Tag Archives: photography

The Treeeees of NYCeeeee

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We were walking home from a restaurant (#1 reason to live in NYC: you never have to drive home after a tasting menu that includes twelve glasses of wine), and the trees were just beginning to bloom, and I took these pictures of a streetlight falling on the blossoms. And then I Photoshopped the hell out of them, because it was dark out and they were practically black. Which is your favourite?

(Don’t say the first one, because it’s different. And don’t say none of them, you gigantic assholes.)

1:
NYC at Night

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NYC at Night

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NYC at Night

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NYC at Night

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NYC at Night

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NYC at Night

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NYC at Night

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NYC at Night

New York Fashion Week After-Party

Filed under just pictures, living in new york is neat, photography
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My latest gig shooting a New York Fashion Week after-party for The Set NYC was moved from Friday to Saturday night because of the “snowstorm” that “buried” all of Manhattan in half an inch of freezing rain, but the crowd turned out despite the rescheduling, and I was all up in their business with my camera and my flash and my skillz.

I arrived early to watch the models get their faces and hair did,

New York Fashion Week After Party

and then I shot my patented mix of models,

New York Fashion Week After Party

regular people livin’ it up,

New York Fashion Week After Party

and professional dancers gettin’ down:

New York Fashion Week After Party

My favourite moment of the evening was when I marched up to this girl and told her she was adorable and that I needed her picture,

New York Fashion Week After Party

not realizing that one of the women she was with was runway model and “America’s Next Top Model” finalist Maytee Martinez (left):

New York Fashion Week After Party

Oops.

In the elevator before work this morning, I heard a woman tell another woman that she was “busy last week with fashion shows”, and I know that even as recently as a year ago, I would’ve thought something akin to “blahblahblahshowoff” upon hearing this. But today, I thought, “Oh, weird, so was I.” Obviously I ain’t no bigshot photographing the Marchesa runway show or whatever, but it’s crazy to me that I’m participating in this very New-Yorky thing in my own way. And I seriously love the sort of freedom in editing that comes with shooting pictures that are inherently artistic. I’m sure plenty of people would vomit over my 1995 raver aesthetic, but I DO WHAT I WANT.

New York Fashion Week After Party

New York Fashion Week After Party

New York Fashion Week After Party

New York Fashion Week After Party

The rest of the set is here, on my Ettible Photography Facebook Page.

Legit Photographer Nightmares

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I had a dream the other night night that I was photographing my first real wedding. I was so excited to be the one in charge for the first time and wanted to create the most beautiful, artistic pictures for my friend Samantha (whose maternity photos I really did shoot thanks to my BFF, Tracey, talking me up).

As the wedding started, though, I realized that I wasn’t prepared at all and hadn’t even spoken to the preacher (who was a LADY) about how close I could come to the alter, whether or not I could use flash, etc. I was going to walk up in front of the whole church full of people and ask, but just then, the bride started coming down a side aisle, and I needed to run to the other side of the church to capture her.

She was walking down alone in a short, short white cocktail dress, dancing and doing catwalk poses as she came. She stopped in front of me with one hand behind her head an one hand on her hip, and I snapped away. Just then, her one bridesmaid came down the aisle on the other side of the church, and I only got over to her in time to get just one shot of her as she neared the altar.

There was no groom to be seen, but I snapped a hundred pictures of the bride before realizing that I had been using a crappy point-and-shoot camera the entire time. I ran back to the pew where my gear was sitting and realized that no, it hadn’t even been a crappy point-and-shoot but just an external flash unit, not even attached to a camera.

I ran back to the altar and sat on the floor, determined that if I had missed all of those shots, I was going to get so many shots from an “artistic” angle to make up for them. I started shooting, but 90% of the time I pressed the shutter button, it would make the sound that the kind of doorstop on a spring makes when you pull it back and let it go. That pth-pth-pth-pth-pth sputter sound. I didn’t really care what sound it was making as long as it was getting the shots, but of course when I checked my SD card, there were only seven pictures on it from the entire wedding.

So I guess I feel more legit now that I’m having photography nightmares. That’s something.

Gearing Up for the NYC Fashion Week After Party

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You may remember the first New York Fashion Week after party and benefit I shot for The Set NYC. Well, I’m shooting the same event for them this Friday and realized I never showed you the photos from the last party of theirs I did back in November. I KNOW.

I love doing these events, because they give me a chance to chance to try out “interesting” editing under the guise of being “fashionable”. Because if this looks good, then so do these:

NYC Fashion Week After Party

NYC Fashion Week After Party

NYC Fashion Week After Party

NYC Fashion Week After Party

And hey, some of my friends even came out that night to “support me”. Meaning “pick up models”:

NYC Fashion Week After Party

The rest of the set, if you’re so inclined, is on my Ettible Photography Facebook Page.

Totally Legit Wedding Photographer

Filed under all of my friends are prettier than i am, everyone's married but katie, photography
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This is how behind I am in my blogging:

Last October, my very excellent blogfriend Cassie‘s sister got married and invited my very excellent blogfriend Jessica to photograph it. Not to be left out, I somehow weaseled my way in to the shenanigans as Jessica’s second shooter and scored myself a weekend of being taken care of by Cassie in Pittsburgh.

She and Jessica picked me up at the airport–and by that, I mean they parked in the parking lot and came and met me–with pumpkin-flavored treats from Oakmont Bakery in hand and drove us to her sister’s house to start the festivities. Jessica, who is from Louisiana and only sees one season per year, was almost breathless over the rolling hills flooded with fall colors:

Carly's Wedding

And if she loved the trees, she loved the country barns even more. So much so that we went out in the rain to get a picture of her in front of one of them:

Carly's Wedding

Cassie’s sister, Carly, is one of those down-to-earth people you feel close to as soon as you meet her, and she wasn’t freaking out about anything, which made this, my first time photographing a wedding, so relaxed and fun. And having Jessica there as the first shooter couldn’t have been better: she knew what she was doing, she didn’t mind a zillion questions from me, and she never made me feel like I was in competition with her for the shot. She also took the responsibility of all of the important pictures so that I could focus solely on Cassie having a hissy fit at the hair salon at 8 a.m. the day of the wedding:

Carly's Wedding

No, just kidding, she was hitting the bottle hard to keep herself calm:

Carly's Wedding

No, just kidding, she’s pregnant. And this was the kind of classy affair where pregnant women stayed sober and everyone else drank champagne out of McDonald’s cups:

Carly's Wedding

Cassie’s oldest daughter, Claire, was a total delight despite being a child and spent all of her time either entertaining the adults or taking care of her brother and sister, although I have no idea where she gets her good manners. I was in the back seat of the car with her as we were leaving the salon, and she asked why I didn’t get my hair done like all of the bridesmaids; Cassie turned around in the driver’s seat, gave my hair a disapproving look, and said, “Katie will . . . brush hers . . . before the wedding.” Harlot! Brute! Meaniehead!

Carly's Wedding

I kid, I kid. Cassie, aside from hating my hair, was as good a host as the first time I met her and super-generous to boot. The weekend was a great mix of Cassie, Carly, and their charming mother enchanting us with stories from their childhoods and Jessica and me sharing a hotel room and having important conversations about politics, religion, love, books, and her hot husband. Thanks for the memories, ladeez.

Here are a few of my favourite shots from the wedding reception:

Carly's Wedding
Jessica at work

Carly's Wedding
Cassie in front of the awesome-for-photos light wall in Carly and Ben’s reception hall

Carly's Wedding
Cassie and Jessica, being adorable

Carly's Wedding
Carly and her bridesmaids

Carly's Wedding
Cassie, blowing bubbles

Carly's Wedding
Ben and Carly and a whole lotta Photoshop

Carly's Wedding
I die.