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A year of hard work and growth that set the stage for the next chapter… 2018.
2017 was a year of ups and downs, making mistakes, taking risks, big achievements, lessons learned, fine-tuning my style, much more traveling than I expected, and a lot of success for the studio. While I’m not going to get into everything that went into making 2017 such a great year, it’s for good reason. Sandi and I really feel like it was a transition year of sorts. It was the year that set everything in motion to make this coming year the one that I’ll be looking back on as THE year. We made a lot of lofty goals in 2016, both personal and professional. 2017 was the year where we put in more work than ever before, and those lofty goals all started to come to fruition. Since most of those accomplishments and new partnerships are all still pretty fresh, this is the year where we’ll be getting to put them to work as well as seeing the benefits.
Here are a handful of mine and Sandi’s favorite photos that we took this past year… enjoy 🙂
At Twisted Oaks Studio, a Philadelphia wedding photographer studio (that’s some good SEO right there), our primary focus is storytelling. In order to tell each and every client’s unique story, we really need to get to know them on a personal level. The better we know them the easier it is telling their story. It’s also easier for them to feel comfortable in front of our cameras. As part of the process of getting to know each and every one of our clients, we always push our clients to have us take engagement photos for them. Besides the awesome photos that we capture, it’s also the opportunity for them to work with us in a more relaxed atmosphere. It’s a chance for our clients, like Amy and Mike, to get to see how much fun and easy it is to work with us.
Ultimately, this takes a lot of pressure off of the wedding day, they aren’t getting their photos taken by us for the first time. Our biggest goal with engagement shoots like this one is to really spend some time hanging out with our clients, letting them experience what it’s like to be in front of our cameras. Getting to see firsthand what it’s like being directed by us as well as the techniques we use to bring out their natural personalities. Amy and Mike’s engagement shoot was actually the first time that I had met them in person, they had only met Sandi during their consultation. Because I hadn’t met them yet, this was also a great opportunity for myself to get to know them both and see how well our personalities meshed.
Just like any other engagement shoot, we started about 2 hours before sunset which just happened to be just slightly above 30 degrees on the day we did Amy and Mike’s shoot at Bartram’s Garden. The snow on the ground only made it feel that much colder. When I saw Amy step out of their car in a dress, I thought to myself that this could go one of two ways. She will either want to call it quits 15 minutes into the shoot from being cold, or she knew exactly what she was doing and has no problem braving the cold weather. Well, let’s just say it was the latter, and it took a whole 5 minutes for us to hit it off and start having fun. Sandi and I had an absolute blast hanging out with these two, trying to stay warm as best we could, even reciting lines from Dumb and Dumber. As much as I love Fall engagement shoots up here in the Northeast, this one made me really fall in love with cold snowy winter ones as well.
We shot until dark, both Sandi and I bundled up in layers with wool hats and gloves, ending the shoot with Amy and Mike running around in the snow as if it was a warm summer’s day. Then, just before hopping in our cars to warm up, we took a few selfies just for fun 🙂
Most of this shoot was shot on the Leica SL and 50mm SL Summilux, while Sandi shot her Mk4 with the new 85mm f/1.4L the 16-35mm f/2.8L.
The talented NJ life and style blogger, Megan Deanley, and her fiance Rob met me down at the Great Bay Blvd last night to capture some engagement photos. It was cold, windy, and a lot of fun hanging out with these two. While it has been cold and windy for the past few shoots, I’ve lucked out with some amazing light, last night was no different.
Shot mostly on the Leica SL and my new favorite lens, the 50mm Summilux-SL ASPH.
Sandi and I recently had the privilege of photographing a lifestyle family shoot for our very own associate photographer Jenna Lynn and her family! Her adorable son Landon had a blast hanging out with his mommy and daddy at Batsto Village. I don’t think I’ve seen a little guy like Landon smile so much on a family shoot and we were able to capture some awesome memories for their family 🙂
Barrett and Ryan’s Cork Factory Hotel wedding was on that had a little more pressure on us than usual. Barrett’s father is not only a talented photographer but also shoots with the same Leica gear that I do. From the first moment that he walked into the studio last year, I knew he was expecting nothing but the best. So how did we do? I think we did aight…
The Cork Factory is one of the more unique places we’ve shot at in PA, hopefully we will be back there soon. We had a lot of fun hanging out with Barrett and Ryan on their wedding day, and we did our best to capture as many embarrassing dancing photo’s of Barrett’s father as we could… although to my surprise, he wasn’t all that bad 😉
From start to finish, it was an all-around great day. We couldn’t be more thankful that Barrett, Ryan, and…. Dan chose us to bring us along to photograph their big day and hope that we did a good job telling their story exactly the way they remember it. It was an absolute privilege getting to spend the day with not only them, but all of their family and friends. We wish them nothing but the best! Looking forward to designing their album now!
Until then, here are a few of our favorites…
DETAILS:
Wedding Gown: Rue De Seine – purchased from Lovely Bride
Wedding Shoes: Badgley Mischka
Groom’s Tux: Giovanni Bresciani
Florist: Tara Folker – Splints and Daisies
Hair & Makeup: Glamour Me Bridal
Wedding Cake: The Baker’s Table
