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

Gena and John LOVE Grand Central and wanted to take some pictures there on there wedding day. I thought it would be a great place then to give John his first look at his bride.

So we plunked him down in the middle of the Great Hall at Grand Central and brought Gena out to meet him.

So that we could catch his reaction…

Such a great moment.

For this classic shot, I went again with my custom Digital Cyanotype toning that I developed.

If you remember a few weeks back I mentioned the value of lighting at the reception. Look at what Gena and John did at the Penthouse Ballroom at the St. Regis. Not only did they pinspot the centerpieces, but they uplit the walls AND had 4 MAC Lumieres (moving head lights) on pedestals to crosslight the chandeliers and then break into moving disco gobos during the dance sets. And then during the first dance, they lit up the couple’s new custom monogram that was inlaid in the dance floor.

Here’s a centerpiece NOT being a black hole.

Even the Korean Paebak was a rockin good time.

We were back for the 2nd time in 2 weeks at The Four Seasons for a private event. This one, an engagement party for Martha and Peter was another stunner.

On a bit of a tangent for a minute though first… it’s amazing though when you see how two different and brilliant event designers can outfit a room. This is what David Stark did with the space this week…

Once again, the lighting was done by Frost Lighting. If you care to indulge a personal soapbox spiel for a sec – I really can’t emphasize enough what an amazing impact lighting has on an event. It’s unfortunate that most event spaces don’t provide their own professional lighting because in terms of bang for the buck – you can’t beat lighting. It kills me sometimes when I walk into a room with these fantastic floral centerpieces – amazing works of art – on every table but that you really can’t appreciate because they come off like a black hole floating in a dimly lit room.

Now don’t get me wrong – I’m not against dimly lit rooms, on the contrary, I’m all for ambiance and for mood lighting. Professional lighters don’t “light up” a room, they accent it – carefully and judiciously filling in spots that are focal points – much like we design an album, with thought put into how the eye is drawn around the space.

And nowadays, with lights that change colors or move, you can change the mood & look of your space all night long. Ok, now I’m getting a bit geeky, right?

But on a more micro note, look at the effect the little pin spot has on this tiny arrangement on the table top. Without that spot, that centerpiece would be totally lost and no amount of votive candlelight would bring light to the top of it.

Ok, so I get overly excited by things like this but part of my job is to find those things that will make for fantastic pictures and, well, good lighting just gives me a lot more to work with.

But you give people like David Stark a blank canvas to work with and it’s amazing what they can come up with. Detailed right down to the magenta pashmina shawls on the back of every loveseat.

The Four Season’s infamous Mini Kobe Burgers

And now on to the handsome couple….

Martha and Peter hit the floor for a romantic moment.

That was a pretty sweet engagement party!

It’s a funny thing. When you are looking for an event photographer, you cruise a bunch of websites that are filled pictures of people hanging out – carefree and casual – in these beautiful, warm locations. It really doesn’t take a lot of magic on the photographer’s part to make these subjects look comfortable and like they are having a good time.

Here’s the reality of winter weddings in NYC, however.

I shot gena and john’s engagement session on one of those days when it was about 12 degrees; and with the windchill it was probably 20 degrees below zero.

The real trick is making people who are shivering and covered with goosebumps look like they’re having a good time.

Rather than just show you a few shots from their session – I wanted to share with you what we’ve been doing with the images that we take.

The Guestbook Album

Guestbook Albums are hardcover books filled with full bleed images on fine art paper. We create a layout that leaves space for guests to write a short note to the couple on their wedding day. We put it out during the reception and, at the end of the event, the couple takes it home filled with best wishes.

Here’s a short excerpt from their book.

The cover.

The first opening…

And the last page…

Here’s another album – from a slightly warmer time. (just a few of the 15 openings)

We’ve been amazingly busy lately, so we’re a bit behind on the blog. We had an event at The Pierre, an abfab party at The Four Seasons (which I’m dying to share with you but which I’m contractually unable to), and then a shoot for The Knot & E! Television’s “My Celebrity Wedding” – all in one week!

The “My Celebrity Wedding” shoot was great. Even though creating a special for television meant that we were adding TV cameramen and soundmen, producers, exec producers, assistant producers, sr. exec. producers, and production assistants to the already tiny space in which we normally try to do our job – they were all so talented that the entire day of filming went off without a hitch. But I mean, really, what can go wrong when you’ve got Carley Roney – Founder and Editor in Chief of The Knot, dressing the bride herself!

I just don’t normally have to contend with giant fuzzy booms …

I don’t want to share too many of the details and spoil the surprises before the show airs, but I will divulge that the wedding was inspired by Christina Aguilera’s. There’s also a long and wonderful backstory on the couple, Jessika and Michael. I do want to share a few shots, however, to whet the appetite of all those people who have been clamoring for more.

Here’s Jessica in her Christina Aguilera-inspired dress…

But the checker cab they hired to bring her from The W to the ceremony site is all NYC – style.

Again, without giving too much away… except the rampant underage drinking…

The time that we normally shoot our trademark fun shots was preempted by the production schedule but we did squeeze in about 2 minutes to grab a romantic rooftop shot at dusk. (it was like 20 degrees farenheit and Jessika was shivering within about 20 seconds but she went on nonetheless)

And on the way back down…

Back inside, event designer David Bheam did a great job replicating the look of the Christina’s reception space -

right down to identical place settings and menus.

Even the cake was a perfect match.

But they added a few of their own touches too.

Since they said that Christina had a “fairy tale wedding”, I was thinking Jessika’s version would be more like, “Charger, Charger on the wall, who’s the fairest one of all?”

Just like Christina, Jessika changed into a 2nd dress later in the evening. I think this shot – as she was coming down the stairs just after changing- will give you a sense as to what she looked like in the 2nd dress…

To find out more, you’ll have to tune in to The Knot’s “My Celebrity Wedding” – on the Style Network on April 21st! Who knows, you may even get a chance to see us in action. Wait a sec, does this officially make me a “Celebrity” photographer?