Awaiting the bride.

Her Dad, ready to take her down the aisle…

The funny thing about winter weddings in nyc is (besides being cold) that daylight is done by 4pm. So going outside to take pictures following a ceremony becomes a night shoot. Apparently, people come out for hot soup after dark as well.

Colin with his boys at Hot Soup across the street from the Met.

Now, my clients look to me for something different – something that doesn’t look like wedding photography – and for something lively, spontaneous and fun so very often I end up seizing opportunities that magically appear (if you’re always looking for them). Being stuck in stop and go traffic on 5th avenue seemed like a great opportunity for a sunroof shot. So I find myself squeezing through the sunroof of our LandRover while Celeste is driving is signaling to maggie and colin in the limo next to us to see if they can fit out of theirs. They do and the crowd on 5th starts cheering and they’re waving and I’m shooting and swapping out cards and lenses on the roof of a moving car.

Isn’t creating spontaneity perfect.

Except for the fact that there was an undercover NYPD car behind us who cranked up their siren up at me – 140 decibels of whoop whoop!

Ooops. Who knew that you couldn’t do that? I didn’t have a “no sunroof photography” section in my drivers’ education manual!

But in the end, I got the shot I wanted.

All is fair in love and wedding photography.

Now, as a person who doesn’t really like having my own picture taken (having spent waaaayyyy too much time as a kid feigning a smile while waiting for my Dad to focus and push the button and – wait, hang on, I forgot to cock the shutter…), I’m really sensitive to others’ “in front of camera” time. I do my “formals” or non-photojouralistic portraits really quickly. I find that if I keep things moving and lively and fun – people really don’t have time to think about the fact that they’re in front of my camera. And because this is a day of celebration (and very often, there’s an open bar a-waiting) I don’t want to keep people any longer than the absolute minimum.

But the funny thing is that, if you make the entire picture taking process fun enough, people can actually enjoy the time they spend with you.

Joanne and Anthony and their wedding party took it even further – they didn’t want to stop.

I kept asking if they wanted to stop and they kept saying, “no, this is a blast, let’s keep going”. And who was I to say otherwise. So even though I would have been happy just to get a shot like this:

(will you just look at the expression on that flowergirl?)

They wanted to do more and so we got this…

and this.

I mean, when I saw T&A coffee – I just had to do something funny with the bridesmaids…

Tribeca Rooftop is a wonderful space for those looking for something upscale downtown – great views, a huge, fun, loft space, a roofdeck.

And check out the great “interactive” menus – those fun little folding paper thingys that you played with when you were a kid.

At this size you probably can’t appreciate all the great goings on in this shot but many of the expressions are priceless.