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

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we all realize that the photographs we have of our loved ones become worth more to us as time passes on.  this past weekend a 300 year old European Beech reminded me of just how quickly our photographs can sometimes appreciate in value…

The Climbing Tree held forth in a Frederick Law Olmstead designed park near the house in which I grew up.  Of course she predated Olmstead’s …

Tags: briandorseystudios Documentary Photojournalists portraits the boys tree

Permalink: /index.php/2010/02/25/the-appreciation-of-photographs-ode-to-the-climbing-tree/

Category: children's portraits , personal

All pet owners know that inevitably that day will come when their pet is no longer there by their side – but such knowledge doesn’t make it any easier to bear when that moment does come. Losing a dog really is like losing a member of your family. Although if you’ve never had a dog, I can only imagine that it seems a bit nutty. But there really is a void that is left – and like a deep wound, it takes a long time to heal.

Celeste and I had Charlie for 12 years and considered him our “first child”. When you were lonely, Charlie was there to keep you company. When you were overwhelmed, Charlie helped to put everything in perspective. When you were trying to cook, brush your teeth, get dressed, or move something heavy, Charlie was always in the way – directly underfoot.

He taught us patience.
He taught us the simple zen-like joy of just being.
He taught us how to give even when you think you’ve given all you can.
But most importantly, he taught us what the term unconditional love really meant.

In addition to the legacy of memories that he leaves us with – he also lives on in a way in the lives of the 3 clients of mine, who, after meeting charlie here in our studio, went out and got Tibetan Terriers for themselves (thanks for sharing the pics guys!). Such was the impact he had on others. If you liked dogs, you couldn’t not like Charlie – he was cute, funny, but most of all, he was chill. All he wanted to do was hang near you. Tibetans were bred as companion dogs for Tibetan monks and, true to form, Charlie was a companion. He didn’t ask for much, just proximity. My clients seemed to thoroughly enjoy having him greet them in the hallway and sit under our feet at meetings.

While there were many sad moments at the end and lots of tears shed I would like to mention a bright point in an otherwise painful matter – our veterinarian Dr. Jennifer Berg of Animal General without whom I’m not sure how we could have dealt with the situation. Her guidance, support and empathy actually left me feeling good about the whole thing – I was telling my friends, “Well, it went better than I could have ever possibly imagined,” due completely to Dr. Berg. She even shed a tear with us as Celeste sang a lullaby as we put Charlie to rest. He really was at peace. I know even he was comforted by her presence.

We followed Dr. Berg as she moved around to find a practice that best suited her and now we’d follow her anywhere. When the time comes for a new puppy, we’ll have to find a way to schlep him to the Upper West Side to Animal General to see Dr. Berg.

Charlie now rests in “the country” – meaning the backyard of my parents house – the house i grew up in. We did it the old-fashioned “hard” way since I thought we owed him that much. A large stone marks the spot where he lies wrapped in a shroud in which the entire family wrote our fondest memories of him along with with his favorite toys; Mr. Carrot, Mr. Shark, Teddy, and the Chomp-a-Bomb.. We thought it would help the boys process the whole thing as well (more thanks to Dr. Berg).

So thanks ChiChi (a nickname Miles gave him when he was first learning to speak) for being such a great companion. You will be sorely missed. But never forgotten. Woof. Good Boy.

I gave my son Miles a camera and took him to one of our favorite places in the city – The Museum of Natural History.

Before we moved downtown, we lived just a few blocks from there and we spent many hours perusing the dinosaur galleries when he was a wee tyke.

Finally catching up on looking at some personal pictures that I took with the family over the fall and this one caught my eye.

What could be a more satisfying life experience than being in the country on a brilliant fall day and taking your kids to a local farm to pick their own apples and pumpkins. Two years ago when we did the pick your pumpkin thing with the boys we marched through the twisted tangle of somewhat spiky vines, big prickly leaves and the occasional rotten orange mass to find just the right pumpkin for each of them. They would call me over with a, “Daddy, I want this one!” and I would be manly man and whip out my trusty pocket knife and sever the gourd from it’s umbilical cord. Aaaaa. Harvesting the fruits of the earth. SO SATISFYING! It’s about as close as we urban folk come to farming.

It’s one of those kinda perfect little moments in life isn’t it? So it quickly became a tradition.

This year, was a little different, however. We tried a new place and this time the pumpkins patch looked a little too perfect.

Fact was, it was a sham.

Here, the pre-picked pumpkins have been perfectly scattered across the fields to give the appearance of an ideal pumpkin patch. I mean it takes a lot of effort to distribute these big heavy orbs so well. But still.

The bubble above my head was, “this isn’t pick your own pumpkins! At best this is pick OUT your own pumpkins, or, better yet, pick UP your own pumpkins since they were all picked elsewhere and placed there for you to pick.”

Now, when you go to Disney, you know it’s going to be a simulation. But a country farm? How do you know when a road sign saying ” U Pick Pumpkins” is not actually a pumpkin patch but a pile of pre-picked pumpkins?

It just didn’t seem right to me. In fact, I thought it was false advertising or at the very least misleading.

Anyway….

That made me think about the work that we people who photograph weddings do as well and how we present our work.

How does the public know when the wedding work a photographer shows is a reflection of working a real wedding – with all the time constraints, pressures, issues, and myriad unknowns that weddings are prone to and when has the work being shown been shot under controlled non-wedding conditions, with models or a team of assistants? When are you really going to get a real pumpkin patch and when are you going to end up with something other than what you’re lead to believe will be there?

I see lots of websites filled with wedding images shot under non-wedding conditions. If I were a client, I’d want to base my decision on images shot under the same conditions they’d be working under on my wedding day. I wouldn’t really care what they could do with a model and a team of 5 people and 5 hours and no videographers. It’s not what you’re going to get when it’s all over.

I show images that we’ve taken at actual weddings with actual clients – no models, no portfolio fluffing sessions. You want to know what you’re going to get when you only give me 5 minutes to shoot the portraits because the limo broke down? Here you go. What you see is what you’re actually going to get. The real deal. Cut the gourd from the vine real.

Unfortunately, I think I’m starting to be in the minority.

I want my clients to see and know what they’re really going to get. Otherwise it’s like following the sign to “U Pick Pumpkins” and ultimately you end up with this:

People who live in the city really need a place that they can escape to periodically. A place with woods and squirrels and deer. It helps to maintain a sense of sanity. Especially if you have kids.

Some city folk head upstate to their “Country House”, some go out to the Hamptons to their “Summer House” and some go to Palm Beach.

We go to New Jersey.

To my parent’s house.

The same house I grew up in.

The boys get to run around with the neighbors’ kids like real suburbanites and we parents get to unwind a bit. And there’s always something cool to play with out there.

Miles, our budding scientist, dragged an old telescope and my old rocking chair outside so he could make some sketches of the moon.

And Cole, not one to miss out on the opportunity joined in.

But he wrote a poem.

That’s what the “country” does to you.

Haven’t given the boys much play lately so I figured I share a few shots we took in the Victorian Gardens in Central Park earlier.

This is the beautiful Maddie.

She’s best buds with my son Cole.

They like to hang out and do things together – like pairs corn shucking.

Unfortunately, sometimes when they hang out, their parents forget to watch them closely.

Recently, they were styling each other’s hair. A brush and a spray bottle of water kept them entertained and quiet for a long time. All was well, until, unbeknownst to us, they got ahold of some scissors.

Cole was stylist extraordinaire -

And he had a slightly different interpretation for her style.

But they loved it.

Fortunately, Maddie’s mom was cool about it. She even had the sense to not make a huge deal of it and make Maddie feel bad about it.

We all learned our lesson that day.

Cole learned that you don’t cut people’s hair even when they’re cool with it.

We parents learned that when the kids are really quiet, you need to check on ‘em. They are definitely up to no good.

a few times a year we pack the boys and the dog in the car and head upstate to spend a weekend with our good friends at their country house.

along the way we get to stop at the cute roadside fruitstands and pick up some fresh fruit from california.

and while the local fruit wasn’t quite ready for us, as you can see below, the local animals were ripe for the pickin’.

there’s nothing quite as relaxing as just hanging out with friends.

shuckin’ corn.

playin’ games.

and takin’ pitchurs… (see the kountry is growin’ on me)

cole and his good buddy maddie -

miles and his pal mason -

turned out, the blueberries were in season so we got a couple of buckets of “pick your own.”

and some great old trees….

this one below is like a “where’s waldo” – where’s miles?

as much as we love living in the city, getting out periodically is a necessity for maintaining one’s sanity.

Many of my clients have been opting for the self-portrait studio setup that we make available at weddings so that guests can take their own pictures. It’s really a great time and you get pictures of people goofing around that you won’t get any other way. More on that a bit later… But first…

I am always refining our equipment and setups and had been testing out the self-portrait studio at home and left it on while I took a break to do something else. Well it’s summer time which means my kids are around a bit more and they happened upon the self portrait studio and managed to get it going.

As you can imagine, when a 5 year old and a 7 year old are left alone with a setup that will take pictures and instantly display them on a 19″ monitor you know you’re in for some trouble.

Case in point.

The funny thing is that unsupervised 5 and 7 year old behavior tends to degrade in the same way that adult behavior does (although we’re yet to see underwear on the head at a wedding).

The only downside of being a photographer is that you’re NEVER in any pictures – you’re always on the wrong side of the lens. Now that doesn’t really bother me at all with the possible exception that my kids will look back on the photographic legacy that I’m creating for them and will be like, “Hey Dad, where were you when I was growing up?”

The other day, I was out with the boys and we bumped into our nanny who took this shot of us. See boys, there’s proof that I really did exist.