My love of photography started with an insatiable desire to explore the world around me visually, and have some record of the beauty of it all. And from there, my original website, Planet Neil grew.  It was a way to share some of my personal photography with friends and family. With  time that website became a sprawl of writings on photography, with various galleries of images. But there were numerous images which didn’t fit a particular theme - single images that I still wanted to show.  So I had Will Keightly design a photoblog for me specifically to show off any single images that I wanted to post. So here it is, the official unveiling of my personal photography blog - the Planet Neil photoblog

This eye-catching image of Kristy and John was taken just before the slight drizzle there in Times Square turned into a downpour. Thank you for being troupers and hanging in there for this shoot, Kristy and John - it turned out to be a lot of fun.

Before I took the next photo in front of one of the theaters on Broadway, the conversation went along these lines:
me: “You are so doing this!”
Kristy: “You aren’t serious, are you?”
me: “Uh huh.”

For Iveta and John’s engagement portrait session we spent some time in Central Park.  And even though John wasn’t feeling too well, he was a trouper and came through.

Iveta and John, I’m really looking forward to your wedding … in just a few days from now.

It is always nice to get good response after presenting a workshop or seminar, and know that it went well - but it is very gratifying to receive a note afterwards that the info presented at a seminar had a very real impact on a photographer’s work. So it was a real feel-good moment this morning when I received this from someone who attended the Minneapolis seminar on wedding photography:

Neil, I attended your workshop in MN and shot a mostly outdoor wedding this weekend (May 19) where the sun was strong, then cloudy. I applied your flash techniques  and have to say that without taking your workshop I would NOT, repeat NOT, have obtained the results that I achieved ….. the flash blended seamlessly, and had a 95% success ratio of keepers. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. Looking forward to your Virginia workshop. — Roger Shoemaker.

Thank you to everyone who attended the seminar and help make it a success. Thank you to my co-presenter, Walter van Dusen. And thank you to Karen Simmons of the PWP forums who hosted the event.

Katie and Pat live and work in New Orleans, but decided they wanted their wedding ceremony at ‘home’ in Sea-Bright, NJ … and have their portraits (and that of the bridal party), on the beach afterwards.  The first time I met Katie and Pat were on their wedding day - but it was easy building up a rapport with such a delightful couple, and come away from the  day’s events with great photographs.

Here is a slideshow of the best images of the day.
(click on the header above the slideshow to return to the blog.)

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Katie and her sister Theresa (Katie’s maid of honour), peering around the church door to look inside just before walking into the church.

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Katie’s dad waiting to escort his daughter down the aisle,
and Katie and Pat during the ceremony. (The image on the right is by Steve Burns, who was my 2nd photographer here. His images also appear in the slideshow.)

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While photographing Pat and the bridesmaids, no one was concentrating on the ocean behind them, and an unexpected wave caught everyone off guard …

Katie - a very elegant bride …

After the reception had ended, some friends and family lingered with Katie and Pat around a bonfire on the beach.

Katie & Pat, congratulations!