Caitlin and Jeff's Engagement Session {WNY Portrait Photographer}

 I received an email from Cait two weeks before her wedding thanks to a referral from a portrait client (thanks B Family!). We got together to discuss her wedding plans and immediately I knew I'd love working with this creative and beautiful bride. 

 We planned the engagement session for the next night to allow plenty of time for their event cards and print order to arrive for the big day. Since we'd be shooting at night there were some different places I wanted to shoot so I could play with lighting and exposure, so we did a tour of Buffalo. 

 Things were running late so we didn't get quite the shot I envisioned for the two of them at the Botanical Gardens, but when they arrived we had about 5 minutes of light left and got a beautiful portrait with the building backlit and the clouds rolling in behind them. It took about 4 takes before we could get the 3 second exposure without poor Cait and Jeff shivering (it was very cold).

 We moved onto industrial Buffalo, where I lit one of my favorite images using headlights with the car facing away about 60 degrees. The two of them looked gorgeous together, him in his brown suit and her in her pinup clothes and victory rolls. 

 From there we headed to the General Mills plant to get some shots on their bridge. I loved it! I shot with available lighting for longer exposure times and would be happy to shoot there once every couple weeks. The gorgeous couple seemed to enjoy the location, perhaps because of how many times we did the dip kiss shot in the middle, and the center image below was the centerpiece of their sign in table as an 11x14. 

 Our last location was a lot less urban but still moody due to the lack of light. We shot directly behind the art museum and captured some more romantic images of the two. I love watching people in love just be together.

 I hope you enjoy these as much as I enjoyed shooting them, these are some of my favorite shots.

 Cait and Jeff, huge thank you's to the both of you for being such a great couple to work with! I'll be posting the wedding within a couple of days!

Urban Landscapes

These images are from the second series I was showing at the Celebration of the Arts on Oct. 30th. They were shot over a period of 8 months in the Buffalo/Niagara Falls area and are some of my favorites to date.

Everywhere I've lived has invoked a strong feeling of one sort or another from me. Whether it was awe of my surroundings in the Mid-West, a sense of urgency while living in the larger East coast cities or relaxed when I lived in the mountain towns of W. Virginia. No place has quite roused the same feeling in me that W.N.Y. does. At times, it seems like rather large, once booming areas have become ghost towns. Other times it is so vibrant and rich with culture, but what I find most beautiful about the areas are the abandoned buildings, defunct factories, grafitti on the walls and finding items that were set down to be picked up later but never were.

Some of the shots for the series felt very lonely to me, so I took a lot of time considering the post production work I put into them.

The first and last image posted here seemed to get the most response in the show, and I have decided to only release 10 16x24 prints to be sold. They are each numbered and signed and can be framed.

Prints of all the images are available for sale, and if you are interested in pricing information and seeing the entire collection, please leave me a comment with your contact info.