new york wedding photographer – top 10 in the world – brian dorsey studios

Below is a map of visitors to our website for the last week. We like to keep an eye on these things to see who our friends are. And I must say… this week I’m very disappointed in Greenland. I can only blame myself – I know that my work does not have universal appeal, but I didn’t expect to be snubbed by an entire country.

Now Kazakstan, I can understand. They still like their wedding photographs pretty formal and they’re pretty pissed about the whole Borat thing. But hey you, Kalaallit Nunaaters (that’s Greenlandic for Greenlanders) , I mean really! Twenty percent of you’re country isn’t covered in ice and some of you 50,000 Greenlanders must be getting married on a fjord or something. Think about it… it’s a beautiful place and we have all day and night to shoot in the summer! The midnight sun gives us hours and hours to get some romantic sunset shots.

So, the point being, if you know anyone in Greenland that ’s going to get married can you give them my contact information? I’d be grateful. Then again, perhaps I just can’t rely on referrals…

Thanks.

Oh. And a special shout out to my friends in the Seychelles islands just north of Madagascar! And you guys in the Cape Verde Islands just off Senegal! And I’ve made a mental note of you folks in the Faeroe Islands between Iceland and Denmark too! Thanks for stopping by.

~bd

p.s. Finland, I’ve got my eye on you.

Well – finding a job that I truly love has been the second greatest thing in my life.
My family still takes first place.

And so since I feature so much of my work here, I thought I’d take a moment and share with you a bit of what I consider to be my greatest achievement – my family.

Here’s a few highlights….

First Cole, who turned three last July:

He started shaving….

My kids’ favorite foods: hearts of palm, salmon, broccoli, steak, potatos, and pickles and cole slaw from Artie’s deli on the Upper West Side – go figure! We still traipse up to our old ‘hood for pastrami reubens (extra lean – russian on the side) at least once a month. And if you’ve never had an Artie’s reuben – you should! (but be sure to order it extra lean – it’s the best $1 upgrade you’ll ever get!)

The images below are composites of Cole’s artwork from school and him at the park.

You never know where or when inspiration will strike – but you gotta act fast when it does…

Takin’ the A train home…. after a long hard day of being a kid.

Cole, the real rebel in the family, rides his new bike…

My parents resurrected and reconditioned an old gumball machine that my brother got when he was a kid and gave it, restocked of course, to my kids (with a handful of pennies)….

Ever since that time, Cole has had gum in his mouth…

Cole makes a wish…

And parents, don’t think that it’s any easier for me to get pictures of my family than anyone else. Here I try to get Cole to take a studio shot for a card… “I DON’T WANT TO TAKE A PICTURE!”

Ok, now for the other half… Parents must have equal representation of the offspring!

Miles turned 5 last April.

Ana has been with us since before Cole was born. Ana is a godsend. Everyone should be so lucky as to have an Ana to help with their kids. She’s a friend and a sister to my children and a treasured member of our family.

But again, on the equal representation front – there’s the other child… our “first born” (on the leash), charlie.

I met Nancy and Daniel at an event hosted by New York Magazine last year coinciding with the release of the semi-annual NY Magazine Wedding Issue. They came by 4 times that day to chat with me and discuss the possiblilty of shooting their wedding. They had said they really loved what they saw but I didn’t hear from them for several months so I thought, well – guess they weren’t that impressed. About 5 months after we met, they called and hired me.

Now given Daniel’s busy schedule I didn’t get to do an engagement session with them and so the next time I saw him was when we were about to “introduce” him to Nancy on the day of their wedding. [As an aside - this is a great moment to capture - the bride and groom seeing each other for the first time - dressed on their wedding day. It's always full of emotion and is a really touching moment that we have the privledge of preserving.]

Anyway, back to the story… Daniel was a bit nervous that day and since I had been with Nancy while she was getting ready I hadn’t really had a chance to say hi to him. When he did see me and I reintroduced myself, I could tell that there was so much going on in his head that he didn’t really see me at all… it was a tense time for him. I like to make a connection with people when I start the day but I believe it has to be on their timeline, not mine.

So anyway, I’m doing my thing and a couple of minutes later he turns toward me and and his eyes catch mine and freeze there – like really freeze – and then his expression changes completely. His face relaxes – his eyes soften, his eyebrows unknit and a smile slowly warms his face. “It’s you!”, he says.

I’m not quite sure how to respond (although I’m pretty sure my eyebrows went up to the middle of my forehead)

“Oh, man, It’s you! You!”, Daniel continued. ” I am so happy we got you! Nancy and I love your work and we had to have you!”

Well I was kinda floored. Who knew? Ok, I felt connected now.

The placecard tree. Alphabetized (theoretically).

A moment. (after they signed the Ketubah)

Nancy’s mom took her down the aisle.

And for the creative photographic purists… there are some effects you can get in camera that even Photoshop can’t duplicate…

But I find I have the need to challenge myself at every event I shoot. And sometimes, the event challenges me too. This time for example when during the last song the band leader tells all of the guests to “quickly gather round, turn to the camera and wave” without so much as a hint of a warning for me. There’s nothing quite like setting up for a group shot of 150 people in a dark venue (with a blue ceiling) in about 7.5 seconds….
But it worked – so there.

Thanks, Nancy and Daniel for the honor of joining you on your wedding day. I was glad to have had the opportunity to connect with you both.

Giving is good.

My son Miles goes to kindergarten at The Little Red School in Greenwich Village (where my wife Celeste is the lower school technology teacher). Once a year they have an art auction where members of the community and parents make donations of their work to raise money for the school. Artists include Annie Leibovitz, William Wegman, Howard Schatz, and …. um …. me.

This year, I’ve printed a special piece just for the school’s auction. One of a kind. Check it out.

There’s a little piece of fading Americana right there. Coney Island’s Wonder Wheel – a mecca of mirth – the future of which is uncertain since much of the site is going to be made in to – what else? Condos!

The 150 foot tall Wonder Wheel was built in 1920 and all 440,000 pounds of steel used in it was forged directly on site by Bethlehem Steel. It was one of the only ferris wheels ever built that has cars that move along tracks as it spins – adding a whole ‘nother element of excitement to the ride. It has only stopped once – during the great NYC blackout of 1977. The owners had to hand crank the gears to get riders down.

I took the principle image in November 2005 with a Canon TS-45L Tilt-Shift lens which is what produces the unusual depth of field and that surreal look. The final image is printed 12×18 and mounted on stretched canvas – ready to hang (of course it doesn’t have the logo & border that we use here on the blog). It is signed en verso- which is the art world’s fancy way of saying “on the back.”

Bring some childhood memories into your home – and you’ll smile every time you look at it while you think to yourself, “Damn, that is one sweeeeet photograph! So glad I donated enough money to such a worthy cause that they chose to give it to me for free!”

In addition, if you bid on it, not only do you get major good karma (hello – it’s for children’s EDUCATION!) but also, I’ll be your best friend.

The best thing about making our clients really happy (besides the fact that they insist that everyone they meet absolutely must use us too) is that they keep coming back themselves.

Case in point, Frank, who you may remember from his wedding a couple of months ago was T-I-R-E-D of the old boring headshot that his company was using for him. They just weren’t him. And images that don’t reflect YOU aren’t going to help you. Now Frank is way cool but he’s also in a business where you need to be- smart and professional – but also exceptionally warm, approachable, and trustworthy

Ok, so how do we make a headshot for Frank where he’s smart, professional, yet hip, warm, trustworthy and approachable?

Heck, I’d buy an apartment from this guy. Wouldn’t you?

In this town, there are a zillion ways to do a wedding. But probably the one way everyone can name is “City Hall”. And I bet a lot of people wonder what it’s really like to get married at City Hall…

Well, Anita and Doug took the plunge that way last week and they asked that I join them and record it for them. So this how it works…

First of all, you don’t really get married at City Hall, you get married at the Municipal Building which is across the street from City Hall.

It takes a couple of trips so don’t plan on just walking in the door and getting married.
And of course you gotta pay da man…

Check it out, they HAND SIGN the certificate at no additional charge!! Now that’s service!
Then after you do the paperwork, you stand in line and await your turn.

Now if you recall from the images above, the wedding ceremony itself costs $25. Since the ceremony takes about 60 seconds, it makes the woman below one of the highest grossing officiants in the state. She’s pulling it in at a rate of $1500 bucks an hour!

But she does do the “husband and wife” thing and so for a split second – you get to feel like this. Which is pretty cool.

Until she goes, “Ok, you’re done. Next!”

Here’s the view from outside the Chapel.

aka room 287.

Anita and Doug were great. Doug was just so diggin it all.

The rain kept us under shelter for most of our session.

But it did let up enough at one point for us to skip on over to the fountain at City Hall to grab a few shots there.

Michele (Michi to friends) and Phil had a two day blowout wedding that included a church wedding, two tea ceremonies, a reception and a Chinese Banquet. There was so much going on that they enlisted all their friends with tasks to keep everything on track.

These guys know how to have fun – and they love to goof around.

Since so many guests were from out of town they gave everyone “safety whistles” to ward off trouble in the big bad city….

When your guests break spontaneously into limbo, you know the party isn’t going to end for awhile…

Which meant that people were late for the Chinese Banquet the next morning…

And the 2nd tea ceremony …

But of course, the best way to cure a hangover is with a little hair of the dog that bit you…

Nice.

Robin and Jerry turned the Westmount Country Club into a winter wonderland – despite the weather. These guys are so easy going – it made working with them a pleasure.

Robin played the role of princess in this little fairy tale…

the handmaiden…

the dashing prince…

As Robin’s maid of honor was helping her tighten her shoes I commented that the whole thing looked like a scene from Cinderella. Without missing a beat her “hand maiden” got into the “beware of the evil step sister” position.

and they all lived happily everafter…

If you haven’t had a chance to see it yet, it’s a shame. La Bella Bride is a new and very high quality wedding publication for New England. (I”m a big fan of publishers who invest in good cover stock and make a magazine that feels good in your hands.)

And the other nice thing is when wedding magazine have great images from REAL WEDDINGS in them. So many wedding magazines today are filled with images that were shot with models in a studio and overseen by 3 stylists and 2 art directors and have absolutely no “real wedding” feeling – no emotion. La Bella bride is filled with REAL wedding images – we know – we supplied a lot of them. In fact, in addition to a number of individual shots, this issue features a full profile of Anne & Gabe.

Adreinne & Sergei head up a section.

Anne & Gabe’s profile

Of course, they left out the picture of Gabe swinging from the chandelier at The Essex House but editors do have limits too, you know.