless on their wedding day and we did ALL their photographs outside!  I was so into it I forgot to put on my coat!  Yeah.  The whole day outside in a shirt.  Go Tam.  ::laughing shaking head.::

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 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?!

Jason and Stephen are my friends.  You may have seen them in photographs I’ve done before for the Rock Paper Scissors website…you may know and love them yourself…or you may be here completely for the first time and stumbling onto this post — but I promise that watching it will bring you into the moment…into the beauty of the relationship that they share…and give you a peek into what LOVE looks like.  LOOKS like.  I know we all have seen many many images where the couple is in love, they get married, they are happy — right?  (And don’t you love them?  They fire me up!).  But Jason and Stephen are in a moment we rarely get to glimpse…pure reaction and spontaneous feeling..and love.

Second:  Behind the Scenes.

Stephen texted me and said…do you think you could photograph the proposal…without being seen?  (paraphrasing here for the sake of brevity.  Really, what is below is where you want to be)  So we brainstormed and ultimately decided that at home…outside on the porch (their favorite spot) with Jason’s beloved sister and brother in law there was the right fit.  I coached Stephen on where Jason should sit…what light had to be on (and it was still really dark — hence the darkness in the images — it wasn’t like I could use any flash!) and how I would let him know once I was in position…

Third:  The Challenge.

All the lights were supposed to be off so I could sneak in the house through the back door (yes, I dressed in black and snuck through neighbors yards.  Whatever it takes, right?  ::grin::),  but when Stephen texted me he was ready…I discovered that the KITCHEN LIGHT WAS STILL ON.  There was no way I could walk in without being seen!!  What to do?  What to do?  I did what any panicking must get the shot photographer would do…I took off my shoes, laid my camera in front of me on the floor and crawled in on my belly…like a snake.  I was SO SCARED I would be discovered!!  ::laughing::  When I got to the couch Stephen came in and turned off the light and I was in pitch darkness.  The only light was coming from the porch.

Fourth:  This is What Happened Next.  (watch all the way to the end)

Click the photo!

Jason and Stephen…I love you both so much.  I was so honored to be part of your moment (vicariously!) and I cried all the way through taking these photographs!  Congratulations!!

Leave them some comment love, people!

xo Tam

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

Annie and Richard’s wedding has been featured in Junebug Wedding‘s style blog What Junebug Loves!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are BEYOND thrilled and want to send a special thanks to Annie and Richard and Junebug Weddings!!!

Annie works for Nickelodeon and Richard teaches tae kwan do, and they combined their lively, creative personalities to fill their day with playful and unique details. The result was a wedding day that was so much fun and super funky – just like them! The Audubon Center in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park was the perfect setting too!

Read all about Annie and Richard’s day from their perspective here! Thank you guys so much! And thank you to the Junebug team!

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?!?!

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.