Kim and John met working at a restaurant together when they both lived in Albany. They were apart for a while when John moved to the NYC but of course the call of the city (and perhaps John?) brought Kim to Manhattan shortly thereafter. We met them on a bright and sunny day in NYC for session in Central Park. We love shooting in Central Park because no matter how many times we shoot there it never gets old. There are so many pretty spots then you add in some pretty light and BOOM! you have one amazing engagement session. It didn’t hurt that despite the fact that Albany had already lost all its leaves many weeks before, New York City was still awash in beautiful fall colors.

Once we were done in Central Park we took a cab to Times Square. I am not sure how but even on a Wednesday night in November it was really busy. NYC always manages to live up to its reputation as the city that never sleeps. After a quick outfit change we headed out to brave the cold and get some cute night shots in the center of Times Square. It was a little crowded and crazy but I think the pictures were so worth it.

We hope you are enjoying the last of the 2011 sessions. Check back next year for pictures of Kim and John’s beautiful wedding at Canfield Casino. Canfield is definitely one of our favorite locations in Saratoga Springs and we are so excited to be a part of their wedding day!

Yeah, we had killer awesome light the whole day. Loved it!

The cute couple didn’t hurt things either!

John obviously makes Kim really happy, and we LOVED capturing that.

Gonna get a little dark and moody on this one. I love spots like this in Central Park.

This one is my favorite, and lisa’s favorite too!

Golden awesomeness.

All the leaved had changed, but most hadn’t fallen off yet. Absolute perfection.

This next one was our Facebook teaser. Make sure you like our page if you haven’t already so you can be the first to see their wedding pics! This is the famous Mall in central park. It’s ALWAYS swarming with people. Isn’t it amazing to see it empty? Wonder how we did it? Well, I’m not saying we jumped over any barriers or gates to get this shot, because that would be wrong…

Off to our favorite little spot in Times Square to finish off the night.

So romantic…

Gotta show off the bling to finish it off with our signature shot.

We hope everyone enjoyed these and that you’re all as excited as we are for their Canfield Casino wedding next year! This will also be the last new stuff you’ll see on the blog till after the holidays, so we wanted to wish everyone Happy Holidays!

We met Laurie and Joe just three months before their wedding in the lobby of a hotel we were staying in while visiting Manhattan to shoot Kelly and Brian’s engagement session (if you scroll down to the post before this, you can see their wedding!). A month and a half later we were in Manhattan and Astoria, Queens to shoot Laurie and Joe’s awesome engagement session. On the day of the wedding, they opted for a first look which allowed us to give them some private time to see each other for the first time and get all of their pictures done before the wedding, as the sunset ceremony wouldn’t have allowed us time after the wedding.

The ceremony and reception were held at The View on the Hudson, which is located in the cute little town of Piermont, NY, Just across the Tappan Zee Bridge from New York City. After a sweet indoor ceremony in the ballroom, they headed of to their cocktail hour filled with some AMAZING food. Our favorite part of the cocktail hour is seeing all of the interesting food displays and appetizers. Laurie and Joe were able to enjoy their cocktail hour and visit with all of their guest who had come from all over the country to their wedding. After, cocktail hour they entered into their reception and did probably to most beautiful and sophisticated first dance we have seen in a long time. Of course, we had to head outside and do an after dark session lit by the Tappan Zee to close it all out.

Laurie and Joe-Thank you for letting us be a part of your day. We loved getting to explore Piermont and meet your families. It was such a joy to work with you and we hope you enjoy your pictures!

Laurie and Joe got ready at the Pearl River Hilton, which is seriously one of the coolest Hilton hotels we have ever seen.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the hotel…

Time to head over to the View on the Hudson for their first look! Here are a few of Joe hanging out. He claims he wasn’t anxious yet:

And then Laurie showed up…

Yeah, sure, he’s not looking anxious AT ALL here

AND the reveal.

We love getting emotional moments like this during a first look.

Now, a few cool portraits of our Bride and Groom around downtown Piermont (it’s really small, downtown is kinda the whole city). It did have this really cool old steam engine though.

There were some elderly residents nearby that said we HAD to take a photo in the gazebo, so we obliged, but did it with our own style.

A view of the View on the Hudson. No pun intended. OK, maybe a little pun.

We just loved the view overlooking the Hudson, the docks, and the Tappan Zee Bridge.

The ladies:

And the gentlemen:

A little relaxation on the deck before the ceremony:

She was definitely ready to get the party going!

It’s ceremony time!

A nice moment with dad.

Even with the first look, the walk down the aisle was STILL really emotional.

The threat of rain may have moved the ceremony inside, but it certainly didn’t spoil the view.

The bride and bridesmaids had a shot later in the night, and I grabbed this shot of the bartender. I love it, so guess what? I’m posting it.

What’s a Scott Kretschmann wedding without the signature After Dark Session?

I love how they’re silhouetted against the Tappan Zee.

We’re going to finish off with the one you saw first, the facebook teaser. Goodnight everyone!

Welcome back to the second half of Laurie and Joe’s engagement session! We have been hard at work getting their pictures done in time for their wedding next month. After our trip on the subway (as seen in Part 1) we moved on to the place where it all began – a wine bar called Winegasm in Astoria, Queens. The name sounds a little strange but it is seriously the cutest little bar in Astoria. It was here over glasses of wine that Laurie and Joe met and fell in love. E-sessions are so much better when the locations are important and really say something about the couple. It was so wonderful to get to visit the place where they fell in love and share a glass of wine. The staff was really wonderful and they let us take over the place for a little while.

After we finished at the wine bar, we raced to the west village to get some more shots before the oncoming rainstorm hit. It was looking pretty ominous on the radar image on the iPhone, but we decided to chance it. Turns out that the rain beat us. A quick run into the local Walgreens for an umbrella and we got right back to it!  I know that the golden light is beautiful but something about the rain is incredibly romantic. Laurie and Joe were so wonderful and adapted nicely to the change in weather. They got a little wet but it was totally worth it. There is too much to love about the pictures-the colors, the reflections, the romance. As Lisa would say..swoonworthy. The teaser pic from the pier got some rave reviews so we can’t wait to see what you think of the rest of the pictures. We are so happy that we had a couple who was so ready and willing to do anything we asked in order to get some great pictures.  Thank you for checking out the blog post and we hope you love these pictures as much as we do!

A little look back at the place they met:

I love this one. Makes me feel like we were peeking in at a genuine moment:

Yeah, the name of the place cracks me up, but I love it!

Then it was off back to Manhattan! We thought we might beat the rain, but we were wrong. Still, we found this pier in the west village – the wet wood made for the perfect reflecting surface and made for some killer images! This next one was our Facebook teaser. Go like our page and see these first!

This picture feels so vintage and romantic in black and white:

I just love how the wood became a mirror in the rain:

It was REALLY windy, and the umbrella turned inside out a couple of times, but I love how it added a little motion to the images. We didn’t even need a fan to give her that super model hair blowing look

Walking through the West Village, we came across one of NYC’s great cobblestone streets. The stones glistened in the rain, and we knew we had to stop and shoot.

This next one is totally one of my favorite images from the session. The kiss, the couple, the cobblestone, the rain, and the vintage black and white. It just came together so perfectly.

On our way back at the end of the day, we walked through the meatpacking district and got a couple of cool shots to finish off the session.

The taxi whizzing by at dusk on the wet streets. Love. We can’t get enough of shooting in NYC with scenes like this.

Thanks so such for checking out the blog, and we really hope you enjoyed the photos! Laurie and Joe, thank you so much for rolling with the punches, getting a little damp…or drenched….and showing us your world. We had a blast and can’t wait to come back downstate for your wedding next month!

Laurie and Joe came to us as a referral from another photographer friend of ours all the way out in California – totally a small world sometimes! They met with us during one of our days shooting down in New York City and we hit it off instantly. We knew right then that working with these two was going to be a blast.  What can we say about Laurie and Joe? They like Super Troopers and they met at a bar called Winegasm. We kid you not. Those two facts explain perfectly why they are our kind of couple. If you hang around us you will find out that we quote Super Troopers on a fairly regular basis so needless to say this turned out to be a fun engagement session. Laurie and Joe picked some great locations that were not only personal to them but had a little bit of a New York City flare. Add in a couple of funny people, some great movie quotes, and you have the makings of an amazing engagement session.

Laurie wanted to take some pictures on the subway so Lisa did a lot of research and found the coolest subway station ever. Seriously. It had a long brushed metal wall that just begged to be photographed. It was the perfect way to begin the session and we created some amazing shots. We moved into the subway and even though it was ridiculously hot, Laurie and Joe were still laughing and having a good time. We even managed to get an empty subway car for a few minutes to get some cool photos. We love those random, lucky moments that can only happen in NYC.

We hope you enjoy this first blog post from our time in New York City and that you have as much fun looking at them as we had taking them. Stay tuned for part two, when we head off to their home borough of Queens, coming soon! For now, enjoy part one!

Yeah, this wall by the subway station made the coolest backdrop. We totally need a wall like this.

We normally finish off a session with our signature shot. Today we feel like starting off with it! Never hurts to switch things up a bit and keep it fresh.

Laurie didn’t need much time to get warmed up to start working it for the camera.

Gotta love a classic and romantic black and white:

Is there anything not to love about the picture-the colors, the cool wall, the adorable couple?

Time to head down into the subway! I love combining the grittiness of the NYC subways with a hot couple.

We were lucky enough to find a completely empty subway car in the middle of the afternoon. Normally you need to be shooting in the early morning hours to find that!

This next one just screams NYC to me:

We hope you enjoyed part 1, be sure to come back tomorrow for Part 2, from Astoria, Queens and the West Village / Meatpacking District!

Welcome back to the blog! After digging ourselves out from the snow over here in Troy, NY (twice now in the last 2 weeks) we managed to get a lot of editing done and we are happy to bring you Juan and Tehra’s engagement session. Juan and Tehra are cool, fun, and crazy in love which showed in their session in NYC. We love it when we clients trust us to capture amazing images, and to do so, these two let us take them all around lower Manhattan, across the Brooklyn Bridge, and across into Dumbo in sub-freezing temperatures to capture these images. These two were dressed to the nines despite the cold weather, and Tehra’s red dress gave this bleak, winter New York City day a great pop of color. We had a blast and can’t wait for their wedding at the Palace Theater in Albany, NY this summer!




Check out this slideshow of some of our favorites, and click the link afterwards to see the gallery. Don’t forget to turn up the volume and watch it in full screen!

We’re about to head down to New York City again first thing tomorrow morning to shoot another rockin’ engagement session, but we wanted to be able to show off the final product from our last NYC session first! Meredith and Dan took us all over Manhattan and into Brooklyn, including Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, and DUMBO (no, not the elephant, rather the part of Brooklyn known as Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass) – we caught such amazing sunset light and some amazing night shots that almost had us lose a flash to the east river. It was all worth it to get these amazing shots. This was by far one of our favorite engagement sessions EVER, and Meredith and Dan were amazing all day long. It really was an epic, all day session that started before lunch, was interrupted for a bit by sushi, and then ran all the way until sunset. Meredith was even up early in the morning to get her hair and makeup done. Brides, take note, it makes your engagement photos so much more awesome, you don’t get professional photos taken every day, so do it up a little!


We’re really happy to show off these images, so check out this great slideshow, turn up your volume, click the icon on the right of the slideshow to watch it in full screen, and click the link at the end to go to the entire gallery to see ALL the photos, not just those in the slideshow, and to order prints. We really can’t wait for their wedding up here in Saratoga Springs at the Gideon Putnam Resort, and we know their wedding photos will be equally as amazing. Thanks guys for being such great models for the day, we hope you enjoy! Leave some comment love below, and enjoy the slideshow.

Welcome back for the second half of Meredith and Dan’s epic New York City engagement session. In case you missed the last post (which you should seriously check out if you haven’t), Meredith and Dan are going to have a gorgeous wedding at the Gideon Putnam resort in Saratoga Springs next year, but as they both live in Manhattan, one of our favorite places in the world, so we took to the city for the day to shoot these two in the city they love. The first half of our session was in Central Park before our amazing sushi lunch, and then we headed down to the Brooklyn Bridge to catch an awesome sunset.

Late fall/winter in New York is a bit of a double edged sword for photographers, other than being cold, one of the things we have to contend with is the really early sunset. It’s dark here now before 4:30 in the afternoon. On one hand, we don’t have to wait till 9pm like we do in the summer to catch an awesome sunset, but the day is also a lot shorter, so we were racing down the island of Manhattan trying to catch the sunset before it vanished on us. Our plan was to cross the Brooklyn Bridge, get some rockin’ sunset shots, and hit Dumbo (an area of Brooklyn that stands for Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass, for those of you not from the area) for some twilight/night time skyline shots, and we hit the timing perfectly. These really are some of our favorite engagement photos ever, and we are SO excited to share them with you. Let us know what you think in the comment section below

AWESOME sunset light. Does this scream NYC or what???

This next one was our facebook teaser. If you had been a fan, you would have seen it first

These two really know how to work it for the camera!

Lisa’s perspective on that last pose:

It just doesn’t get hotter than this:

We showed off Meredith’s bling on the first post, but we just had to do it again!

Off to Dumbo and the Fulton Ferry Landing for some awesome twilight shots:

We LOVE this view of the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan at dusk. And yes, they are awesome models.

Not sure about having two photograpers? Check this out. That last shot was mine, and this next one is Lisa’s view of the same pose.

Gorgeous. I love the colors on this next one:

A little black and white action with a little vintage texture:

And we’ll finish off with one of our absolute favorites, during which we almost lost a flash to the East River:

Leave some comments for our amazing models, Meredith and Dan, below. Thanks guys for being such troopers and letting us drag you all around the city. We had a blast and hope you did too!

New York City is rarely as gorgeous in November as it was the weekend we met Meredith and Dan there to capture their engagement session. They will be coming up our way to have their wedding at the gorgeous Gideon Putnam Resort in Saratoga Springs, but these two live in Manhattan, and we totally used that as an excuse to go spend an INCREDIBLE day in the city photographing them. Lisa and I always love going down to the city, but the perfect weather and the perfect couple made it a really great day.

Some couples need a little more direction than others when we shoot with them, but these two just melted into each others arms so perfectly, it was almost as if they forgot we were there. These two are so perfect for each other, and they are so much fun to hang out with (excluding perhaps the Cleveland lovefest going on with both Dan and Lisa when they talked about their old hometown, and yes Dan, Melt was amazing when we went) we really can’t wait to see them again.

Our session with them took up a good part of the day and spanned from the famous Central Park down to the truly iconic Brooklyn Bridge and then across into Dumbo. This blog post is going to show off a few of our favorite shots from the Central Park portion of their session. I’m a little ashamed to admit with as many times as Lisa and I have been to the city, we never really explored the park before. I was amazed at the sheer number of amazing places there were to shoot in the park, and apparently a bunch of other photogs thought so that day too! Here are a few of our favorites from our time in and around the park, just before our amazing sushi lunch. Check them out, and stay tuned for more to come soon!

We loved the fall colors in NYC – we had already lost all our leaves in Albany, so it was a nice surprise!

We LOVE LOVE LOVE it when our couples take a little time to dress nicely for our engagement sessions. Its not every day you get professional portraits created, so it’s really nice to show up looking a little nicer than normal. Meredith, however, went a step further and got her hair and makeup professionally done before her session. We totally appreciated that, and it made the photos really pop. Doesn’t she look amazing?

The light was A-MAZ-ING!

Back when we lived in Florida, we NEVER got fall foliage like this!

A classic Central Park walking shot with a twist…

A little black and white awesomeness:

And then we went around to the other side of them for a killer silhouette!

We’re going to finish off with the NYC version of the Scott Kretschmann Signature Shot- on glass this time and with a little hint of New York taxicab in the background!

We hope you enjoyed this first half of their blog post. We’re going to feature the second half from the Brooklyn Bridge and Dumbo starting Saturday at 5pm, so check back then for some really cool city shots! If you had been a facebook fan, you would have seen one of them already! See you right back here tomorrow…

60 photographers, a few models, some great instructors, and the really cool backdrop of the meatpacking district in New York City: This was the scene of the NYC Photog Shootout this past weekend. If you have ever wondered what wedding photographers do during the off season, here is a little peak into it. We spend a lot of time networking, educating ourselves, practicing, and just getting together. This weekend was a great opportunity  for all of these, and it was a really fun event. Here are some of my favorite shots that Lisa and I took this past Saturday.

Here is a little “behind the scenes” image of how Lisa got that last shot, along with a bunch of our fellow photographers nearby Yes, that is a professional photographer (a rather well known one) shooting with his iPhone.

This one just screams New York City to me. I love the taxi background!

At the end of the day, a guy driving by in a very nice Ferrari was driving by, saw some beautiful models with tons of photographers, and he had to stop, From then on, mass chaos ensued, and it looked like a paparazzi scene.

That’s all for now, stay tuned for a fabulous West Point wedding soon!