Every now and then I get a chance to shoot an adorable baby. Usually the baby is one of my past bride & grooms since thats what people do after they get married. Esther however is the niece of one of my past bride and grooms Andrea & Andy. Andrea’s brother Phil and his wife Andi were given a gift certificate from Grandma Lodico for a shoot. Since this family lives out of town we coordinated schedules and a little over a month ago this is what we got. How cute is Esther though? Actually the whole family is pretty good looking.

Enjoy, leave love,
JP

When we first started Esther wasn’t too into me….

Then she came around.

A couple solos with Mom.

Not to leave out Dad.

I just love this outtake!

This one is going to make a sweet gallery wrap.

Fun little series.

Get your crawl on Esther!

I love this one.

And I’ll leave you with one of my favorites.

August seems to be the month for long time no see venues. The Desmond is another one we haven’t worked at in a while. It’s always fun to come back to a place you haven’t worked at in a while and leave that night feeling like you knocked it out of the park, kinda like A-Rod did that night when I returned home from this wedding. Anway, Melissa & Cory were another one of those real easy going relaxed couples. From the point when we arrived Melissa was looking great and was ready to get into her gown. We stepped out front of the hotel for some portraits and then it was off to Kings St (its a room) for their ceremony. The Desmond has a great coordinator Amanda who works with all the couples closely making sure things are on time and everything goes smoothly. That being said the 6 o’clock ceremony was smoothly executed on time. After the ceremony we snuck outside for some photos in the good good light. We have some spots we use at this hotel but in this particular spot the light it always great. Melissa & Cory I thank you for having us capture your day and we all should specially thank Cory for his services to our country.

Enjoy, leave love,
JP

Ya gotta love a sexy little bride.

Its always nice having a fun crew of bridesmaids too.

I think they were giving me their diva pose or maybe a plane was flying by?

Melissa was easy to photograph.

One more of the bride.

Pink was obviously her color.

The Desmond has plenty of foliage so I used it for the ring shot.

I love this shot of the guys.

This grouping is pretty cool too.

Backlit bridal party shot for you.

Go get her Cory…

Might be my fav of the night.

This ones pretty sweet too.

Gotta love those pink shoes right?

Whats a blog post without a b&w?

I like this series of their first dance.

I’ll close with a Desmond standard.

It’s been a while since I’ve shot an engagement session in downtown Albany but I always enjoy this piece of canvas. It really is awesome having this city right in my backyard. So Courtney & Jeff are currently living in Boston (sorry about the last four days, go yanks) and are down to the wire for their September 6th wedding. Courtney & Jeff hired us pretty much over the internet and a phone call with out ever coming in which is what a lot of our clients do since everyone seems to be out of town. So this engagement session was the first time I’ve ever met them. We always love meeting our clients if we can but now we have this enagagement session under our belts come September 6th we’ll be best buds ;). Downtown Albany couldn’t have been better too. The locations we shot in and the light we were given was awesome. I’m stoked to share this one with ya’ll. Happy Monday!

Enjoy, leave love,
JP

Parking lots rock.

A nice detail of e beautiful ring.

One of the last cobblestone streets in Albany.

While shooting the image on the left I noticed the image on the right and pounced on it.

For the photo buffs, the next three images are three different lenses against my favorite color. My 50mm 1.2L.

Ran across the street and busted out the 200mm 1.8L. Love the compression. This is my favorite image from the first set also.

Last but not least the 24mm 1.4L.

The good good light peaked out.

Just a nice little portrait.

A wardrobe change and we move to a higher location.

Look at this yummy golden light!

Easily my favorite of this second set.

Work it out Courtney haha!

When I was taking these pictures I was lying on my back on the hot pavement while this light washed everything in gold and I stopped shooting for like 5 seconds and said “I love my job!”. Seriously how cool is my job?

One more nice little portrait. This was literately the last second of the good good light.

So at that point I ended the shoot with what else but my token “bling shot”.

What can be said about this one? Well for starters Lisa & Jerome were one of the most easy going couples on the planet. I don’t think there was a single second of pressure throughout the whole day. As I mentioned back in October of 2008 when I posted their engagement session Lisa & Jerome are huge Dave Matthews Band fans along with a crazy obsession with the New York Yankees. Needless to say I knew we’d all be a match made in heaven. So yes Saturday was a 12 hour job for us but when your working with a couple like Lisa & Jerome time really does fly. What a fun day!

With all the rain this season who’d a thought we would end up with a beautiful day like this? It only was pouring buckets less than 24 hours before our 11am start time. We started at Lisa’s parents home down in Valatie. It was a bright and warm morning and no clouds were to be found. We then ventured down the road to meet up with Jerome and the guys at the church. On our way there Big Joe and I saw something we both liked, a big huge open field. BOOM! It was a must the we stop here after the ceremony. Lisa & Jerome were game plus we had some time built in since their cocktail hour didn’t start until 5:30pm. So we did some fun photos in this field for all of 10 minutes. Videographer Al Woodard was on the scene and the footage he was getting in this field was absolutely bananas. So then it was back to our originally scheduled program which was off to Troy for some shots at Russell Sage Campus for a couple more ops. By that time it was 4:45pm and they a little less than an hour to kill before their cocktail hour technically started. That didn’t matter because the boys at Franklin Plaza are always ready and the were with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres in hand. So now its time to party and the man DJ Andy Pratt was on the scene with Ants Marching bumping while the bridal party entered the ball room. That wasn’t the only DMB tune that evening either, be sure to check out their rings! As always another fun wedding which I thank Lisa & Jerome for making us part of it. Congrats to you both and I hope that surprise Hawaii honeymoon is treating you well.

Enjoy, Leave love,
JP

Its photos like this that remind me why I got into photography.

This one too.

The beautiful bride Lisa.

The ladies.

The men.

Lisa must have took notes… I love when the bride treats her husband to be with a phatty time piece. Jerome rocking a sweet Tag.

A little behind the scenes of the above shot. Looks like our watches were in sync.

If you follow my twitter you might have noticed I tweeted around 1:15 on Saturday about how cool their rings were. Seriously these are the coolest. To have a lyric from their first dance song on each ring is easily the most unique thing I’ve ever seen when it comes to wedding rings. That song btw is Dave Matthews Band – You & Me its a beautiful love song.

I love this little series of Lisa’s father Guy.

This photo if not any photo from this post is one I want you to look at. I see anticipation, love, joy, admiration & excitement. This is easily my favorite from the day. Please feel free to post any other things you see when you look at it. Could be fun.

I think the bridal party thought I was nuts when I was like, ok go out into this field. Brooklyn and Manhattan people can be funny.

This one reminds me of old slide film.

I can’t get enough of the random fields.

This is my favorite shot of the newlywed couple.

I think every bride should be picked up and spun around on their wedding day.

Back to Troy… or back to school in Lisa’s case.

Remember this?

The difference of color in August vs October is wild. August is so fresh and green and October to vivid and warm.

Another side by side. Most weddings you don’t get to go back to your engagement session locations but did this all on purpose.

Fact: Its been 20 months since we’ve worked at Franklin Plaza. This was a place we were at 4-7 times a season! The wedding biz is interesting. Sometimes you can work with a vendor 10 times and never see them again for years.

While I was shooting details they had to step in and ruin my shot ;)

So here we are back in the alley….

Just a little fact about the alley. Once upon a time 13 years ago Big Joe had a vision. A vision that he’d get a bride & groom to step into this filthy, gritty alley in Troy. They said he was daring, maybe even crazy, but June of 1996 Big Joe took threw it out there and boom! Big Joe had always been a pioneer locally when it came to our type of photography. A first at many things. Who’d a thought 13 years later this crazy idea would be a must have for most Franklin Plaza brides? Isn’t that awesome? Personally I think its cool as hell. We’re always trying to be trend setters around here and I hate to sound cocky or self serving but remember where ya saw it first. The Franklin Plaza Alley Shot Est 1996 by Joe M Elario. Oh make sure you ask Pop’s about the Casino window shot if you want a laugh. We’ll get to that another time. ;)

I had to dig deep and brush off the dust but here is the first attempt at the alley shot. June of 1996.

I’m in love with my composition on this one.

A fun one.

A DJ Andy Pratt original. This is a staple that Andy does. The crowd always love’s it.