Category Archives: Weddings
Swallow Falls Wedding: Gen & Isaac
Gen & Isaac’s wedding
I can’t stress enough how much I LOVE photographing outdoor weddings! Churches are beautiful and ornate and sacred but they are also usually full of dark woods and stone, poorly lit, and hard to photograph in. Nature is where it’s at for us wedding photographers! Gen and Isaac were married Aug 20th 2011 in Swallow Falls State Park in Maryland. This is in the Deep Creek area of Western MD a stones throw from the West Virginia line and the area is amazingly gorgeous!
Gen was raise in the Baha’i faith and so their marriage was a mix of both secular traditions and Baha’i traditions as well as featuring a private vow exchange at the edge of a 50 foot waterfall. The setting was magical, the couple looked beautiful, and their love was shared by all the guests in attendance as well as folks who just happened to be at the park that day and were treated to the unexpected – a couple saying their vows at the edge of the falls.
Gen and Isaac have been together for a long time and while others may have tried to rush them into marriage years ago what we were witnesses to on that sunny day on the edge of a waterfall in Western Maryland was the binding together of two hearts that have experienced this world together, walking the same path for some time, now declaring in front of friends and family that they are finally willing to share with the rest of us their loving commitment to each other so that we can support them in their love and can look to them to support us as friends of not just two people but of one loving couple.
Wedding Photos
Enough of my musing – on to the photos!
Congratulations Gen and Isaac!
Mon Valley Wedding
I’ve got some catching up to do on the blogging front but I’ve been very busy this summer with weddings, events, planning to build a house (by hand), and working for social justice for foreign workers and American’s alike – to read more about the later check out my blog at Orkoskey.com. I’ve been so busy that I never wrote a post about Leah & Derek’s wedding that I worked with Sarah in Donora which is south-east of Pittsburgh in the Mon Valley. Even though I didn’t get a blog post up fear not – I finished their photos in less than a week and got them to Sarah who took the lead on the administrative end of this one.
The Mon Valley
When my grandmother’s parents first moved to the US from Slovakia they settled first in the Mon Valley where my great grandfather worked in the coal mines while they saved up enough money to move to eastern Ohio where he continued to mine but also bought a farm to work near Barton in Belmont County. Needless to say the Mon Valley has a special place in my heart even if I don’t make it down that way very often.
Leah & Derek
Leah and Derek were married in a small Christian Church just across the Monongahela River from Donora in Monessen on July 23rd 2011. That was one of if not the hottest day so far this summer. I felt so sorry for Leah – I’ve never worn a wedding dress but in that heat I can imagine how hot she must have been. I was drenched with sweat like everyone else in sight but I had such a great time photographing their wedding that I wouldn’t give it up for anything – even if I did have to drink about a gallon of water to stay hydrated.
Derek is a DJ so the reception was amazing. Despite the heat I’ve never seen that many people on the dance floor! These days most people stay on the sidelines trying to photograph each other – that’s frustrating when you’re the one being paid to get photos of people dancing …
Leah and Derek are an amazing couple and they are clearly devoted to each other. I’ve been doing weddings long enough to be able to tell when a couple of people are building a solid life together with all the right stuff that will carry them together in life and in love. These great kids have it. Good luck to you Leah and Derek and thanks again for having us photograph your wedding!
Another Awesome Pittsburgh Wedding
Pittsburgh Wedding Photography
I enjoy shooting weddings everywhere but there is just something awesome about Pittsburgh weddings. This Sat. Sarah and I got to shoot Justin and Kelly’s wedding at St. Anne’s Catholic Church in Castle Shannon followed by their reception at St. Thomas More across from South Hills Village and once again my faith in Pittsburgh weddings was restored. From the cookie table to the sermon and from the wedding dress to the dance floor there is just something different about shooting a wedding in Pittsburgh and I think it’s the people. Pittsburgh wedding couples and their families are a lot more chill, a lot more relaxed and down-to-earth, and they roll with the punches in a much more natural way and that makes them so much more fun and easy to deal with. Kelly and Justin were a perfect example of this – these two amazing people were extremely chill, they were so much fun to photograph and created the best atmosphere. Their families and friends were just as relaxed and fun to work with which makes things extra special! Oh and I can’t forget to mention they were great tippers – not everyone tips their wedding photographers but these two were super generous which was the cherry on top of working with such a great couple!
Justin & Kelly’s Wedding
Sarah booked the wedding and is handling the processing so she’ll be posting a lot more to Facebook but I’ve done a bit of post-processing and the following are some of my personal favorites (so far).
A huge thanks once again and congratulations to Justin and Kelly for having Sarah and I photograph their wedding – you two are an amazing couple and we wish you all the love in the world as you travel through life together. Cheers to you!
Open Letter to TheKnot.com
theKnot.com
It goes without saying that theknot.com is a HUGE wedding resource. They themselves claim that 80% of brides turn to them for information which makes them the industry’s equivalent to Walmart. If 80% of the consumers are using them, even for just a small percentage of their planning, shopping, and other wedding prep needs then it should be a no-brainier for most wedding vendors who want to gain more clients – the knot is probably where you can find them.
That being said I recently discovered how ruthless, manipulative, and deceptive they are in their marketing, advertising, and vendor relations. As you’ll read below I sent the regional sales rep, Sara Brunner, a message expressing my feelings about their deceptive practices and asked them to change their ways. I’m not holding my breath but what I am doing though is this – blogging about it in the hopes that you my dear reader will avoid using them in favor of other, more organic, more truly local resources. Continue reading
Maya and Ryder’s book
I’m meeting with Maya today at Espresso A Mano to go over the proof of her and Ryder’s wedding album.
It’s taken a little longer than I’d normally like to get it together and get them to sign off on it but I know that in the end it will be worth it because it’s going to be a beautiful book. They were married in October and we’ve had one review already now that we’ve made some big changes I’m sure that they are going to love it!
I got Sarah involved a bit more with the album process this time and taught her how I put them together. I think she was a little scared at first but she did a bang-up job. I can’t wait until Maya sees what we’ve got for her!
Matthew and Heather
Matthew and Heather are a great couple, they both are professors at Robert Morris University. Heather is a very talented musician and Matthew is an equally talented photographer. Which reminds me of my own wedding where I apparently made my photographer, good friend and former classmate Jess nervous. The photos that Jess and her assistant took were amazing, (as I knew they would be), but some photographers get really nervous taking photos for other photographers. I won’t claim that shooting for Matthew and Heather didn’t make me a bit more nervous than I otherwise get when photographing something as important as a wedding. That’s alright though because the nervousness keeps me on my toes and I thrive on it.
Matthew and Heather were married on May 1st at the Mattress Factory on Pittsburgh’s Northside. We took a walk to Allegheny Commons Park to do their formal portraits. It was a beautiful day, it was warm, the sun was shinning, and people were out all over the park.
There were two additional wedding parties that showed up when we were doing their portraits and since it was prom season there were prom photos happening too! Add to all of that the folks that were out with their dogs or just laying about reading and it made it a bit of a challenge to get photos of the happy couple without getting other people in the photos. We managed though and ended up getting a handful of great shots. It helps when you have a great couple to work with and Matthew and Heather made it really easy.
Matthew and Heather live on the Northside and are very involved in their community (just one other thing that makes them awesome). They’ve become great friends with the shaved ice vendor that has sold his tasty treats next to the park longer than anyone can remember.
Their wedding photos wouldn’t have been complete without a visit to their friend. The line was long and it took us a few minutes extra but it was a lot of fun talking to all the people and seeing the crowd smile at Matthew and Heather – everyone loves weddings!
In the end Matthew bought a shaved ice and gave it to the girl in line behind them. I guess nobody in the wedding party wanted to stain their dresses or tuxes.
As I mentioned Heather is a very talented musician. We took some photos of her playing and some photos of their rings on her violin.
By the end of the night the happy couple was still all smiles and we sneaked away to the top of the stairs at the Mattress Factory to snap a shot of them with the city in the background. This shot was tougher than it looks because there was absolutely NO light in the stairway to focus with.
We were able to sneak out there because Matthew and Heather had work in the Gestures show which opened the week after their wedding and goes through June 20th.
Thank you Matthew and Heather for choosing us as your wedding photographers, Sarah and I had a great time!
