I’m in the top 5% of wedding photographers in New Jersey!

It’s quite thrilling to hear that I won the Bride’s Choice Awards 2012 from WeddingWire! This is the 3rd year in a row. This means I’m in the top 5 percent of Wedding Professionals nationwide. Well, actually, it means I am in the Top 5 percent of wedding photographers in New Jersey. But being a percentage, it still holds true for nation-wide. Working as a wedding photographer has its own reward in how clients appreciate the photography. Even then, it’s a great pleasure to be recognized like this. Swinging cameras around on the wedding day is pretty cool, but the hours and hours spent in the office in front of the computer … I’ll take this award as recognition of that as well.

What a great honour to have clients on The Knot forums vote me as one of the best photographers to work with!  Thank you to all of you who voted for me.  And thank you to all my clients who have made this such a rewarding and fulfilling career.  I look forward to many years still ahead filled with creativity and beauty.

An intimate photo session (or more usually known as a boudoir photo session), is an opportunity for many women to show (and revel) in their sensual side, and share something  intimate with their lovers or husbands .. or just for themselves.  Many soon-to-be brides do boudoir sessions as a special (and surprise) gift for their husbands-to-be in the form of a beautiful book of photographs.

With this in mind, I have recently launched a new website to show my boudoir photography,
the beat my heart skipped.

The photographs here are of Priscilla, who graciously allowed me to post a few of her images.

That’s right .. I am now extending the services I offer couples.  In addition to wedding photography, I can double up as a limo service with my red soccer-dad van.  And I get a solid thumbs-up!

On the way to the photo location, Megan and Brendan’s limo broke down along the highway.  I was following them, so I pulled over as well – Megan and Brendan just took it in their stride and we continued on to the location to meet up with their bridal for the photo session.  (The proper blog entry with a selection of images from their wedding will be up in a few days.)

And to think that some of my friends insist my red mini-van isn’t sexy.

I know this blog has been a touch too quiet in the last two months, so it might look like I haven’t been all that busy during the winter months.  Far from it though! 

A big priority was to catch up on albums and album designs – and I’ll definitely post them here as soon as they start arriving from the album company in the next week or so.

Aside from that, I also started up the 2009 series workshops that I present across the USA.  With my workshops I help other photographers with their lighting and their use of flash.  Here are a few images of the models we had at the two workshops I presented in San Francisco two weeks ago:

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I also made some effort to hone my own skills in lighting, photographing several models while trying out new lighting equipment:

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And I also managed to attend a workshop on pin-up style photography.  Robert Alvarado, a renowned pin-up style photographer whom I greatly admire, presented his workshop in Chicago, and I flew out specially to attend the workshop and learn from him.  Here are two images taken at the workshop, photographed and processed in his style.

A few months ago I reported on the formation of a group of photographers that I am part of – Group of 10. Well, we’re going strong and in the process of increasing our visibility among other wedding professionals. An important step for us was getting the Group of 10 blog off the ground – and here it is - Group of 10 unveiled.

The blog is already a few posts strong, with contributions by the various members of Group of 10. We’ll continue posting on a variety of topics, hopefully revealing our strengths and the diversity within the group. So there you have it – another blog to add to your RSS feeder.

Silk Road is new line of albums being created by Ultra Color Lab in Boston.  I’m excited to announce that they will be sponsoring my presentation on photographic lighting later this month as the PPAM convention in Natick, MA.   As part of their sponsorship, they are providing me with a sample album to showcase  my work and their album lines.  I decided to use Nicole and Pete’s wedding to create a gorgeous album design for Silk Road.

Here are two examples of the double page spreads.  The rest can be seen in this slideshow.
(click on the header to return to the blog entries.)

I’m quite pleased to announce the launch of the Group of 10 website. 
We are an affiliation of very select, like-minded photographers:  A small group who, although we have individual styles, share a common idea of wedding photography based on a photojournalistic approach, with a strong artistic appeal.  We’re all based in New Jersey or New York, and all of us travel across the United States as well as internationally to photograph weddings. 

It’s quite an honour for me to be one of the founding members of this group and to be associated with this group of extremely talented photographers!    (I know, I know, there are only 9 members at the moment, but we are selective.  )

Bill Hurter, who is a well-known author of photography books, asked me earlier this year to rewrite my web article on raw workflow, for an upcoming book of his.

The book is the Wedding Photographer’s Handbook, and has just been published by Amherst Media. It is a stunning book, featuring photographs and articles by photographers who are among the very best in the industry. So it is a thrill to have my name and images appear alongside them in such a fine book.

A second article that I wrote for Rangefinder – the official magazine of WPPI – appeared in their September ’06 issue. And of course I am really proud of this. For me it’s quite an honour to appear alongside the best in the industry, in one of the premier photography trade publications. (The previous article appeared in their April ’06 issue.)

This article first appeared on my PlanetNeil website under the same title – Finding the Light. The topic is on using lighting where the conditions aren’t ideal.  Even though the tone of the article is tongue-in-the-cheek, it will  hopefully be informative, and maybe even inspire other photographers looking for ideas on using photographic lighting. 

Here is what the opening page looked like.
(To read the article, click on the link above.)