The wedding was at Fordham. The groom went to Fordham. I went to Fordham. My assistant went to Fordham. I shoot for Fordham.

(Sorry, Viv. Penn State is a good college, too.)

I knew Henry a bit when we were in school together, and I’d been looking forward to this one for a while. We’re talking about a couple who met in salsa dancing class — if that isn’t the recipe for an awesome reception, I don’t know what is.

And it didn’t disappoint. From a ceremony at the gorgeous Fordham chapel to a colorful and energetic reception, it was a blast the entire day. And that’s not to mention the groomsmen’s hilarious stop at White Castle on the way to the reception, or Henry bringing in a singer to re-enact a classic moment from one of Viv’s favorite movies: Coming to America.

Awesome.

This one is all about the expressions to me.

I shoot detail. I don’t really show a lot of it, especially on the blog, because … I don’t know, it just seems so easy, at least the way wedding photographers do it. Awesome things are presented before us, and we make them look the way they are. Not the hardest part of the job, but wedding publications eat it up. Too much of this seems unbalanced to me, like centerpieces are more important than love and friends and family.

Still, details are important, and shooting them is fun when you can be creative. And it was rarely more fun than with the geeky and stylish do-it-yourself details of Karen and Kamil’s wedding in Malibu yesterday. More to come.

PS: Since my hobby is making life difficult for myself, I made this not-easy by using an extremely touchy manual-focus lens and having to hold the camera upside down to get the flash where I wanted it.

Here is another case of “We just did the engagement shoot, and I’d better get the images out because the wedding is tomorrow!” It does have a certain efficiency to it.

Karen and Kamil have flown me out to California to document their Malibu wedding, and if I thought I was excited before, I’ve reached Ludicrous Excitement after how much fun our engagement shoot was at their alma mater, Harvey Mudd College.

Have you ever seen Real Genius? If not, go rent it. It’s one of the best movies of all time. If you have, though, you remember a scene with a dorm literally bursting with anarchic, geeky energy in every corner. A place like this could only exist in the movies, right?

Wrong. West Dorm, where both Karen and Kamil spent all four years, surpasses every stereotype of every college movie I’ve ever seen. There are pirate flags, and bonfires, and motorcycles, and shopping carts with Pabst Blue Ribbon cup holders. It is college at its most primal, both revelled in and enjoyed ironically.

For the first time, I actually can’t show some of my favorite images from the shoot, because so much of the West decor is Not Safe for Work.

So when I tell couples to find places that have meaning for them, and not just the prettiest possible place, I mean it.

The bride, reflected in an iPhone, checks her iPhone. Hey, Steve Jobs, where’s my royalty check?

As I’ve said before, with flash composites (like most wedding photography), it’s not what you can do, it’s what you can do quickly. This was four shots, composited together for optimum lighting, and the whole thing was done quickly enough that you could stand on snow with open-toed shoes.

Maybe I’ll do a speed challenge at my April 16-17 workshop, which still has a few slots open. Sounds like fun.

Given that Viviana and Henry met in dance class, I knew they could be up to making their presence felt in a big scene. Adding to the drama is a backlight from the Sledgehammer of Light, each strobe at half power.

This week, while I am in California to visit family, teach a bit, shoot some portraits and document an awesome Malibu wedding, I’ll be using the Photos of the Day to tease the next wedding I’m processing, the union of Viviana and Henry.

Keep in mind that I say the following as a go-to photographer for just about every major Catholic organization in New York City, from hospitals to charities to the diocese to Fordham University (where this ceremony took place): Catholic ceremonies can be hard to shoot. The churches are large and dark, but most importantly the ceremony is focused on a beautiful and deeply spiritual interchange between the priest and the couple, which means for about 45 minutes their back is to the congregation, and to me.

This is fine with me. Weddings, after all, aren’t about me … and ceremonies doubly so. But even more than that, there’s nothing I love better than a challenge. I don’t even think about darkness anymore with good hand-holding technique and the Nikon D3s. But I still like to try to find new angles and variety, so here I rested a wide-angle lens above an unused piano for a unique view of the ceremony.

With their engagement shoot still fresh, I was thrilled to start my 2010 wedding season with Emily and Myles. I knew from experience that not only were they passionate and fun, but boy do they know how to throw a party. I have never before seen a bride even consider doing The Worm at the reception (at the great Scarsdale Women’s Club). She thought better of it, though. Of course, the party was destined to be fun the moment the bridesmaids were given their garters, complete with flasks.

But the wedding was as elegant as it was fun, with a ceremony and mass at the intimate and gorgeous St. James the Less in Scarsdale. Among Emily’s accoutrements were a veil that had been in her family for generations and a ring from the 1800s!

Thanks guys and congratulations!

Big post to follow. Hey, it’s a new year and I’m excited.

Also, video lovers and camera geeks will want to see this capture of the Last Dance, filmed on the D3s at ISO 12,800.

An interesting thing happened the other day. I was on a forum where wedding photographers were talking about their favorite images from their own weddings. The vast majority of these were cute, quirky moments that captured the personality of beloved friends and families, not the amazing portraiture that we photographers tend to focus so much energy on. Now, I LOVE portraiture. I love bringing out the best in people, and I love showing people that yes, they CAN be photogenic. But my heart truly lies in the capture of moments. There are few greater compliments I can receive than one like these, from a recent couple: “This picture you took of my Mom laughing is the first picture I’ve ever seen that actually looks like her!”

Why is that? Part of it’s that I have a naturally quirky sense of humor, perhaps. Part of it is that I started out as a photojournalist. But the largest part, I think, is that I never for a second have to question the value of these types of photographs, because they are the ones that keep memories of my own father sharp and vibrant.

My sister just launched the Robert Brenizer Memorial, which is a brilliant way to use new technology to keep his memory alive. Dad would have loved it: I can’t count the times over the years that I have been thankful that he was a giant geek when it came to the latest and greatest gadgets. That meant that, although he died in 1987, we had not just countless hundreds of photos of him from the cameras he collected or encouraged my mother to buy, but hours and hours of VHS video of him from 1983 on, because he HAD to be the first one in town to get a VHS recorder, even though you literally had to carry the VCR around with you as you recorded on an incredibly cumbersome set-up.

Thanks, Dad.

I know I’m biased, but he truly was an extraordinary man, and is my constant role model for how to live a decent life. Consider this: In 3rd grade, I moved to a new school district after he, at age 46, had finished a military and business career and decided to be a high school physics teacher. When he heard that I was being picked on for being the new kid, he planned and got approval an assembly on the basics of physics that would make me look cool. Just think about that — not only did a guy who had been in a school district for a couple months get approval to launch his own school-wide assembly, his plan was to teach physics to 3rd-5th graders in ways that would make them think it was really exciting and cool, and it worked. He got his entire high school class to come in and act out different roles and skits, showing that they were also excited about physics, at least when it was in his hands.

He was brilliant. He was the kind of person who could read a series of books on home repair, and then help build a house from scratch. I can’t even pitch a proper tent. The angriest I ever saw him was the day of the Challenger explosion. I was home from school, and we were watching it together when it exploded. He had been nervous all morning because of the cold weather in Cape Canaveral, and as soon as the fact of the explosion sunk in he was yelling “It was TOO COLD! How could they do that?!?” Things that came to light only hours and days later — frozen o-rings, jargon the general public had never heard, were things that he guessed immediately. With years of experience as an Air Force instructor, he knew all about launch factors.

But the most shocking thing about that day, given how important it was, is how fuzzy my memory is of it. Was I home from school sick? I can’t remember. What were his exact words? I can’t remember. I remember the couch, and the TV, and how the importance of it all sunk in from his emotions, but after so many years I have nothing but vague impressions. Without photography and video, that’s all I’d be left with. And without photography that captured the way he acted, the way he moved through the world and cared for people, all I’d remember is what he looked like when he was looking at a camera, not who he was.

Thanks, sis, for the memorial site. It’s perfect.

Our first workshop was a huge success (you can read reviews here), and so we’re going to get one more done before the season starts in earnest. This will be the last weekend workshop I’ll be able to offer for a loooooong time.

It would be great if life were always fabulous, if the light were always perfect, if everything happened according to your schedule, if your subjects were always naturally comfortable in front of the camera. But that’s not the world in which we live. So my workshops focus not just on tools that will let you create beautiful imagery, such as “the Brenizer Metho”d of bokeh panoramas, but how to make the most of less-than-perfect situations. What do you do when you want to create dramatic lighting, but it’s high noon, you have a giant wedding party, and one tiny little speedlight? What do you do when you want to create great portraits, but it’s pitch black out? What if the weather is horrible and you can’t go outside, and you’re left with no obviously interesting locations to shoot in?

These are the situations I and other photographers face all the time, and I’ll show you how I work through them, as well as showing you advanced tools for artistic expression like quick-and-easy flash composites, mixing strobe and continuous lighting, and basic flash techniques that guarantee perfect exposures every time.

But photography is more than just exposures. There will also be discussions of documentary style, how to make uncomfortable subjects comfortable, and how to further develop your own artistic style.

Lastly, these workshops are great opportunities for networking, and I want you to have as much fun as possible, so there will be a social mixer at the studio on Friday night (April 16) as well as the full-day workshop on Saturday (April 17), as well as official hotel accommodations for those who need it. Both the mixer and the workshop will be at the fantastic 2 Stops Brighter studio.

And, because I think some workshop prices are a bit nutty, all this is just $350.

To show interest or sign up, e-mail me here!

One of the questions I got on formspring was “How do you get people to do such crazy things at your weddings?”

I don’t.

I don’t think my clients are much crazier than average (well, some of them are, and they know it). For example, this shot was taken at a wedding that had very little dancing at all. Capturing moments comes in three parts. 1) Learning human behavior enough to anticipate them. 2) Learning your equipment enough to take well-exposed (and hopefully well-composed) shots without thinking first, and 3) learning to be unobtrusive enough that people won’t become shy around you. Even though most of the guests were just enjoying great conversation, I knew these guys were going to get crazy, and they did.

A quick portrait before the ceremony of Emily and Myles, in the beautiful St James the Less Church in Scarsdale.

As I teach in my classes, there is nothing new about the idea of compositing images so multiple subjects can be perfectly lit — it’s pretty much the standard in big ad campaigns, editorial shoots, you name it. But the important thing for a wedding day that will let you do it FAST. And that premium increases when you have a bridal party standing in a New York February. This took less than three minutes to shoot.

I feel incredibly honored to have a five-page spread featured on my work and photographic history in the magazine What Digital Camera. The spread was in the August 2009 issue, but since it primarily sells overseas I didn’t see it until now! There is an extensive look at the gear I use and a nice interview to show where I come from and where I’m heading.

Of course, as you’ll be able to see from the gear listings on the sample photos, my equipment keeps changing as I try new ways to capture photos the way I want. That means there are some new additions since the article (such as the D3s, 50mm f/1.2, 35mm f/1.8 and 24mm f/1.8) and of course a bit of gear that was swallowed by the angry god of the sea in Puerto Rico.

You can click on any of the spreads below for a larger, readable version!

Also thanks to Timothy Herzog for taking the photo of me with my kit.

A tender hold during Emily and Myles’s first dance. Myles has these incredible hands. Thank you for responding to my telepathy and putting them in the perfect position.

Richard Branson gives rock star face with his son Sam helpfully sticking his fingers and his mouth and nose at the launch of Virgin Galactic in 2006.

Betcha didn’t think you’d see a billionaire with someone else’s finger in his nose this morning, did you? Gotta keep on your toes around here.

I shot this for Wired way back when.

Yes, as I tell couples, any time between 18 months and 18 hours before the wedding can work for engagement shoot, and since Myles, a coach for the Edmonton Oilers, had been spending this past year working up there, we decided to play in the cold-but-not-Siberian-cold environment of New York in February. And we had a wonderful time. If anyone wants tips on how to make sure they can bring out passion in front of a camera, try spending most of the previous year away from your fiancée in a place with cold spells almost eighty degrees below zero.

God I love the Horah. But they should probably develop some specific chairs for it. Lightweight with a good base that you won’t feel like you’re falling out of. Maybe velcro. Or a seat-belt.

Clearly I’ve found my first wedding product to sell. Who needs actions when you can sell chairs?

I could have made an entire album just from this adorable fireball of a flower girl.

I hope you guys all had a great Valentine’s Day weekend. Maybe some of you got engaged (hint, hint). I know one of my readers did, at least, because I was there.

Specifically, I was there in full ninja-mode, waiting on Central Park’s Bow Bridge, pretending to be one of the countless enthusiast photographers wandering around, most of my gear hidden off to the side. When Chris and Chauntey, visiting New York from Missouri, walked by, I kept an eye on them, waiting for him to drop to one knee as I surreptitiously took pictures. Which he did:

Happily for all, she said yes! Luckily pretty much nothing distracts a woman at this time, so I got to wander around and take pictures of the moment without freaking her out.

Then Chris introduced me, explaining why some random guy in the park was taking photos of them. I let Chauntey gather herself, and then we had fun in the park taking some portraits.

Congratulations, guys!

I used to be able to do this; no joke. And my adductor is healing nicely, so I should be able to do it again soon.

Always stretch before you boogie.

One of the attendees of my workshop told me this little anecdote that I absolutely loved. A friend of his is a teacher at a high school, and asked her students one simple question: “Can you name any photographer, living or dead?”

Silence. One student picked out a business card someone had given him and read the name off it.

If that doesn’t sink in, let me put it another way: In American culture, “The Situation” from Jersey Shore is way more famous than any photographer in history. Let that sink in for a bit.

At best, this entire industry has one rock star (Annie Liebowitz). Also, one classic pop diva ignored by the hip young masses (Anne Geddes). And I’ll give you Ryan McGinley as an indie hit.

There are a lot of things to take away from this — yes, you can bemoan a lack of education in the arts. But I LOVE it. Photographers aren’t important — their work is. Honestly, I couldn’t pick Richard Avedon, Alfred Stiglitz, or even modern masters like Steve McCurry out of a line-up — but I know their work inside and out. The Internet makes everything personal, turns everything into self-publishing, making the individual more important. It opens new opportunities, but it can get things twisted around.

Why does this get under my skin? It’s not a matter of individual behavior — most really well-known wedding photographers are the nicest people you could hope to meet. And, as the ad above shows, lots of industries have “rock stars.”

It’s all about what people aspire to. Is what really drives you to become more and more famous, or to do better and better work? Maybe fame is simply supplanting money as a form of currency — there have always been people out simply to get rich — but the central problem is that I believe that what wedding photographers do is more important than what many rock stars or celebrities do.

We aren’t important, but our work is. Love what you do and do it well, and you will spend a lifetime crafting the memories and social histories of people on the most important days of their lives. You will take photos that make children gape in amazement that their parents were so beautiful, you will take photos that will be laid with people in their caskets, you will take photos that can make people cry even if they don’t know the people in them.

Is that really less important than being the drummer for Nickelback?

UPDATE: Mark leaves a fantastic story in the comments: “I teach a HS class in photography. When I asked my kids to name one photographer they all said Ashton Kutcher. Then they saw a grown man cry!”

Sometimes you just can’t ask for the light to hit someone any better than it is.

On February 5th and 6th, 35 avid and awesome photographers came to 2 Stops Brigher Studios to talk shop and learn about some of the crazy stuff I get up to as a photographer. I figured I couldn’t teach a workshop about how to be fabulous, since I’m just a pretty normal guy, or how to run a business, since the most important thing I know is to work with other people who know how to do that stuff, or selling actions and presets, since I don’t use them.

What I do know as a New York City photographer is how to make the best of situations that aren’t always in your favor, and I thought it might be useful for some people to get my perspective. Also, I’m always looking at photographic gear and saying “Is there anyway I can use this in a weird way that would make some pretty cool pictures?” and we spent most of the day talking about some of the things I’ve found that can give you some new tools for bad situations — things like the “Brenizer method” of bokeh panoramas, video lights and light-painting for low-light, using flash composites for dynamic shots on bright days, and more.

I had such a wonderful time, and so many people have been asking about it, that I am going to host another one soon! I’m thinking April. Watch this space.

There are going to be a lot of photos in the full write-up, so click below to read the rest!

The weekend started with me hosting a mini-convention for photographers of Flickr’s Starting a Wedding Photography Business group at my studio. It was cold, but a lot of fun, as we walked around NYC, and I showed them the NYC way of shooting gigs — work quickly before the security guards come and yell at you. In NYC, there are always security guards.

Here was a little fun we had when I was showing off video lights, and how I would work the ambient of a night-time scene:

Then I showed off a little light-painting before we all froze and headed back inside:

On Friday night, everyone was invited to a mixer at the studio. It was important to me that people see this as an important networking and social opportunity as well as a learning seminar, so I threw this in for free, and will be doing it at all future seminars. Then we all piled in for the workshop!

I knew I would spend most of the day talking about the “Hows” of photography, so I started off with perhaps a more important question: What are your “Whys?”

Here is my brand-new intern Isla, also an attendee, already hard at work on one of the models’ dresses:

We went into with a full demonstration of the “Brenizer method” of bokeh panoramas, because, well, I know a little something about it. I showed everything from pre-visualization to capture to the Photoshop process:

I gave a short demonstration of good techniques for bouncing flash properly. I took a bunch of bad bounce shots I won’t show here, but I also showed how to set up your cameras so you can quickly bounce the light from exactly where you want it to hit your subject:

Then, just to show that you can bounce flash in situations you might not expect, I took this one with the flash bounced off a black fleece jacket! Not art, just a proof-of-concept:

Next was an instructional seminar on flash composites. This is a technique commercial shooters have been using for decades, but I wanted to show them how to do it in five minutes, not five days. So first we set up Lydia alone:

15 seconds of photoshop. Next we set up a mock bridal party:

Four minutes to shoot, two minutes in Photoshop.

Then I challenged myself to get some shots in a horrible, boring situation, and walked the group through how I would handle it. You’ve seen one of these before:

Then we headed out for a bit of street shooting, but it was really cold! April’s seminar will be a bit warmer, I promise:

Still, the participants had fun and did yeoman’s work as light stands:

Thanks so much for coming everyone! We didn’t think to take a group shot until 10 or so people had left, but it was so great to have everyone there, and to see how many photographers wear black: