We started out the shoot at a private residence built by Bridget’s grandfather. It was incredible! The landscaping was just stunning. We hung out there for a while, and then we headed downtown for some fabulous night shots at Market Arcade, the Fountain Plaza area, and nearby Shea’s. I love, love, love all of the night shots, but my favorite is probably the one with the waterfall fountain. Ben set up some pretty dramatic lighting for that set, and I was loving it. I was so excited, that I forgot about the umbrellas I had set down on the bench behind me. When, I went back to go grab them (literally 5 minutes later), they had been swiped!! That was a bummer, but I’m sure whoever took them really needed them…at least, that’s what I tell myself! Sometimes, when I’m shooting, I get really excited about what I’m doing, and I have a tendency to forget my personal belongings and just walk away, camera in hand. It drives my poor husband nuts, as he is always having to stop and pick things up after I walk away (a camera bag here, a lens cap there, umbrellas, etc.). I really have to try and be better about that!

These two were so much fun to shoot! They were so natural in front of our cameras, and so genuinely in love – it was easy to see that they are absolutely perfect for each other.

Bridget and Wally – thank you both for being so awesome to work with!! You guys rocked this shoot! We had so much fun, and we’re really looking forward to the wedding! Can’t wait! Much love, J + B :)

P and K decided that they wanted to meet up at Becker Farms for their e-shoot, too, and that was fine with us, considering that we’re such huge fans of the place.  ;)  It’s beautiful all year round, but it’s especially beautiful in late autumn, when the vines are loaded with grapes, and the apples are starting to fall off the trees and scatter.  We started out in the vineyard.  If these two were nervous about being photographed, we would have never known!  They were so genuinely happy and having a great time just being together, hanging out in the vineyard.  Their love for each other was so obvious, and it made us even more excited for the wedding day!

Paul made this awesome Save the Date sign himself!  He’s so crafty!  We took some real, card-worthy shots with the sign, I swear….these two were my favorites, though.  ;)The barn across the street from the main farm is one of our favorite spots.  It started to rain, so we just ducked in there for a few!  I’m sure everyone recognizes this location by now.  We’ve shot here quite a few times now, but it’s such a gem!  Every time we go back, we see something different and amazing.I love this shot!  You both look positively dashing here, guys!!  ;)Since the rain wasn’t letting up, we needed to find another “covered” location, so we headed into Lockport, and grabbed a few shots by the locks.  This spot is one of our new favorites!  Can’t wait to shoot there again!

Paul and Kerry – thanks so much for spending some time with us! It was great to get to know you a little bit as a couple…you are so much fun! We are so excited for the wedding, and look forward to capturing many wonderful moments and memories for you!! Can’t wait! Much love, J + B :)

They wanted to have their e-shoot at the Chautauqua Institution, and since neither of us had ever been there before, we were pretty psyched to have the opportunity to see and experience it!  There is something so “magical” about this place…it’s in the air!  I could feel it as soon as I stepped out of the car.  ;)  We were there in the “off-season,” so we pretty much had the place to ourselves, and it was awesome to just wander around and check out all of the gorgeous old buildings, and ask a million questions about the history of the Institution that no one knew the answers to (well, that was just me…I do that A LOT, and it drives Ben CRAZY).  Good times!!

LOVE.Many, many takes to get the lighting to be exactly what I wanted it to be in this one…but, so worth the effort.  :)Mad props to Jen for her willingness to hold a germ infested pay phone receiver up to her face!!  YOU RULE!!!  I don’t know what I was thinking….well, yes I do, actually.  I was thinking, “OMG!!  Phone booths?!  Are you serious right now???!!!  I thought these went extinct!!”I love this shot!!  It totally takes me back to that exact moment in time.  It was such a gorgeous night, and we could already tell that the sunset was going to be amazing, so we were both happy about that.  I was just sitting there in the sand shooting Jen and Nate looking out at the lake, and watching the boat drift slowly to shore.  There was a black lab on the boat who had his front paws perched up on the side, as if he were ready to either jump in and swim to shore or yell, “laaaaaand hooooo!!”  I remember laughing to myself about that, and thinking, “wow.  I really love my job.”  :)Have I mentioned how much I love people who are willing to get in trees for me?  Well, I do.  It was, as we expected, a phenomenally beautiful sunset.  That last frame is one of my favorite shots of all time.  The sky was stunning, the people are incredible, and we had a wonderful adventure that night.  :)
Jen and Nate – thank you for being so much fun to work with, and for going along with whatever crazy ideas we came up with!! You guys rocked this shoot! Can’t wait for the wedding!! It’s going to be here before we know it!! Much love, J + B :)

Meg and Ian wanted to include Gerbe in at least part of their shoot, so we met up with them at their home in Syracuse to grab some shots of the three of them as a family.  I love it when our couples want to include their pets!  Lily is so much a part of our family, that I couldn’t even imagine taking a family photo without her in it.
After we got some great family shots, we followed Megan and Ian over to Clark Reservation, which is a really cool park/nature preserve in Syracuse.  It’s always fun for us to explore a totally new place!We had a lot of fun playing with light and shadow that day.  There were so many awesome light spots in the woods.  :)This tree is just incredible!  I love this shot!At first, I was not interested in making the long trek down these 100 stairs to get to the bottom, because I knew I would have to climb all the way back up; but, I did it, and like always, I’m so very glad I did.This gorgeous spot was at the bottom of the stairs!  This might be my favorite from the whole day.  My quads were burning on the climb back up, though!!  It was rough!  After Clark Reservation, we went into downtown Syracuse to see what we could see.  We loved this spot!  It’s gorgeous!  I didn’t even notice the moon in the frame when I shot this.  :)Then, after a bit of walking, we stumbled upon this tree, and I became a woman obsessed.  It’s not every day that you come across the perfect tree.  It was low enough to the ground for climbing with minimal effort, and massive enough for creating an epic photo!!  We took quite a few shots here…Megan and Ian will probably never look at this tree the same way again!  I love the way these turned out, though, so hopefully, they think it was worth the effort.  ;)
Megan and Ian – thank you so much for showing us some fabulous new places! We had such a great time, and you were both so much fun to work with!! We are so, so psyched to be a part of your wedding day! It’ll be here before we know it! Much love, J + B :)

This is definitely one of my favorites…LOVE it.After we left the Guaranty Building, we walked around for a while, stopping at various spots we loved, and took advantage of the beautiful sunshine.  :)Then, we wound up in another one of our absolute favorite locations in the whole city – The Central Terminal.  If you’ve been following our blog for a while, then you definitely know how much we love this place.  We shoot here pretty frequently, but every single time we do, it’s different.  Somehow, we always manage to find something new and amazing!  Stacy and Shane were so awesome to work with.  They were so natural and happy, and up for anything we wanted to do.    (“Would you mind standing right here, guys?  What?  Oh, that weird dirty sleeping bag in the corner?  I’ll just kick that out of the way…no worries!”)  Another one of my favorites!
This was the first time we’ve actually shot inside the weird, abandoned conductor’s hut (I honestly have no idea what this building used to be….some kind of control room?!  No idea).  We have always wanted to shoot in here, and we’ve certainly talked about it enough times, but this time we actually did it, and it was AWESOME.  I can’t wait to do it again!!

Stacy and Shane – thanks for being so much fun to work with! We had such a great time capturing these memories for you!! We wish you guys all the very best on your wedding day! Can’t wait to see the photos!! Much love, J + B :)

Stacy and Ben are one of our fabulous 2012 couples, and we just adore them! Actually, they’re our very first wedding of 2012…they’re getting married next weekend, and we are so looking forward to it!  We met up with them in Rochester for their e-shoot, because they had some pretty special locations picked out.  The first one was Dinosaur Barbecue, and we were sooooo psyched about it!  Dino BBQ is kind of a “cornerstone” of Stacy and Ben’s relationship, so it made complete sense for it to be one of their photo locations.  If you’ve been there, then you can probably imagine how exciting it would be to photograph this place.  The best part of all was that Stacy and Ben totally hooked us up, and got us in there before the restaurant opened.  We had the place all to ourselves…it was amazing!!
I want to point out which of these are my top favorites from the shoot, like I usually do, but I honestly can’t this time.  I love every single shot we took at Dino.  Stacy and Ben were so relaxed right from the start…they were super fun to shoot!
Seriously…this place was amazing to shoot.  What are those things??  Wild boar?  Really?  COME. ON.  I loved every minute of it.HOLY. CRAP.  I love these two crazy kids so much.We took a few shots around the outside of Dino (it’s an awesome building, inside and out), and then Stacy did a quick outfit change before we began our trek around the city of Rochester.  :)We know very little about Rochester at all, but Ben is from there, so he knew about this incredible place.  Talk about an adventure!!  This was one we’ll never forget.  Apparently, Rochester used to have a subway.  (Who knew??)  But, it was abandoned and the tracks were removed, but the tunnels are still there, and they are loaded with some of the most unbelievable graffiti art we’ve ever seen.  It’s very cool to shoot this place, but let me tell you…you have to actually GO there to get the full experience (i.e. read all of the very interesting messages scrawled on the walls, stroll through pitch dark parts of the tunnels with unidentifiable odors wafting into your nostrils, etc.).  Trust me…if you wake up one morning and decide that you need to have an adventure, this is the place.We all kind of loved this one.  It’s so…..interesting.  If you’d like to offer your interpretation of what the h is going on in this painting, please feel free.  ;)  I actually just noticed right now, that it says “$7″ in the bottom right hand corner.  $7 for what, exactly??  We will never know.This was toward the darker end of the tunnel, where I started to get scared, and no one else did.  I hate it when that happens.  I am glad that I was heckled, however, because I love this shot. The night they got engaged, Stacy and Ben went to a concert at the Blue Cross Arena, so we had to grab a shot with it in the background.  :)  I love that this captures how windy it was in there!!  We made it all the way to the other end of the tunnel, and had some fun with this oddly placed platform for a while.Can I just say again how excited we are to shoot these two again this weekend?  Suuuuuuper photogenic.  ;)After the whole subway tunnel thing, we hit up a few more spots around the city of Rochester.  I love these next two shots!!
This one was by request, and in my head I was kind of like, “Hmmmm…how the frick am I going to make these giant, reeking cauldrons of Genny look cool?”  But, whatever…I’m totally in love with this shot.  TOTALLY.We had so much fun adventuring with Stacy and Ben, and if we had just packed up and drove home at the end of the shoot, it would have been a perfect day.  But, instead, we all headed back to Dino to have a ridiculously delicious meal, which made it more than perfect.  One of my favorite days EVER.  :)

Stacy and Ben – thank you so much for hanging out with us in Roch, and showing us such amazing places! It truly was an adventure! We had such a great time!! Can’t wait to see you guys this weekend! Winter wedding, here we come! Much love, J + B :)

For Steph and Jared, that very special location is Akron Falls State Park.  They have spent (and still do spend) lots and lots of time there together, so it’s one of those spots that means a lot to them…just like my backyard means a lot to me.  It was our first time ever visiting this park, but it was so breathtaking, that we can’t wait to shoot there again!  Steph and Jared are just adorable, and we had such a good time hanging out with them!

One of my favorites…I love the light in this shot!
One of the most incredible things about this park is the waterfall.  It looks amazing in photos, but it will blow you away with it’s beauty (and size) in person.  It’s pretty massive, and it makes you feel so tiny in comparison, but you can still get up close to it, which is very cool.  These were difficult shots to take because you have to hop on slippery rocks to get yourself positioned at the perfect angle, which happens to be in the middle of the creek, and then, there was all the crawling around that Ben did to light the background; but, it was absolutely worth it, and Steph and Jared were so patient with us.  Thank you SO MUCH, you guys!!  :)Then, we climbed up behind the falls to get to the top, and we set up some different lighting to take these shots.  I love the feel of these!!We thought we were done after the top ‘o the falls shots, since it was pitch dark at that point; but, then we saw these awesome reflect-y signs, realized that we’ve been dying to take some shots using our headlights as the main light source, and convinced Steph and Jared to do just a few more.  ;)  So glad we did!!  These are super fun!
Steph and Jared – we can’t thank you guys enough for being so awesome to work with! Not everyone has the patience to wait it out while we set up lighting for an awesome shot, but you guys were all about it, and because of that, you ended up with an incredible set of shots! We adore you two, and can’t wait to be a part of your wedding day!! It’ll be here before we know it! Much love, J + B :)

When we pulled up next to Angela and Jon in the parking lot of Tift Nature Preserve, it was pouring. It had been cloudy all day, but we totally thought the rain would hold off, and of course, it didn’t start raining until we were 5 minutes from the parking lot. Ben rolled down the window, and said, “okay guys, we can either reschedule your shoot, or we can just shoot in the rain and get creative with it!”  Angela thought about it for a minute, and said, “Let’s just get creative with it!”  And, since we live for a good challenge, that was exactly what we wanted to hear!

We had to think fast to come up with locations that were protected from the rain, but that would still give us the style we were looking for.  Ben immediately thought of this building first, which is right across the street from HSBC Arena.  It’s a great spot, with great light, and awesome reflective windows.  Unfortunately, we were only able to shoot there for a short time, and then we were hustled off by security.  I love the ones we did manage to get, though!!  :)

Next, we headed over to this area under the Skyway.  This next shot is definitely one of my super favorites.
The rain slowed down to a sprinkle for a short time, and we were able to get some shots on the boardwalk.  Thankfully, Angela and Jon didn’t mind getting sprinkled on!Another favorite of mine…I love this weird sculpture, and this adorable couple.  :)It started raining pretty hard again, so we found cover under another underpass, and Ben set up a red accent light for maximum awesomeness.
This was such an awesome shoot!  It was definitely a challenge to shoot in the rain, but that made it even more fun for us.  Angela and Jon are so in love and so genuinely happy to be together – they were an absolute pleasure to work with!  We even got a few minutes of sunshine at the very end!!
Angela and Jon – thank you so much for your willingness to “get creative,” and for trusting us to do an awesome job in the rain! You guys RULE!! We loved hanging out with you, and we couldn’t be more excited to be a part of your wedding day!! Can’t wait!! Much love, J + B :)

Although they are currently livin’ the fast life in NYC, Jill is a Buffalo native, and hanging out at Caz Park was a memorable part of her childhood here.  So, we decided to meet up by the casino and stroll around the park for a while.

There are so many huge old wonderful trees in this park, and a lot of great benches to sit on and be a part of nature.  I lived in South Buffalo for a while, and let me just say that this park is definitely a major highlight of the South Buff.There’s nothing like a little early morning swinging to get the blood flowing!!  I was excited about how perfectly the light was hitting the swing set.  ;)While I was shooting J and B on the swings, Ben was setting up the lighting for this shot.  As I’ve previously mention (in other posts), I tend to get annoyed when he wants to bring too many different colors into a shot; but, I’m learning (slowly) to keep my mouth shut and just trust him, because he usually knows what he’s doing.  I have never seen the Caz Park casino look this good.  For real.After the casino shot, we strolled the grounds a bit more.  We stumbled upon a flock of ducks, broke out into some silliness, and then I climbed down into the creek bed to shoot up into some gorgeous yellow flowers.Jill wanted a shot with her grandparents’ house in the background, and I seriously LOVE this one.  Honestly?  It might be my favorite shot from the whole session.  :)After we were done shooting at Caz, we headed over to one of our favorite places to shoot – the Central Terminal.  The light in these buildings at this time of day was just incredible.  This is another one of my favorites…how cute are these two?!LOVE.Oh, these doors!!!  We’ve shot in front of them a zillion times now, but they just never get old.To keep things fresh, we decided to explore a building that we had never been in before, and it was awesome.  Creepy as all hell, but seriously awesome.
Jillian and Ben – thanks so much for spending some time with us!! We really enjoyed getting to know you guys a little bit, and we’re super excited to be a part of your wedding day! Can’t WAIT!!! :)

Molly and Vinny’s session was a blast! We had so much fun with these two. They made each other laugh constantly, which made us laugh constantly, so the whole shoot was one big happy laughter-fest.  What could be better than that?  We started out at Becker Farms, (which is absolutely one of our favorite wedding venues EVER), and took full advantage of the gorgeous Fall weather, and the lush grape vines.  We just had the pleasure of shooting Molly and Vinny’s amazing winter-themed wedding a couple of weeks ago, and IT. WAS. INCREDIBLE.  I cannot wait to share what we captured from their wedding day!!  :)
It was prime apple picking season while we were there, and the trees were just loaded with fat, juicy apples!  I love these orchard shots so much.  :)The barn across the street is one of the spots we always make a point of stopping whenever we’re shooting at Becker Farms.  That whole area is stunning, and the light we had that day made it even more stunning than usual.  Don’t these two look ridiculously good together?!  So perfect.
After we had hit all of our favorite spots at Becker Farms, we headed down the road about a mile to another favorite location of ours.  If you’ve been reading our blog for a while now, I’m sure you recognize it…it’s the ruins of an old mill (just the outer shell of it remains), and it loves to be photographed.
This is one of my favorite shots we’ve ever taken at the “old mill.”  GORGEOUS!!
We wrapped up our session with some great shots on the Erie Canal in Lockport.  We love shooting around the locks!  So many cool shapes and colors to work with!

Molly and Vinny – thanks so much for spending some time with us at Becker Farms, and for letting us talk you into visiting our other favorite Lockport locations!! Looking at these images brings back memories of a super fun day spent with an amazing couple. You two ROCK! We are insanely excited to share the gorgeous shots from your wedding day!! Can’t wait!! Much love, J + B :)