Gretchen was excited to host her wedding day in her childhood neighborhood in Rochester.  She has taken all her Sacraments at Blessed Sacrament as well as attending school there.  Gretchen’s excitement and energy beamed the whole day.  Thanks so much for having me there guys – enjoy your slideshows!

Gretchen and Dan’s helpers are listed here:

• Church of the Blessed Sacrament
• American Association of University Women – Perkins Mansion wedding reception
• Reception Catering by All Occasions Catering
• Flowers by the (always fun) Jimmy Catalano, Edgerton Floral Company
• Ronda  Wedding gown by Pronovias

The above slideshow is in flash, you may download the podcast show below; here are a couple favs if you can’t do either!

Sneak peak for Christina and Nick who were married again today in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris!

Congratulations guys!

Here’s the wedding details for all you planners out there:

• Flowers by Fioravanti Florist
• Ceremony location, reception location and catering, wedding cake design all by the Burgundy Basin Inn
• DJ entertainment by Go Sound Systems
• Wedding dress was the Chiffon Empire Dress BR1007 by David’s Bridal

Thanks guys for having me document your day!

I’m more than glad to fill you in on the details:

• Nikka ceremony at the Islamic Society of New Jersey
• Wedding Preparation at the Satler Hotel
• Wedding hair and faces done by Makeup On Demand
• Wedding Ceremony at Sage Hall Cornell University
• Wedding Reception at the Williard Straight Hall Memorial Room
• The suburb and memorable menu was prepared and presented by James from The Heights Cafe & Grill
• Wedding cake and desserts by Sincredible Pastries
• The floral arrangements and wedding table decorations made by Michaleen’s Florist
• The mastermind helper and planner Tara Reimer from Terra Rosa
• Order prints and see the complete set of photos at www.MakeLoveReal.com

Thanks guys!

• Wedding Ceremony downtown Lake Placid NY at the Adirondack Community Church
• Wedding Reception at the Lake Placid Club Boathouse by Crowne Plaza
• Flowers and decoration by Trillium Florist, Tupper Lake, NY
• Wedding cake by the Lake Flour Bakery, Saranac Lake, NY
• Slideshow music free courtesy of Amazon.com
• View slideshow without music
• Login to Make Love Real.com to view all the photos and order prints

Penny and Will held their wedding near their first and favorite vacation spot – Lake Placid NY.  Penny and Will are silly and full of love for life and each other while they brought their friends and family together to celebrate this shared love.  Will was excitedly explaining to me how he wanted to drive to the top of Whiteface mountain to take pictures between the ceremony and reception and I was hesitant to make any promises knowing that the weather on top of a 5000ft mountain in the last days of May in Northern NY is as likely to be snow as sun.  Again this day the universe smiled on me and gave us good weather while on the summit of Whiteface Mountain.  Here are a few of my favorites from up there.

When we first came up a cloud was rolling up the mountain, while the sun was still shining over the cloud giving us a mystical and unique light!

The temperature on the summit was a brisk 45 degrees with a stiff 20-25mph breeze. As the cloud rolled over the summit we were momentarily lost in fog and then rested just under the belly of the cloud.

Will and Penny were surprised when I told them on the way to the summit that it would be great to be hit by a cloud, and they were even more surprised when it happened. My wilderness experience in the High Peaks has taught me about the amazing ecological conditions these mountains reside in. If you are yearning for a mountaintop wedding ceremony, Whiteface mountain just North of Lake Placid is an amazing summit. You can drive to within a few hundred feet of the summit and then take either the elevator or stairs to the top. But here is the panoramic view:

The Adirondack Park is really just a big swamp with mountains interspersed amongst it, and this picture captures that quintessential environment with the bride and groom.

Thanks so much guys for bringing me back to the Adirondacks for your great wedding day!

And here’s what Morgan said about the card:

Thank you so so so so soso much I am so excited to have our beautiful wedding in the paper for all to see! I also meant to tell you that when I sent out our thank you cards, I have never gotten more compliment on anything inmy whole life! My one friends husband had gotten it while she was at work and he put it up on the fridge and when she got home that night and saw it on the fridge she thought it was a jewellery ad! SHe had to look a few times before she even noticed it was me! Another friend thought it was an ad from Nordstroms! Everyone said how gorgeous the photo was. Thank you so much for that!  

For the back of the card I found an authentic antique postcard and scanned it to give the piece a unique believable look.

- take a look through my  images in a 3d space!  You really want to click the button on the top right!!

Come back next week, and you’ll see a  different  portfolio of images loaded from my flickr stream.  Enjoy this funky portfolio view and see what images you discover!

PSSST – You’ll want headphones to savor this 4min experience.

The slideshow track is by John Martyn – Small Hours from the album Sweet Little Mysteries: The Island Anthology

Many of the slides on this slideshow are longer than 10 seconds.

I enjoyed stretching the rules and am beginning to feel the space between the photos more fully.

Check your wedding date to see if we are available for your wedding!

This was my last wedding in Lima, my once-upon-a-time hometown, where My wife and I bought our first house, and where the sky invites the face of god. It reminds me of the amazing tropical thunderheads I’ve seen in Puerto Rico and the Bahamas.  I am so  grateful  I was blessed to experience this August evening.

Just a technical note of interest – the web is the best place to view these photos because of the amazing Electric Magenta, or Fucia color of the sky.  It is nearly impossible to reproduce that coloring in a print as explained by wikipedia:

Electric magenta vs. process magenta

When electric magenta is reproduced on paper, it is called fuchsia and it is physically impossible for it to appear on paper as vivid as on a computer screen. In order to reproduce it, a small amount of cyan printer’s ink must be added to printer’s magenta to make fuchsia, and therefore fuchsia is not a primary color of pigment–it is the color of printer’s magenta that is one of the primary colors of pigment (along with cyan and yellow).

The name fuchsia was chosen as the alias for electric magenta because that is the color name for the color that in printed reproduction is its equivalent.

Since prior to the introduction of  personal computers magenta was synonymous with printer’s magenta, colored pencils and  crayons called “magenta” are usually colored the color ofprocess magenta (printer’s magenta) shown above.

So while we experience it – it’s not yet something that we can fully capture!

I just thought that was a beautiful analogy to a photograph.

I made a stop to my local New York Antique shop and picked up some choice authentic postcards. A quick scan later and I’ve got Deanna a real vintage look for the back of her postcard to match that beautiful shot sitting on the groom’s lap in thecockpit of the P-40 Warhawk.

Just start up this little YouTube video for your soundtrack as you browse on down!

Read on to see the emotional rollercoaster

My eyes are wet just posting this….

….more to come soon…till then this small podcast!

But, while that may partially be true – really I’m just lucky that I wrote Erik…

…and Danielle was smart to encourage him to call me back…

…and I was lucky enough to get the voicemail as I hiked to the top of Pilsbury mountain with Eben…

Some know that there is more than luck.

Thanks for letting me join in the, well, more than formal – fun!

Oh wait, just when you think there couldn’t possibly be more – well thanks to Erik there is!

Wedding Splashers from Neil Cowley on Vimeo.

I just uploaded three new events to www.Make Love Real.com for viewing and ordering prints from your wedding events!

We have everything from Rochester NY to the Scottish highlands!

I’ll update you with the stories behind all these images through the next week or two.

Joshua and Erica’s album tied in the bold colors of their wedding with the romantic charm of their location.

[svgallery name="letchworth-album"]

I designed the backgrounds of their album pages with shots I took of their bridesmaid’s dresses to get the iridescent look in the picture – combine that with the metallic paper we offer in our albums and you have a one-two punch for unbeatable color and shine!

And so Scott & Beth are cajoled by the audience into showing the gift to everyone

So amid rolling guffaws, cheers and jeers – dad brings his point home!


Since you’re probably wanting to see more from their reception here’s the quick overview:

Now, I don’t generally try to focus completely on the bride and groom, when I get a free moment I like to try and do character portraits of all the guests I can.


And family moments are important and interesting aspects of the reception as well.



One last gentle portrait of the couple kissing in Hershey (ouch I know, but it’s too tempting), but I really want to point out how much Beth’s wisps accentuated her face throughout the day as you can see in the earlier images too.

Enjoy each day like this one, and life will be sweet and seem short.

Creative Blessings!

…for the Hershey girl’s kisses to start.

Scott’s wardrobe malfunctioned, and Beth was quick to right the situation.

We were fortunate enough for this April wedding to have blossoms on the trees.

Moments of beauty surrounded us, and we succumbed to enjoying them.

You can view Beth & Scott’s full wedding photos at www.MakeLoveReal.com, and wish them well in the comments below.   If you’d like to see more photos from their wedding, and hear a recap of the toast, read on to this post.

Blessings in your new life together, stay grateful!

I thought I’d just play with your screen a bit here and show you the exaggerated perspective in high resolution – more like we all saw it in Founder’s Hall at the Hershey School in Pennsylvania at this destination for me wedding.

Leave your e-mail in the comments and you will be notified when all the images are ready in the shopping cart.

Rebecca’s preparation

I tie Joel’s necktie for him.

Joel awaits takeoff for his mountainside wedding.

Just one more teaser post before the full set of images are available at www.MakeLoveReal.com

Here’s a quick preview of Joel and Rebecca’s wedding photos, all my new Kiwi inlaws drop your e-mail in the comments and I’ll notify you when all the pictures are available on www.MakeLoveReal.com

Wet grass…

Smiling Dad…

A view I’ve liked for a while…

Big lush trees….

Wet rocks for skipping in blue water…

With a splash…

Antique cars on the road…

Classic New Zealand soda called Lemon & Paeroa

Tourist view on the way to Tekapo

Dad and Joel on the rocks, Mom in the foreground.

Me out from behind the camera proving I was there.

Church by the lake.

Flower beside the lake.

Father and son…

A last shot of the church as we leave for the last hour of the journey to Glentanner.

Finally arrived at Glentanner, we’re greeted with this view and we see why Joel started his first restaurant here! This picture is a good example of the indiginous term for the peak: Aoraki – the one that pierces the cloud.

…..over a year later I hope it shows in their album design.

[svgallery name="adirondack-album"]

Wendy and Billy chose to print their album on Metallic paper to give it the most color and contrast with a sharp metallic cover to match.

Bahamas Destination beach award winning wedding photojournalist.

Acklins
Berry Islands
Bimini
Black Point, Exuma
Cat Island
Central Abaco
Central Andros
Central Eleuthera
City of Freeport, Grand Bahama
Crooked Island
East Grand Bahama
Exuma

Grand Cay, Abaco
Harbour Island, Eleuthera
Hope Town, Abaco
Inagua
Long Island
Mangrove Cay, Andros
Mayaguana
Moore’s Island, Abaco
North Abaco
North Andros
North Eleuthera
Ragged Island
Rum Cay
San Salvador
South Abaco
South Andros
South Eleuthera
Spanish Wells, Eleuthera
West Grand Bahama

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It’s hard to imagine anything more romantic than an escape to Paradise Island. Whisper your vows on the beach at sunset,…

Read more to see the whole design in a flash player and a few of my comments on the stronger page designs.

[svgallery name="chautauqua"]

Here is the whole album in a flash player, if you cannot see this player – please download an install the latest flash.

Here’s a lighthearted page at side 9 and 10 that shows how we can use creative cropping and image placement of seemingly unrelated images to create a bright color palette and telling design. The bottom left image is quite filled with detail if you can’t quite read it all notice it larger here:

Sometimes people equate taking pictures of ‘things’ as details pictures, saying “I love the details” well, we shoot images with detail in the texture, and storytelling in the composition so that they can fit back into the layout and add story to the finished product. There you can see the tourism magazine from the bedstand noting the location, a bridal accecory from Haute Bride, Britta’s mamosa and her lively pink moto rAzr.

Next we see a designed series of image showing Britta and Cameron’s first meeting just before their ceremony.   You can see me playing with scale to show time from left to right.

And finally a subtle touch at that first meeting is a gentle picture representing the ceremony about to happen.

Here on the left we have a large bisected square representing in smaller squares all the flurry of activity just before the ceremony. The page is culminated by Britta’s father giving her a kiss on the cheek while giving her away.

Well I guess I’m noticing the details again, here I have 4 shots representing the event design and coloring of the reception in the historical Victorian Athenaeum hotel which has been serving guests since 1881. If you’ll notice my emphasis on the vertical design and incorporate it within the images and merge it within the design using a chair back as a photo design element to complement the album design.

Here we see another inventive combination of photo design merged with the book design.

Over these six pages I developed a storyline from the evening portraits, guest waving goodbye to Cameron and Britta, Cameron carrying Britta over the threshold of their honeymoon suite and a few tender moments on the bed to finish the wedding story all the way to the end of the night in the album design. I love building a relationship strong enough to allow me to portray my clients with such honesty and tenderness.

Yes, thank you, thank you, please hold your applause.

The site that used to host everything, got way too big, way too confusing now hosts a simple wedding portfolio, and to introduce that I’m posting a podcast version of the main gallery here, but do check in to the www.NeilCowley.com gallery and view the fullscreen, high resolution view of this show as it will certainly knock your socks off as you view the photos in high  resolution  clarity and brilliance.

Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes to get your mobile copy of the slideshow.

New Traditions: response to the Celebrations Studio debacle

My friend and college Jason Groupp a photographer in the New Jersy and Manhattan area, is giving away one free wedding to a couple who was wronged by the closing and bankrupcy of Celebrations Studios. The Celebration Studios problem is big news in the wedding industry as there may be as many or more than 2000 brides who’s photographer will not be showing up at their wedding this year. That’s a big problem and if you’re looking for someone in the NJ or New York – Manhattan area we have a special rate for you up until June, so just contact us.

Vrai: You can make an impact!

Christina is a wonderful button of a photographer based in the Chicago Illinois metro area but willing to shoot a wedding anywhere in the US if you are choosing to make make the least impact on the environment and the most impact on the community on their wedding day. Sounds like a great deal to me!! The submissions begin now and end by 10 pm (CST) on February 10th, 2008. Submissions can be mailed or emailed (info at vraiphoto.com) and must include the plans already made or ideas to implement, a 5×7 photo of the couple sized to 300 dpi (1500 px by 2100 px), and your wedding date (must be no later than 12/31/2009), any other information is helpful in making final selections. (mailing address on her site)

A chance to show family and friends that social responsibility can still have style, elegance, and beauty! The online poll will begin no later than 10 am the next morning and voting will last until 11 pm (CST) on February 13th. The winner will be announced on Valentine’s Day.

Jessica Claire helps those who help

Jessica a photographer out of Orange county, has a nomination process each year on her blog, which you can read about in three parts. First the call for entries, second reading the stories of the entrants and finalists (I find this one most interesting), and third announcing the winner. Looks like a Louisianan couple who grew up together gets the free shoot.

I also google’d ‘free wedding photography’ and came up with Robin DePaula’s blog, Punam Bean gives a few shots, Gulnara Studios contest, Free photography in Madison WI from a beginner trolling on wedding bee, there’s of course Craig’s listings even including ‘retouching’, one free wedding a quarter!, Jason’s give back project, and photographers wanting to travel.

Ok ok, so onto me…..

In 2005 I shot a wedding in Thailand of a couple who was prohibited from marrying by the Chinese government.

I can show you the DJ I wish we had for the party:

Rock the hot pink eh – well shopping in Thailand is just a happier experience than in the US.

Well alas, I cannot actually show you any of the pictures from that wedding for fear of endangering the couple’s civil peace, and many of the guests at the wedding. So while the stories of the couples shared on the other blogs are nice – I’m not really sure they compare to someone who’s freedoms are being suppressed by their government.

Just in-case the story isn’t convincing, here’ s me in Thailand.

So if you know someone who has given their life to public service, and needs story told in images – ask.

Even if it’s not for publicity, I may do it.

That’s the Peoria Journal Star for Friday December 7th with the cover story about a couple who was ‘interested’ in each other in high school – in the 40′s! World War II, marriages and careers forced them apart. But six decades later, these high school sweethearts are back together. View the story photo gallery but google can’t find the whole text.

I guess a nose for a story runs in the family, cause my Mom tipped me off to the story of Annie and Tom. She could not tell me any details because of her confidentiality agreement with her students, you see she works at The Ester House which is a self committed program which addresses the needs of women whose shattered lives cannot be turned around by a short stay in a friendly shelter. Some women may desire to reclaim a life that has been ravaged by poor choices. Some women are trying to raise a child on minimum wage, if they can even find a minimum wage job. Many women have been rejected by their families, and have no other place to turn for love and support so the Ester house is a welcoming community of support and training for them.

Meet Annie

Annie was divorced by her husband because of the poor lifestyle and personal choices she was making in her life, one thing led to another and she was doing jail time. In those dark times Annie found a personal faith to bring her life into focus. The path out of prison is a difficult one, one she shared with the residents and staff of the Ester House. I’m afraid my pictures do no justice to this part of the story, but some things are better left forgotten.

As part of Annie’s journey to emotional wholeness and spiritual cleansing she wrote a letter to her former husband asking his forgivenss for the ways she had wronged him.

And he wrote back.

And braved a second time down the isle.

And said his vows.

Many tears held back.

Now I’ve covered some big weddings – all over the world as this post shows – and I don’t expect to be overwhelmed by the action of a small 30 person ceremony in the ultra conservative Peoria Illinois area. But again my photos fall way way short of the palpable emotion floating around this small chapel. We often talk about Love since it’s part of the business name around here – but I’m afraid that many of us haven’t experienced a love that overcomes divorce and years apart. I don’t mean Annie and Tom’s.

If love is like electricity, it can only flow between two charged poles. Thereby if a person becomes disconnected from their family, friends and loved ones – the love cannot flow. The Ester House staff spend their lives helping people to get connected again to the source of Love. Annie is one of their first graduates, and so this event was triple charged with a lot of Love energy that had been held back for a long time. I shot this wedding for free as part of the conduit system that will help Love take over the world. My I learned to offer this gift of love from my Mom as she offers greater gifts than mine every day when she goes to work.

Somehow the apples don’t fall far from the tree.

Each wedding I shoot is free.

Nobody can pay me to make the love flow through me into my pictures – but indeed that’s what you really want – and what it takes for me to make good pictures. There’s a curious kind of exhaustion from doing my job – it’s the exhaustion of carrying 1,000,000 Volts for a day. I can not put a value on the love and friendship your family and friends share, I only try and bottle a bit of it up in pictures for you.

‘Down and out’ is the title for the bears – ‘A season to remember’ sports header

And so what are you paying me for, if the shooting is free? Well, basically so I can live a healthy life and show up at your wedding. But, there is also a secondary consideration for you – I don’t get a second chance in my job, and I don’t get a second chance at capturing your event. I can’t likely shoot your wedding for free unless you have dedicated your life to serving others, or someone wants to sponsor the expenses. And since you are probably reading this considering whether or not to spend money to hire My wife or I to shoot your wedding, when you could very well hire an amateur with a digicam, let me make one of two suggestions for you. First, hire us – you memories are important and we are great conduits. I was the only one there that noticed the significance of the paper’s title page meanings showing attention to significance among the details. Second, hire someone really cheap – but give the difference to a conduit of Love that cares for people and charge up those Love capacitors in the right direction.

Feel free to contact us if you would like us to consider telling your story weather it be something we can never show – or something you want told to the whole world loud and clear. I enjoy enlarging my capacity for electric charge, and will be excited to serve those who serve.

I guess I’ll share one last hope I have to shoot a free wedding. For someone I have not yet met, Mallamma Solapur in Adp Bijapur India. I probably have 8 or 10 years to invest and wait, but we sponsor her education and health through World Vision. Remember Love needs a connection to travel, so build yourself one small connection at a time.

We look forward to sharing our connection with you.

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• photographers for weddings, corporate and commercial advertising
• weddings photographer

I’m tired of the long blog posts that are really just exacerbated slide shows, and to gratify my own introspective urges and hopefully let you in on my own thought’s I’m going to blog single images for a while.

What does it mean to be a bride…..well for one I’ll never know….so it’s interesting in a curious way to me, to continuously be looking for what each girl’s expectations and responses are to their bridehood. Erica was great from my point of view as I need client’s who feel as deeply, in order to photograph as deeply as I am capable. I believe this photograph to fully capture Erica’s first response to ‘becoming’ a bride as her veil is draped over her face for the first time.

So if you’re reading this and your wedding is in the future, remember to plan enough time for yourself to get ready and live these moments to their fullest!

• Derwent Photography – Cumbria and Lake District Wedding Photographer
• Wedding photographer Kent
• 1 Great George Street Westminster  One Great George Street is an award winning conference, wedding, and events venue.
• Jon Roach FourT  Portsmouth  wedding photography  
• Mike Patterson Photography – Galway Wedding Photographer
• United Kingdom Wedding Photographers
• Plan a London Wedding

[svgallery name="letchworth-07"]

And here are some of my eclectic favorites, from preparation:

The first moment Erica realizes she’s a bride:

In front of the gorgeous second falls in Letchworth State park:

And a wonderful end to the evening:

Oh boy – what a great party, but every event must draw to an end.

Britta and Cameron say goodby from the second floor landing through the windows with a kiss as the guests cheer goodby.

Cameron and Britta danced a Rumba step to Micheal Buble’s ‘Save the Last Dance for Me” which was a sparkling treat for the guests. My complements to their dance instructor who picked a perfect step to characterize these two playful souls. This should communicate it for you:

What a ham, that Cameron – just wait till you see him dance to get his Treo back! But then it’s time for Britta and her father to dance.

Britta and her dad had some moves as well as elegance.

After the dancing, Mr. Johnson started off the toasts to the couple.

And then Stockton and Brendan give a very humours toast, to….well…everything from Oedipus to their darling mother.

Who looks as though she couldn’t be prouder. But the main thrust of Stockton and Brendan, was that Cameron had chosen to marry someone surprisingly similar to his mother. And so I have to swerve away from these very nice pictures to counterpoint the jest – remember for a moment with me, Cameron preparing:

Exhibit A

Now, exhibit B in the prosecution’s case:

Need I go on? Cause I could…..

But I wouldn’t want to bring you to tears once again.

Besty holds back the emotion during her toast.

Cutting the cake to finish the reception and go outside for some sunset portraits.

The rest of the photos should be available tomorrow at Make Love Real.com if you want to subscribe to be notified when the party pictures are posted and the rest of the photos are ready, submit your e-mail address. And stay tuned for some wild party pics!

So we end up making some portraits on the way back…

Here’s a sneak peek at the table settings while everyone else is enjoying coctail hour.

Tonight I’ll post the first dance photos and toasting and some of the reception images.

Well it looks like we’re done preparing, we’ll shoot some portraits and get to the Hall of Philosophy to get these two married!

I have to say that I really loved Britta’s choice of colors!

Room, #90 ‘the Bridal suite’ who’s claim to conversational relevance was that Bill Clinton stayed there.

Ah, mom – the quiet anchor.

Enough of the women, what’s the groom doing….

….trying to figure out male fashions.

Brody hit it off well with the boys and made this illustrative photo by dragging the shutter.

And the boys finish dressing by starting a cold one.

Britta tries on the Veil

Let me know what you think of the show so far, and check back tomorrow to see how the day progresses….
You can also view the photos on Flickr and comment on them individually if you like.

A graphic, but minimal design for this stylish New Jersey skyline wedding

Christina & Jacob held their New Jersey wedding photographed by Neil & My wife Cowley in the skyscraper overlooking the New Jersy and New York coast from the Newark Club.

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I say sumptuous, but maybe I should say scrumptious – I like the three square meal aspect of Indian weddings!

And as a wedding photojournalist, so many allegorical ceremony elements gives me lots of action to capture.

Ok so here’s some of the characters, that’s Upda looking like a bride and giving someone a wink as she’s escorted in by the boys – Amish her brother is picture right in the blue.

That’s Pravin the patriarch and senior photographer, overlooking the guests, as Kenan (groom) holds hands with Upda under the cloth.

I loved all the mini traditions with a playful tone in this wedding.   The Thakrar’s practiced many of their ethnic traditions carried from their close knit Indian society.   Here is the start of something that ended with people wrestling over shoes….

Ok so here’s the real scene at this wedding – how many photographers can you count?

Since Pravin and Amish are photographers many of their friends are too. I was one of 7 or 8 photographers, there were two video guys and probably 10-15 more photographers simply in attendance. It was quite a fray, but if you were to compare our pictures, it’s unlikely two were similar as we each found a perspective and approach that expressed our own interests.

I also appreciate the performances by family members at the wedding, it’s an elegant touch that I’ve not seen in any other tradition.

So if you’re searching for a culturally experienced Indian Wedding Photographer in Toronto Canada or the US – give Pravin or Amish a call at Radisson Photography.

Wedding days are so special and so fleeting. Thank goodness we have talented photographers of your caliber to record it all for posterity.
We are proud to feature your images in SPOSA magazine.
Keep them coming!

Gulshan Sippy
Editor & Art Director
Sposa Magazine &
Groom Inc. Magazine

A note from Sposa

Thanks for the kind words Gulshan, and keep running that sharp mag!

Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, New Mexico,  Arizona and California

•  The Old South: usually the original Southern colonies: Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
• The Solid South: region controlled by the U.S. Democratic Party from 1877 to 1964. Includes at least all the 11 former Confederate States.
• Southern Appalachia: Cumberland Plateau of Kentucky and Tennessee, Western North Carolina, Western Maryland, West Virginia, the Shenandoah Valley and Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, and northeast Georgia.
• Southeastern United States: usually including the Carolinas, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida
• The Deep South: various definitions, usually including Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and South Carolina. Occasionally, parts of adjoining states are included (sections of East Texas, delta areas of Arkansas and Tennessee, and the Florida panhandle).
• The Gulf South: various definitions, usually including Gulf coasts of Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Alabama.
• The Upper South: Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina.  
• Dixie: various definitions, but most commonly associated with the 11 states of the Old Confederacy.
• The Mid-South: also known as the South Central United States.

Southern Metropolitan Areas by Size:

1. Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington TX 6,145,037
2. Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown TX 5,628,101
3. Miami–Fort Lauderdale–Pompano Beach FL 5,413,212
4. Washington–Arlington–Alexandria DC–VA–MD–WV 5,306,565
5. Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Marietta GA 5,278,904
6. Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater FL 2,723,949
7. Baltimore–Towson MD 2,668,056
8. Orlando-Kissimmee FL 2,032,496
9. San Antonio TX 1,990,675
10. Virginia Beach–Norfolk–Newport News VA–NC 1,658,754
11. Charlotte–Gastonia–Concord NC–SC 1,651,568
12. Austin–Round Rock TX 1,598,161
13. Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin TN 1,521,437
14. Jacksonville FL 1,300,823
15. Memphis TN–MS–AR 1,280,533
16. Louisville–Jefferson County KY–IN 1,233,735
17. Richmond VA 1,212,977
18. Oklahoma City OK 1,192,989
19. Birmingham–Hoover AL 1,108,210
20. Raleigh–Cary NC 1,047,629
21. New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner LA 1,030,363
22. Tulsa OK 905,755
23. Baton Rouge LA 770,037
24. El Paso TX 734,669
25. Columbia SC 716,030

We travel to all these southern destinations, view our package options at the top of the page to bring us to your wedding location!

Contact us to book a grand package for your Arizona high desert wedding.

So Wendy and her father must have been overcome by the nice view (of course you know why) and so were hoping gravity would help hold in their tears of joy.

I want to explain that Wendy was keeping out of site from the guests as she approached the ceremony location (hold on for a shot of that) while we follow the bride.

I’m very proud that I was able to capture these moments for them to be remembered by the generations of the Long and Mitchell families.

So if you were 8ft tall and had fish eyes this is what the ceremony would look like!

My wife had a perfect perspective on the ceremony, so we’ll just keep rolling with her pictures here.

Eager to kiss after the ceremony, portrait by My wife.

By this point, Dad can’t stop smiling with his wife.

My wife masterfully conveys the scene from coctail hour.

My wife has a perfect catch of the emotional finale to his toast.

My wife thought Wendy would appreciate this unique perspective of a moment from the father/daughter dance.

The lucky maiden who caught the flowers was overjoyed, and tackled! caught by My wife.

Congratulation Wendy & Billy what a tremendous celebration!View all the preview images, or order prints.

On the job we also met a superlative videographer who reaches the rare level of filmmaker Lee Thomas; Contemporary Films did a great job during the whole day. I generally feel that one of my strongest skills is choosing the right perspective to shoot from, becuase in that most elementary choice – I am bound to create from it. Lee is the first video shooter I’ve met that has been ‘where I want to be’ in the midst of the acction. Usually the challenge is to crop them out becuase they have their nose right in everything (literally) which gives a distorted and limited view of everything that is going on. Lee however has a sensitive and quality perspective on capturing the action, so if you’re getting married in Michigan check out this videographer.

“Jake sees Tini”

And various other subtly emotional pj images

See all the photos from this Chautauqua NY victorian wedding experience

I hope I get to capture the splendid traditions of the Indian culture again sometime soon as well as work with the great people from Digital Canvas Productions – BJ, Susan, Lance, and David. I hope to have the opportunity to cover more Indian – hindu or sikh – wedding ceremonys with the careful eye of a photojournalist. I find the detailed and long events, sharpen my attention to detail and nuance.

WWW meet Autumn:

They married and had a party at the nicely private Viceroy – Palm Springs

My favorite part however was working with my colleague Joesef Isayo out of Los Angeles who is a tremenous seer, and quality photojournalist. We’re both WPJA contest winners have a sightly ironic and sarcastic sense of humor and so hit it off nicely. I just hope I can develop my seeing to where he’s at! I went out to shoot with Josef to give myself a break from the pressures of being ‘the’ photographer and to hopefully break free from what I feel is a visual rut – doing the same thing over and over. I don’t think I’m quite out of it yet – but I’m working on expanding my horizons. Josef has a keen eye for ‘it’ – that sense of place while retaining mystery, the sense of style while remaining undefined. That vision is hard to develop and even harder to consistantly walk the artistic line of being abstract with literal objects. I didn’t find the new perspective all at once, thanks Josef for the opportunity to try!

View more Long Island wedding photos from Westbury Manor in this slideshow.  

A Note from Neil

The start of a new year is a reflective time for all of us. I start my reflection of 2005  with the gratitude and humility 2004 taught me. During that period I was focusing on developing a unique personal style putting my energy into making and thinking about inventive imagery. I looked for every opportunity to use lighting and composition to do something I had never done before. The results of that process were rewarded in  2005 with a top 5 ranking in the US by the WPJA. At the same time I was forcing my personal will into stretching my own conceptual boundaries of my craft – concepts of controlling and creating with light, shadow, perspective, and tonality – the people I served enlarged my spiritual boundaries as I stated last year  “I wanted to make clear that God has given much more through you, than your dollars as I have received a new appreciation and understanding of love and art this year. I hope that I have been an equally effective conduit for God to give my talents away to you.”

Well enough for review, my personal goal for 2005 was to expand my consistency. The artistic inspiration can fall at unpredictable times and while that’s nice for winning awards, its not necessarily a reflection of skill as much as an ability to capitalize on good luck. So my intuition told me that I needed to really look at what went into those flashes of creativity I had in 2004, and learn to repeat them as a skill instead of as an accident. I’m only finishing my third year of professional service for weddings so maybe its too lofty a goal to ask myself for consistency after such a short period. But as I write now I feel a tremendous satisfaction looking back over the mountain of work that I’ve completed in 2005. Possibly I’m deceiving myself, but I am satisfied knowing that I have not overlooked the good to make something great. Sounds funny, but it has been a tremendous challenge to face this year – boredom – that could have eaten away the quality of my work as I sought to continue to top my own pictures. What brought me back to that point, was  you again. Times where I began to feel rote, where I was being distracted by the small things – you gave me the expressions of Love that can not help but snap you back into focus. Love, the miracle that we give to each other; that we go through all these rituals to express and to seal; that I have the privilege to have the invitation to help you develop.

My reflection for 2005, has the same heart of the lesson learned in 2004 – learned more deeply.  “The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve. (Albert Schweitzer)” This year I’ve matured enough to realize how I should act to reinforce my reflections. I see better the Tao that has helped keep me in balance and I will seek to nurture that harmony through my business practices.  “We do not see things as they are; we see things as we are.(Talmud)”  So this turn of my personal quest for photographic vision leads me to work to see you more clearly. I will draw upon my experience of over 100 weddings to help you express “How your Love is New” in photos and in person. I excitedly anticipate what you will teach me as my experience shows that it will be volumes.

Much  respect,
Neil

Current images posted at http://makelovereal.net/

2005 events page has been dedicated to the bridal portrait

Micaela & Toby – Elim Gospel Church – January 7, 2006

Christina & Jacob – November 11, 2005 – Newark Club, New Jersey

Michelle & Brian – October 22, 2005 – Lodi New York Historical Society and Wagner Vineyards

Alexandra & Stephen – Oct. 16th, 2005 – Belhurst Castle Wedding Ceremony and Reception,  Geneva New York

Sandra & Chris – October 9, 2005 – Westmont Country Club Patterson, New Jersey

Nicole & Andrew – Oct. 8th, 2005 – Saint Patricks Church and Binhampton Club

Kim & Will – Oct. 1st, 2005 – Butler Mansion Buffalo, NY

Lindsay & David – Cadet Chapel & 49′er Lodge West Point New York

Jessica & Greg – September 24, 2005 – Sheldrake point vineyard

Jen & Dan – September 18th, 2005 – Glen Iris Inn at Letchworth State Park

Leanne & Andy – September 17, 2005 – Saint John’s and Monroe Country Club

Sara & Tim – Sept. 10th, 2005 – Boldt Castle and Edgewood Resort

Lorraine & Aaron – September 4th, 2005 – Letchworth State Park, Glen Iris Inn

Elaine & Grant – September 3rd, 2005 – Chapel Hill and Monroe Country Club

Nicole & Jake – August 27th, 2005 – Belhurst Castle Geneva, New York

Shannon & Andy – August 20th, 2005 – Saint Rita and Shadow Lake Country Club

Christina & Ben – August 6th, 2005 – Bethel Christian Fellowship and Casa Larga Vineyards Fairport, NY

Mary Grace & Matthew – Auguest 5th, 2005 – Canandaigua Inn on the Lake, New York

Heather & Mike – July 30, 2005 – St. Charles Borromeo & Cobblestone Creek Country Club

Sarah & Dean – July 16, 2005 – Wedding and Reception at Glen Iris Inn Letchworth State Park

Mary & Paul – July 9, 2005 – Blessed Sacrement and Rocheter Club Ballroom

Karissa & Jim – July 2, 2005 – Perry Methodist Church and Wadsworth – Jerris Estate reception

Robyn & John – St. Louis Church Pittsford & Steamboat Landing Canandaigua NY

Audrey & Mike – June 12th, 2005 – Lauxmont Farms, Wrightsville Pennsylvania

Deb & Jim – June 11th, 2005 – Walker Bible Baptist Church & Senator’s Mansion Chili

Kelly & Peter – June 4, 2005 – Trinity Reformed Church and Woodcliff Lodge Fairport

Ella & Chad – May 28, 2005 – Sacred Heart Cathedral & Rochester City Hall Atrium

Juliette & Kevin – May 21, 2005 – St. John’s Church & Glen Iris Inn Letchworth State Park

Heather & Matt – May 20, 2005 – Saint Joseph’s church and Owego Treadway

.  

Jeanne & Mark – April 23, 2005 – St. Thomas More & Memorial Art Gallery

Corie & Michael – April 9, 2005 – The Waterview in Monroe Connecticut

Allison & Jason – April 2, 2005 – University Presbyterian and Hemingbough Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Jodi & Dan – January 22, 2005 – Our Lady of the Lake and Crystal Springs Resort, Vernon New Jersey

Amanda & Shervyn – Jan 16, 2005 – Mansion on Delaware, Buffalo New York

Jan 5-8, 2005 – Manti Temple, UT & Strong Todd House Rochester, NY