I could tell from the moment I first met these guys that they knew, they really KNEW who they were as a couple. When they decided they wanted to shoot part of their engagement session in an Olympic-sized pool (Yes! In the water!!) because Josh was a competitive swimmer, I knew their wedding was going to be a beautiful celebration of who they are. 

They share so much tenderness and love.

That tenderness and love made its way to every little detail of their day. Josh and Anat took their traditional Jewish wedding and filled the entire day with gorgeous details and really personal touches. Both their wedding and reception were held at the beautiful Rabbit Room at the Lower Mill in Honeoye Falls, and every last detail from Anat’s dress to the desserts was gentle and sophisticated, natural and warm, and complimented the atmosphere of love and laughter that these two share with their family and friends. Even the centerpieces were a touch from home, as Arena’s Florist worked with Anat’s own personal collection of vintage glass bottles.

But while Anat and Josh’s wedding was a stunning expression of their love and their relationship, the day was not just about them either. They were surrounded by a very warm and loving crowd of friends and family, and you could tell that their wedding was also a beautiful celebration of the people in their lives who are so close and dear to them.

There was so much warmth and affection that radiated from these families, and myself and Brandon Vick, who I had the pleasure of having as a second shooter, were touched. Thank you, Anat and Josh, for making me a part of your beautiful day!

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::

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.

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.

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.

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….

Travel.

Catch up.

Someone said something nice about me – -holla!

A tiny sneak peek.  SO MANY MORE NEED TO BE POSTED.  And will.  Soon.

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!!