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

In honor of the upcoming costume-based holiday I thought I’d share some images that from a Disco Wedding I shot awhile back with one of my associates, Matt Karas.

Matt has been shooting with us for almost 5 years – and for the last year or so, he’s been the lead photographer on a number of our events. During the week, Matt is a dance photographer. He shares a studio with Lois Greenfield in SoHo. For you who don’t know, Lois is THE dance photographer. No really, if you google “dance photography”, she’s #1. Matt may very well be the next #1. He has shot close to 1/2 of the covers for the big dance magazines over the last 9 months.

Anyway, Matt asked me to join him shooting a wedding in Brooklyn – enticing me with – “It’s a disco wedding, with a marching band and a lady circus!” Now how can you say no to that?

Grand Prospect Hall in Brooklyn, really is old world grand. A lot of the original detail has been preserved so you feel like you’re going back in time when you walk in.

The best part of shooting a wedding as a “second” photographer instead of the lead is that you get to do the really fun shots. I saw the lights they were using to spotlight the couple during their first dance, and I thought it’d make a great shot from above. Here I ran up to the balcony and timing the moving lights just so… made a heart for them to dance in.

Bring on the Hungry Marching Band!

And the Lady Circus!

With fire jugglers!

No kidding!

And one girl was doing the strangest dance – she had her hair stuffed up her nose.

Just kidding on that one.

But it really was a Disco Wedding. All the guests were completely decked out 70s style. Here they whisk the groom off the dancefloor.

And dump him.

Just kidding.

Hope you can join us tomorrow for the fun!

Thought I’d share a few shots from Mary and Adam’s wedding that we shot a little while ago.

She had on one of the most amazing dresses I had ever seen.

It had so much wonderful detailing.

It’s great to have a suite like those at the Waldorf when you’re getting ready. There’s enough room to find some great angles on what’s going on.

They looked so good that I thought I’d take a cover shot on spec. Just in case…

Earlier this season, I got to go out to the Hamptons to take portraits of Lynda and Michael at their summer home.

There’s so much love that these two have for each other.

Michale pulled out his old 442 to cruise around in. Here Lynda’s is playing pin-up girl on the hood.

I was sitting on the top of the rear seat and Michael was showing me what the car could do – and I practically fell off the trunk.

And they lived happily every after.

Conor, Emma and Jack have been coming for portraits since they were born. Tis the season for family shots again – holiday cards and the like – and this time, I got to go up to their neighborhood in Connecticut for a visit.

How cute is this family?

I just love catching kids being kids.

Emma and I yuck it up.

And then a pensive moment.

And then we yuck it up again.

I love the painterly background in that shot.

While Conor and Emma were running around however, Jack conked out on Mom.

For those of you not familiar with the event design world, David Monn is widely considered to be THE Event Planner for high-style high-end events in New York. He’s the force behind the Met’s annual Costume Institute Gala, the Guggenheim’s International Gala and the New York Public Library’s Lion’s Dinner as well as many other noteworthy events. David’s work really defies description with the possible exception of the word, “grand.” (and I don’t mean the hundreds of them that go into these spectacular events.) Ok, perhaps, “visionary” would work as well.

For the last couple of years, I’ve been fortunate to have been selected by David to cover most of his events. His clients are always wonderful and it’s always such a privilege to work with him and his amazing staff. Whether it’s a society wedding, a private dinner at a penthouse overlooking Central Park or a private concert for 500 close friends (including local celebrity favorites Mayor Bloomberg and Howard Stern as well as a few international heads of state) it’s always something stunning.

Recently David won BizBash’s New York Event Style Awards’ Best Overall Event Decor, Best Non-Profit Event Concept and Best Tabletop Design for one of the events we worked together – The 2008 Guggenheim International Gala.

In homage to Frank Gehry, David did the entire decor of the main room in cardboard. Only David Monn can make cardboard look stylish. The ceiling was waves of long strips of corrugated cardboard resembling the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

He also won Best Entertainment Program / Concept for another event that I shot for him, The Plaza Hotel’s 100th Birthday celebration.

For this huge red carpet event with everyone from Mayor Bloomberg to Martha Stewart turning out, David had Grucci wire up the entire facade of the Plaza hotel with fireworks. And if that wasn’t enough, David had my good friend, Ron Ben-Israel make an amazing cake – a 6 foot high replica of the hotel itself.

Which you can see in detail on our blog archives.

Actually, you can see a huge sample of the work we’ve done for him on the David Monn website.

carla and stephen are such a fun couple. You might remember their engagement session that we did at McSorley’s Bar in Manhattan which is where they originally met. Recently they were married at The Foundry in Brooklyn. But I wanted to share some images from a new location that I’d never been to before – Gantry State Park. As you can tell from the pictures, it’s in Brooklyn and offers great views of the Manhattan Skyline.

But in addition to the skyline, you’ve got these wonderful gantrys to work with – giant machines that lifted cargo from ships back when Brooklyn was a shipping hub. Cool, right?

It’s as if they’re going to pick up the city… maybe move the Empire State Building a little closer to the United Nations.

And the other icon – The Pepsi Cola sign has actually been moved (not by a gantry) to it’s new home in the park as well.

An awesome location…

Having a studio (and a home) in tribeca is like living on a movie set. Not only because crews are constantly shooting films and doing still shoots down here, but also because it’s all so damn genuine and photogenic. There are very few days that pass when I’m not walking the dog past some set and Charlie is eyeing the food on the craft services table. I on the other hand am eyeing all the gear and all the people. Oh man, the shoot I could do with all those lights and all that gear and that crew of 40 people! Tribeca definitely always keeps you thinking. Case in point, last summer when I walked outside and my entire block was covered in classic Manhattan grey winter slush. I was really thrown off – I mean it was like 70 degrees out there. I was totally baffled until along came a set decorator who started pouring mounds of kosher salt on my doorstep and then squirting it with a bottle of black liquid. Voila – instant 3 day old NYC snow.

Anyway, I digress.

Irena and Billy live in the area and hired me to create engagement portraits for them in Tribeca and on the Brooklyn Bridge. It was important to them that we incorporate things into the images so that the location could be identified even by out-of-towners.

Below my trusty Tilt-shift lens helps me focus not only on Irena’s beautiful eyes, but also on the glass sidewalk vault steps. Tribeca has tons of these glass sidewalk vaults since this was primarily a shipping area and companies used every square inch they could get to warehouse their goods. Including underground. But to let a little light in below they inserted these purple glass circles in the cast iron vaults.

This one is for a perfume advertisement.

An homage to Irena’s modeling days…