MEF Photography Blog! » San Francisco-Based Wedding, Family + Portrait Photography

HELLO, AUGUST.  I AM BLOGGING DURING YOU.  I missed you.  Did you miss me?

What better way to break my blog silence (Silog? Blilence?) than with an engagement session of my newest couple, Maggie + Artur, who are getting married in just about a month.  They are Polish, they are adorable, they are adorably Polish.  They were also extremely nervous to have their pictures taken, but my sense of humor (always underestimated, sadly) put them at ease pretty dang quickly, which you’ll see in just a moment.  At any rate, when we were brainstorming about their engagement session, the only thing they knew they wanted was an urban backdrop, so off to New Haven we went!   Because if New Haven has only two things going for it, those two things would be 1) the York Street Noodle House (Awful website; outstanding noodles.) and 2) gritty buildings.  We even crawled into a condemned one!  Adventure!

So!  Check it out!  And enjoy!  Exclamation point!

How cute is Maggie’s dress?  Right?  I wanted to steal it, too.

This building used to be black and white (I know because I’ve used it before), but they recently painted it yellow.  I love when people choose colors other than neutrals for buildings; it makes my life all the more fun.  And my photos, too!  Like, for instance, this one:

I love Maggie’s smile, too. :)

I always tell my couples to bring things to their sessions that represent “them” — including pets.  This is partly to make their photos more personal, and partly because I LOVE PETS.  (Yep.  Selfish.)  Maggie + Artur brought along their new puppy, who was such a momma’s boy; he haaaaated being tied up out of the frame while we worked.  But his anticipation was also pretty flipping cute.  Maggie + Artur in front of me.  Echo to my right.

Tangent Alert:  For awhile now, every time I process photos I feel like I’m missing something, like something isn’t quite right.  Not that the product I’m producing is bad, mind you, but that somehow it isn’t me enough.  I’ve always had this problem with a lot of visual aspects of life, in fact (my branding, the way I furnish / decorate my apartment, my wardrobe), because I am drawn to two very different and distinct styles — clean, slick and bright modern, and rustic, layered and warm antique.  And so far, I’ve yet to find a way to comfortably overlap them.  Frustrating, right?  TELL ME ABOUT IT.

But today I finally feel like I GOT it with my photos.  I finally feel like these are me.  They’re bright and colorful without being neon-80s-hypercolor (and yes, I’ve been guilty of overdoing this), and they’re warm and soft while maintaining good contrast and not caving to some of the trends I see sweeping the industry right now.  And most importantly, they don’t look like they’ve been fiddled with TOO much — they’re still about the photo, instead of being about the processing (a personal photography pet peeve).  I’m not claiming perfection, and I’m sure somebody would be happy to disagree with me about this assessment, but dang it, I feel GOOD about my process now.  And that is a serious breath of fresh air.

Would you like an example?  I have a couple of favorites (If you haven’t noticed, I can never pick just one) — this is the first!

Don’t you want to climb this ladder?

Favorite #2.  I HATE that it’s tilted (I was laying on the ground in a really weird way and my glasses had just fallen off my head and gotten scratched on the pavement), but I LOVE the architecture, the body language, the light, the colors.  Give a little, get a little. :)

That cool building above is actually the corner of the New Haven Fire Department Headquarters.  Artur wanted to take a photo on the truck and waltzed right on in to ask permission from one of the firemen, who graciously agreed and kept Echo company for us so he didn’t spend the whole time crying.  Public service!  Fun, right?

It’s such a great building.  There is most definitely not enough of this type of architecture in New England.

Of course I couldn’t finish the day without a few “family” portraits.  Love the one on the right.

Maggie + Artur first met while out with friends.  They went out, had a nice time, exchanged phone numbers… and then Maggie didn’t call.  For three months.  For three whole months, she didn’t call and he waited.  And then one day his phone rang.  I think he’s pretty happy he exercised patience, don’t you?  Sometimes things just happen when they’re supposed to.

Seriously.  Want to steal that outfit.  Also?  Love this photo.

Aaaand, last but not least, favorite #3.  Hello, hot?

Maggie, Artur, you two did an awesome job (just as I predicted you would!).  I hope you love these, and I’ll see you in a month (A MONTH!!!). :)

Like the champion blogger that I am, I’ve let myself fall way behind on posting sessions, so.. expect more of those soon!

I don’t know much about superstitions or how they really work.  I don’t necessarily believe in them, either, but I’ve never seen the harm in abiding by the easier ones.  No opening umbrellas inside (why would anyone do this, anyway?), no walking under ladders (uh, dangerous?), chucking a little spilled salt over my shoulder when necessary, etc.  All I’ll say is that this behavior is not NOT working, and in some strange way it eases the mind.

Okay, so rewind to a couple of weeks ago when Honey accidentally dropped our hand mirror in the bathroom, breaking it into a couple of pieces.  I know it was his gaffe, but certainly there’s some kind of transference that can happen here — we live in the same house, I’m likely to be affected should his luck turn south, right?  If we were smart, we would have destroyed the karmic evidence.  But we’re also a little cheap, and we decided the remnants were serviceable enough to puzzle back together into workable condition.  And they were!  And our luck seemed unaffected!  At least until Honey went and dropped it again, causing what was left to shatter well beyond repair (he even broke the plastic this time!).  Now I was markedly worried.  And as we swept up the pieces, I questioned whether or not those seven-year sentences would run concurrently or consecutively, and asked the Luck Gods if they could have mercy on his (our) clumsy soul as they considered his (our) fate.  I mean, really, I’m not superstitious, but TWO broken mirrors in a month?  Surely we were pushing something here — dare I say our luck?

But you know what?  I’m not worried about it anymore.  Well, I’m not worried about MY luck, at least.  Because if there really were 14 years of misfortune on my horizon, there is no way I could have been blessed with two AWESOME couples two weekends in a row.  A lady with bad luck doesn’t get this kind of break.  And what a break it was.

So, without further ado, meet Katie + Dustin, the dancer and the physical therapist — a match made in heaven, I’d say. :)

We started off at Cranbury Park here in Norwalk.  I’d never been, and I was definitely not disappointed.  Finding a pocket of beautiful light is always a pleasant surprise, too (good luck, maybe?).  Especially when you stick an equally beautiful couple in it.

Katie + Dustin are wonderful.  They’re happy, they’re fun, they’re humble, they’re great sports.  And, always my favorite, they love to laugh. :D

Katie was also a total trooper.  She trod through the mosquito-y woods in high heels, just because I said it would be a good idea.  And it was!

My favorite.  So soft:

They had champion serious faces.

Katie specifically requested a “lying in the grass in opposite directions” shot.  Mission accomplished.

One of the things I loved about Katie is that she was full of ideas and suggestions.  She was always ready to jump in with a great “What if…” that, when combined with my own, turned out phenomenal.  This was a “What if we run around holding hands?” plus a “What if you run into the sunset?”  IT WILL MAKE FOR AN AWESOME PHOTO, THAT’S WHAT IF.

Alright, look.  I know you can’t see their faces — I know that.  But I love this photo, and so I’m going to put on my English Major Hat and tell you that it’s a metaphor, which you are to interpret as you will.  See what I did there?  I just elevated my photography to “art.”

You can’t tell me this next photo doesn’t make you want to go play outside.  And if you CAN tell me, this is your official notice that I don’t want to hear it.  Keep it to yourself, buzzkill.

The sun was setting pretty fast by the time we were finished with a serious amount of frolicking, so we packed up and headed south toward the water where the real fun began.  Speaking of fun: everyone, meet Molly (no, not me… the other Molly).

So, Molly is a fairly common dog name, and generally speaking, people have two methods by which they tell me their dog and I share the moniker.  One is to get REALLY EXCITED ABOUT IT AND TELL ME IT IS HILARIOUS HAHA OH MY GOODNESS HAHAHA.  The other is to be a little embarrassed (I assume for the dog).  :)  Personally, I think it’s great.  Aside from a brief period in 4th grade when I wanted to change my name to some form of crystalline substance (Diamond, Amethyst, Idiot), I’ve always love my name.  LOVE it.  Logically, I think it’s equally great when applied to other people and things (except for, I don’t know, murderers).  This little Molly was no exception.  If I remember correctly, she’s 12 years old, knows only one trick (which you’ll see momentarily), and, because of her constant sniffling and snorting, sounds like a K-9 Geiger Counter.  Think endless clicking.

She is also mildly narcoleptic, and will fall asleep if not being spoken to directly.  Getting these shots was harder than you might think. :)

That trick I mentioned?  Yeah, she hugs.  We have more than a name in common!

We left Molly in the car (oh, how many times this has been said about me) thanks to rule #3, and headed to the beach.  P.S. Who besides me wants to play with a motorized, non-motorized, or floating sand wheelchair?  Nobody?

It was right at sunset, which means it was too late to rent one anyway, but it made for some pretty sweet light.  Love the one on the right.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed yet, but a lot of my photos make me laugh.  Here’s another one:

Dustin is about 95 feet tall, so imagine how high above my head I was holding the camera for this one.

As I said earlier, Katie is a dancer and dance teacher (which means I am really looking forward to their reception), and she wanted at least one “dance-like” photo.  Does this qualify?

We had a really relaxed time together, and I think it shows.  Katie, Dustin, you guys are a blast and I’m counting down the days until your wedding (as if you two aren’t!).  Enjoy your photos.  Lord knows I am! :)

Being around Marta and Gwaki was a bizarre experience.  But don’t take that the wrong way!  These two are outstanding.  Fabulous.  Joyous.  Not to mention hilarious.  (And in a minute you’ll understand that I’m sort of complimenting myself here.)

What made photographing their engagement session at the Hudson River Parkway in New York City bizarre was that I felt like I was watching Glen and myself together.  Well, a much tanner version of me and Glen, but the two of us nonetheless.  From the way they interact, to their demonstrations of affection, to their senses of humor — all the way down to some of the EXACT jokes they tell each other — IT WAS US!  I can’t tell you how many times during the day I found myself laughing with the two of them, feeling like I was right at home.  It was sometimes hard to remember I was there to do a job!  But do my job I did, and I think it turned out pretty dang well.

So, meet Marta and Gwaki, a ridiculously fun and happy couple who took me to New York City for the second time in my life, and made it a great day.  Now, to convince them to hang out with me and Glen!  Ha!

We started out on a very misty, very early morning under the George Washington Bridge, which makes for a surprisingly beautiful backdrop.

…right beside the quite aptly named “Little Red Lighthouse.”  Oh, New Yorkers, you’re so literal.

This series makes me laugh.  So many times we’d start off being serious, but it always pretty quickly devolved (in a good way!) into hilarity.  That last photo is a perfect example of how fun these guys are.

I think this is my favorite image from the day.  It was hard to decide, but the emotion in it sold me. Happiness. :)

Yet another example of “them.” :D

I smile so big every time I look at this one.

This is Marta.  She is beautiful.  The End.

I was just messing with you.  That wasn’t really the end.  You’ll never trust me again, will you?

This was our view all day.  Morning Fog Manhattan.  Which sort of sounds like the name of an alcoholic beverage.

Okay, but I love this one, too.  Am I allowed two favorites?  Wait, you don’t make the rules — why am I asking you?  I say, “Yes.”  Yes I am.

Despite my protests that we were going to die from the intake of pollutants, Marta insisted I try a mulberry off of the many mulberry trees that line the pathways of Hudson River Parkway.  Obviously, I’m still alive, what with the blogging and all, and I’m happy to report that mulberries are quite tasty.  In fact, just the other morning as I was driving Honey to work (his car was in the shop), I saw a group of people collecting mulberries from trees in my neighborhood.  Who knew?  At any rate, I took this photo (in case I needed to be rushed to the hospital from exhaust poisoning and needed to show the paramedics why I was unable to speak) and absolutely fell in love with it.  I think I’m going to print it on canvas and hang it in my house.

In the photo on the right, they both started blowing away a piece of floating detritus (pollen or a feather or some such nonsense), and it was too cute to not to snap a shot.

At one point I asked them to give me a bit of drama, and Marta broke into a full scene from a Spanish soap opera, complete with overacted bodily flourishes and dialogue, of which I caught very little, but which included something about not being able to marry Gwaki because he was already married to another woman and a whole lot else I didn’t understand.  I’m not doing it justice, but suffice it to say, it was a fun morning.  We laughed a lot.

A lot a lot.

By the time we executed this shot, the volume of bikers in the park had greatly decreased, so we had to wait for awhile to get a good couple of passers by.  Marta and Gwaki are very patient people.  I like it. :)

How could you not enjoy taking pictures of people who are just like you?  Especially when they’re so good looking!  And jubilant!  And photogenic!  And and and!

And I’m almost caught up with blog posts!  But not quite!  So stay tuned!  Exclamation points!