This Halloween, come join us at our fourth annual tribeca costume collection for great photographs of your kids in costume - all while helping to support our local public school art and photography programs!

have your kids don their most creative costumse and bring them down to tribeca to trick or treat in the neighborhood.  then swing by our sidewalk studio for a portrait in costume.

October 31st between 3:30 and 6:30 pm on west broadway between duane and reade streets.  a ten dollar suggested donation goes to benefit the art and photography programs at PS 234 and PS 89.

For inspiration, check out some of the best costumes from the past three years:

 
for even more ideas, check out our soon to be launched children’s website at www.briandorseykids.com

hope to see you there!

from complex up dos to simple, playful ponytails, we’ve seen it all. here are some of our favorites:

Well folks, the totals are in.  Between the funds collected on Halloween and the prints that were subsequently ordered, brian dorsey studios’ second annual tribeca costume collection raised over $1100 for UNICEF.

Thank you to everyone in our Tribeca neighborhood, parents and kids alike, who helped participate in making this year’s efforts so successful.  And a special shout out to Lance Lapin for hosting us in front of his Salon on West Broadway, and to Kim,  Lindsay and Celeste who freely gave of their time to help us pull this off.

Funds raised will be going to help eliminate childhood hunger, thirst, disease and illiteracy around the world.

But let’s start at the beginning.

Dorothy’s ruby red slippers ain’t got nuthin’ on Francine’s tourquoise Loubatins.

below – a great shot of the guys by Ron

and Francine was radiant

as francine and peter see each other for the first time…

mail order bride?

in my photography lectures, I always stress how unique shots are everywhere around us – you just need to have your eyes open, think outside the box and be willing to ask for crazy things with a straight face.

excuse me, Mr. UPS Man, would you mind if we climbed in the back of your truck for a sec?  In the case of the Ghostbusters’ Firehouse shot (top and below), I actually had the Fire Chief move the ladder truck forward to even out the light across the face of the truck and the firehouse.

Below: “The Spectacle” by Ron.

The 18 person bridal party on our way to Tribeca Rooftop.  Keeping the ladies having a good time while avoiding breaking their ankles on cobblestones while in high heels is a neat trick.

on the Tribeca Rooftop

We took just over 900 images during the 3 hour shoot (averaging a shot every 20 seconds) and a number of times people were lined up 12 and 16 deep.  Many thanks to Lance Lappin who provided us with sidewalk space in front of his salon as well as power and wine.  A special thanks to Lindsey and Kim and Celeste for donating their Saturday afternoon for a good cause – and to my kids – who trick or treated without their mother and father so we could do this for the neighborhood and for UNICEF.

Here’s a few highlights – leading off with Cole as Link from the Zelda series of games in a costume his mother and I made.

Dot and Toto.

A lion who can really roar.

This amazingly brilliant “American Gothic”.

Another wonderful costume – the marionette.

A group of friends traveling together – I personally was quite fond of the witch in her pink glasses.

A very cool William Wallace.

And I have to throw in this shot of both my boys with Kim, our studio manager, who makes just the cutest damn kitten.

Parents can download images of their kids free of charge from the Client Area of our website or order prints from Pictage.  All proceeds go to UNICEF to help children in need worldwide.

Thanks again everyone!

I’m embarrassed to say we’ve already shot Alison and Ed’s wonderful wedding – but we’re just getting up the engagement portraits. The good news is that that means we’ve been really busy – although the blog has suffered. Anyway…

For those not aware, our engagement portrait sessions are simple – we just wander around – taking shots as we go. It’s pretty low key since I know how uncomfortable most people are in front of the camera. Alison and Ed wanted to do something in Tribeca so we literally just hung in the neighborhood.

By the end of it, we were buds and I knew that Alison would be totally comfortable when I showed up at her suite on her wedding day.

And I get to learn things like Alison is one of those people blessed with a perfect smile and beautiful eyes – I therefore go into the wedding day knowing exactly what I’m working with on the big day.

luckily the car was in the garage at the time….

i’m not sure if this is officially procured gear – but i realized many of these firefighters keep a wooden doorstop on their helmet (above)

the irony is that it’s the building at the OTHER end of our block (to the left in the image below) that’s condemned because it’s been undermined by nearby construction and is at risk of collapse.

living in manhattan really does keep you on your toes…

It really was a great time and the candy that the kids shared with me really kept me going (although my knees were pretty sore the next day from squatting for 4 hours straight).

There are some amazingly creative people who come trick or treating in Tribeca. It’s really become quite a scene in the neighborhood.

Below, one of my faves of the day – Gwen, whom I’ve taken portraits of before – here as Pippi Longstocking.
Her way creative dad came up with the costume including knitting that hair himself!

And the ugly doll costumes were awesome.

But for angelic, you can’t beat this wonder woman.

I love this next shot. This kid is so proud of the costume that he made all by himself. He rocked.

The humanburger…

And I loved this shot of the Pirate with the missing tooth. Aye me hardy.

This is my son, Cole. Probably the only kid that I DIDN’T manage to get a good shot of before he ran away. He had his hair back and tied with a black bow, his black velvet jacket, a black tie, black pants, cool black glasses, fingerless black gloves and a diamond studded skull belt. We were going to powder his hair gray but he bailed on that at the last second. Can you guess who he was?

hint: He’s a famous fashion designer who heads the House of Chanel.

Some more amazing Ugly Dolls.

And a bat boy demonstrating his echolocating abilities.

This spectacular seahorse.

and our angelic covergirl…

and a few more…

Where’s Waldo?

Charlie…

The scarecrow…

And my boys and me trying hide the mouthful of Almond Joy that Cole had just given me (he picks them out when he sees people giving them away as treats – just for Daddy.) At a boy!

You can see all of the images from the Tribeca Costume Collection here.

It was such fun maybe we’ll even do it again next year…

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.