A few weeks ago, I was super thrilled when Alexis asked me to do a couple's shoot with her and her boyfriend, Jake, in downtown Saratoga! I love shooting in the city because there are so many nooks and crannies that create such unique photos. We had a little bit of the best of both worlds with Congress Park literally right next to all of the buildings and the busy streets! I wanted to do something a little different with this shoot by making a short behind the scenes video. I am by no means a videographer, but with the help of my assistant, Lauren Aldrich, and this incredibly sweet couple, we were able to take all of you guys and gals along for the ride! While my photos definitely express my own style in itself, I wanted to go even further and show you all the real me (even if I can be a little silly at times) and I wanted to bring the experience to you all as well. I hope to create many more of these behind the scenes videos in the near future and I'm looking forward to connecting with all of you more! Please enjoy this little clip and enjoy this beautiful couple!
VW Bus
In August, a good photography buddy, Sam Luyk, and I collabed on a model shoot including the beautiful Johanna Brady, a overgrown field, and a vintage, orange Volkswagen bus. We borrowed the bus from a good friend of mine and parked it in a field near West Mountain. It was my first time collaborating with another photographer and it's a pretty cool experience that I definitely recommend. So many people in the business world are about competing and trying to be the best out there on the market, but what not everyone realizes is that (although there will be a bit of competition always) coming together as a community is such a more humbling experience. It was so cool to be photographing the same scene right next to Sam and to come out with completely different images. In the art community, people will have similar ideas with different outcomes, and there are different clients that may not be right for me and may be for another business. This experience has not only provided me with some rad images, but a better understanding of the importance of reaching out and supporting the gr8 people around me. Sorry for the "life lesson" talks, but if you'd like to see the pics that Sam took, he's got a couple on his page so I'll leave the link below!! Also feel free to enjoy the poof that is also known as his hair because it is the beautiful.
https://samluyk.com/portraiture/
photo by Sam Luyk
Prospect Mountain
Over this past summer, I had the amazing opportunity to join some friends and go up to the top of Prospect Mountain to not only capture some great images, but enjoy a serene setting under a starry night. For those of you who know me well, you would know that I enjoy nature very much and I experience a great load of bliss from being amongst it. The moon, the stars, and space are some of the many parts of nature that astound me. Let me tell you, being on top of that mountain, a place so pitch black that without a light you can barely see in front of your face, and being able to look up and see almost every detail of the Milky Way above me, was probably one of the rarest moments I've encountered. Our original intention for going to the top of the mountain was to capture the rare northern lights that were going to occur in upstate New York that night. Unfortunately we left an hour too late to see it, but we still had a gr8 time and captured some pretty cool images anyway. This was my first attempt at photography of the night sky. With a great load of help from my friend Sam, I was able to pull of this image. Although this was not the most legal adventure and it did not turn out how I expected it to, it was definitely one for the books!