Well after a much deserved two week hiatus we’re back in full swing and there’s no stopping…. not until November at least. So we set off the 2nd half of our season with an awesome wedding. Kate & Francois had a wonderful reception at Kate’s parents house in Slingerlands. It was obviously an outdoor event and with this summers weather you just never know what to expect until the day of and this day turned out to be an outdoor weddings dream. Their ceremony was at St Thomas Church in Delmar by one of the coolest officiants ever, Father James Walsh. After the ceremony guests were bussed to the reception where who other then the Glen Sanders team was waiting with champagne and hors d’oeuvres. We also worked alongside John & Diane from Video Craft and they did their thing capturing all the motion. Huge props to Katie O’Malley the VP of Sparkle & Romance for Destination Bride, you’ll hear me from time to time say how great wedding planners are, all brides should consider them. Also every wedding needs a cherry on top and thats where David Michael Schmidt of Renaissance Floral Design comes into play. The flowers and linens looked stunning. So Kate, Francois and the Noonan family, thanks for having us and congrats to you all.

Enjoy, leave love,
JP

A good looking crew of ladies…

I love the juxtaposition here:

That same group of ladies…

Kate really had an elegant & classic look.

Fracois sees his bride for the first time.

A nice little moment.

How bout Kate’s hair? Props to my mom Theresa. Thats right, my mom’s one of the best stylist around.

Two different angles of the same moment:

A classic b&w combo here:

Katie & Fracois had the band Body & Soul on the scene. The guests were dancing all night long.

cheers!

Normally I don’t show group shots here but with all these good looking people I thought why not.

So then the real photographer showed up. David Michael Schmidt of Renaissance Floral Design & Katie O’Malley from Destination Bride

As the night got darker the room changed colors.

Another shot I normally don’t show but I liked it… Kate did not do a garter, most brides don’t ;)

So I’ll leave you with something new we’re offering. The do it yourself photo booth. Thats right, guests can walk into this mini studio and simply click the button on the remote in Kate’s hand and take their own pictures. So here’s a small sampling of some of those images… the later the night gets the more interesting the images become. Upcoming brides and grooms let me know if your interested.

Yes! There’s nothing more I love than sharing my work with you all. This particular shoot I’m a little more excited to share since it’s accompanied by some sweet video (all the way at the bottom of the post). Natalie & Ryan’s engagement session had a lot of fun stuff going on folks. Aside from the couple I think the wardrobe changes, the props, the location and the good good light are some of my favorite things in this particular session. Incase you haven’t noticed, different, unique locations are a big part of what my engagement sessions are all about. I’m not a huge fan of repeat locations and spots. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t shoot at the same place twice, it just means I’ll always try to make it different every time for every couple. Big Joe once said something like this ” its special people in ordinary places” and I totally agree with him. Sure Fenway Park or Saratoga Race Track are special locations but when I put our subjects in the location the backdrop becomes ordinary. In a nutshell  it means our clients are more awesome than any location could ever be. Maybe I’m rambling a little but thats my shooting philosophy. So anyway when Natalie & I began brainstorming about none other than the perfect location we hit a little road bump. The idea we had wasn’t jiving with our schedules and what not. So we thought about some spots and long story short we ended up on this piece of land with a barn and some hills. We thought since we were going to shoot in the middle of nowhere some props would be good. So we ended up with some balloons, blowup hearts, some flowers we never really used, a guitar, a dog and a red wicker chair. After non stop evenings of rain and gloom mother nature hooked us up with what was a perfect night. The rest folks is history.

So when it comes to the fun little video below basically it goes like this. I knew this would be a perfect shoot for my man the one and only Al Woodard of Al Woodard Films to document me doing my thing. So that day with 3 hours notice I called Al and like a true loyal friend he came out for an hour and did his thing. Al hooked me up with some crazy footage and I edited it down into an eight minute recap of what was an hour and a half session. Again let me stress that I edited the video, if Al had edited for me I’m sure it would be on a level of quality I couldn’t begin to fathom. Since Al had to roll out early and I do my token “bling shot” at the end of all my engagement sessions I had Natalie’s sister shoot me doing that and Becky I thank you for that! I thank Al for taking care of me and most importantly the bride and groom to be Natalie & Ryan, coming to a JEP blog near you in June of 2010.

Enjoy, leave love,
JP

When an engagement session starts with the good good light like this you know its going to be a good good night.

How perfect is that yellow balloon and the yellow scarf?

I’m really digging these two next to each other.

YES! That sky is wild. One of my favorites from the casual series.

This barn wears b&w so well.

Wardrobe change… one of my favorite shots from the green dress series.

and the light got better…

Seriously how cool are these hearts?

One more wardrobe change by Natalie.

The dress choice perfect for the balloons. This is one of my favorites.

I can’t wait to photograph her as a bride.

I had to give Natalie & Ryan’s boxer Casco some blog love.

So Ryan busts out the acoustic and starts playing Dave Matthews and Natalie tells me her brothers in a DMB tribute band. This couple just got way more cooler. Ryan’s good too, I was bout to put my camera down and start requesting tunes.

and as we always do it here folks. my token “bling shot”

Heres the video. I know I can be a goof sometimes but its all about having fun right? Also since these two are dmb fans I had to throw some in.

Wow! What a sweet engagement shoot with unbelievable light to boot. BIG thanks to my man videographer Al Woodard for coming out on such short notice and documenting me doing my thang. Coming soon to a JEP blog near you.

Enjoy, leave love & happy friday!
JP

Gosh I don’t even know where to start with this one. Sherry, Stephen & I go way back and when it comes to good friends you’ve known for years the pressure is on to get good stuff. Especially since Stephen built me what I think is the most bad ass blog-site on the scene so I had to show him my skills too. Some of you readers and might recognize these two anyways. Sherry had been part of the wedding entertainment scene for years. Her voice was simply beautiful and her stage presence always shined. She killed it wedding after wedding. And Stephen slapped a mean bass around on the stage himself. There were many times at weddings he’d ad a little something extra to any given wedding standard and my ear would catch it. I’d look up at Steph and I’d smile, he’d give me that token Stephen smirk as if to say yep that was me and go on playing. I love surrounding myself with talented, creative people and these two got it going on. I can say this is the shortest engagement session I’ve shot in terms of when they will head down the aisle. Just 17 days to go until Sherry & Stephen tie the knot and I’ll be right there to capture it all. These images also prove that its never too late to get your engagement session on.

Enjoy, leave love,
JP

Lets start out on a nice little color palette. Very summery.

Stephen makes Sherry laugh and smile all the time.

What a cool little alley. Troys got em’

This is my favorite from this set.

The tones and warmth is rocking. Troy’s antique district is a great spot to shoot.

Except nothings open…

Since music’s kind of their thing how could we pass this up? Here’s that token Stephen smirk too.

I love making the sun look like a star… fstops 101 folks.

A change of clothes… off to my favorite steps.

And my favorite black wall/fence/door.

Just a nice clean portrait.

Just when I thought the gold stuff was gone.. boooya! Easily my favorite series of the night.

Shooting into the lights always fun.

Not too bad when you turn around either.

But I’ll shoot back into it for my token bling shot. This a red hot bling shot. July light simply rocks.

One more fun one.What a fun shoot! 17 days to go!