» Engagement Sessions – 2009

11.21.09 – LeeAnn and Jack – Old State House, Boston, MA

Ray Anthony — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:18:34 +0000

I had such a great weekend photographing LeeAnn and Jack’s wedding! It was my first visit to Boston and I just added it to my list of favorite cities in the U.S. Arriving a day before the wedding, I met up with the couple at my hotel near Boston Commons. We spent three hours walking around the city and getting really great portraits, utilizing the city scape and unique Bostonian architecture. The wedding day was beautiful with photos of LeeAnn getting ready in her condo. The ceremony followed at the historic Old State House where their toasts and cake cutting also took place. The celebration, which included guests from all over the world, continued at Davios of Boston for a fabulous dinner. Enjoy the great photos below, which include the day before photos and some cityscape photos captured the day after the wedding.

E-Session Highlight Slideshow – Michelle and Bobby – Meadowbrook Hall

Ray Anthony — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 08:06:15 +0000

Details to this E-Session were posted last month on this blog. Check out all the highlights of Michelle and Bobby’s very fun E-Session below!

E-Session Highlights – Michelle and Bobby – Meadowbrook Hall, Rochester, MI

Ray Anthony — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 23:10:34 +0000

Michelle and Bobby are one of my clients, engaged to married in June of 2010. We met at the picturesque Meadowbrook Hall on the campus of Oakland Universtiy this past Sunday for the engagement photo session. From the weather, to the beautiful setting, to a terrific couple, it could not have been a more perfect e-session! I love e-sessions and photographing Michelle and Bobby only convinced me all the more that I wish more of my clients would do them. Not only is it an opportunity to make great photographs in celebration of the couple’s engagement, but it gives us an opportunity to get to know one another better, before the actual wedding day! They are such a great couple and it was so much fun to be with them and capture their very obvious love for one another in photos! Enjoy some of the highlights below! I will have a highlight slideshow posted on this blog with all the great photos in about a month.

Reasons why I love Engagement Photo Sessions!

Ray Anthony — Wed, 20 May 2009 20:41:36 +0000

As a photographer focused and passionate with a creative approach to documentary style wedding photography, I approach an engagement shoot a little differently than just a standard portrait session. Rather than trying to create a series of posed photographs (not that I think that is wrong), I hope to create an environment that allows the couple to forget about me (even if its only momentary). Usually, we find an urban setting or some location where we can walk and discover interesting backgrounds. The goal is to treat the shoot as if I were following them around on a date. If necessary, I will offer suggestions along the way to cuddle, kiss, embrace, etc, but as time goes on, my clients start to relax and enjoy themselves. I try not to approach a shoot with preconceived ideas. I avoid trying to re-create something that I’ve done with another couple (but often I am asked can we do a photo like the one we saw on your website). I don’t ever come prepared with a list of “standard” poses. For me, a perfect e-session would be completely spontaneous, fresh with new ideas.

If you’re a new client of mine and wondering if you should schedule an engagement shoot with me, my answer to you is: YES! I love shooting e-sessions! Not just because I love every opportunity I get to photograph people in love…Sure, I admit it. I am addicted to love and I am addicted to finding unique and real moments, brought to life by the unique personalities of each of my couples. What can I say: I am an artist and my camera is my paint brush! There is so much good that results from the photo shoot, let me count the ways:

1) It gives me a chance to get to know you and for you to get a chance to know me and see me in action. It’s like a dress rehearsal before the wedding! I have found that this is so helpful. Especially if your groom had zero participation in choosing me as your photographer. He might have looked at my website and that’s about it. The e-session will be an eye opener for him! And this will pay big dividends come wedding day. For those who are seeing me in action for the first time, there is always a twenty to thirty minute period of getting use to having a camera follow them around. The opposite is true for my e-session clients. On the wedding day, they are much more relaxed. They seem better prepared, find it easy to tune me out and enjoy themselves. This allows me to capture the natural, documentary style moments that I thrive on.

2) It is energizing and fun! I will make you feel like Rock stars! The shoot is all about you, your relationship, your dreams, your hopes, your lives! I give you my very, very best to find great moments that encapsulate your love for each other. I can guarantee you that if you let loose on this shoot, we will see fireworks!

3) You will get so many great images from the shoot, you will be overwhelmed and so will your family and friends! I love to make slideshows from the 90 minute shoot and set it to music. I promise you, you will shed tears!

4] We can use those images in a variety of ways, not to mention, creating great canvass art to put on display in your home. My clients have had us make custom guest signing books filled with their e-session images, place a favorite image in a frame with an extra large matte for their guests to sign, and had us make a DVD slideshow of the images to display during dinner at the reception.

5) The e-session will help your family and friends to understand and appreciate my style of photography before the wedding day. Why is that important? First of all, I am certain that my style is nothing like the photographer your parents had at their wedding! You would be surprised how often I show up at at wedding and the bridal party or the parents are clueless about my approach to photographing the event. For whatever reasons, these VIP’s are the last to know and are often shocked that I am not directing and posing people along the way. When they see the results from the engagement shoot slideshow that we put online months or even a year before the wedding, they become educated and ready come wedding day.

6) Lastly, there is a trust factor that develops from doing an e-session because we invested time together preparing for it, spent time together shooting it and hanging out with each other apart from the wedding day. As a result, the shoot gives us an opportunity to become friends before the wedding day. It might seem trivial, but having a friendship in advance helps us both to feel at ease on the wedding day. It could be the difference in making your wedding day photos from great to being a masterpiece.

Below are samples of one of my favorite E-sessions last fall in downtown Royal Oak, MI of a super terrific couple, Rose & Sam. Also, you can check out their slideshow by clicking here.

05.10.09 – Tuyet and Khoi Bridal Portrait Shoot – Newport Beach, CA

Ray Anthony — Thu, 14 May 2009 08:35:31 +0000

I am photographing Tuyet & Khoi’s wedding in Las Vegas later this month. It is traditional in their Vietnamese culture to have bridal portraits made before the wedding with the couple dressed in their wedding attire and to display the portrait at the wedding. It has also been Tuyet and Khoi’s dream to do this portrait on the beach and at a beautiful Japanese garden. So, they flew me into Orange County and that is exactly what we did! With the assistance of my very good friend and awesome photographer, Michael Erdkamp of Memories By Michael in Villa Park, CA, we began the day photographing this extremely fun couple at the Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden at CSULB. Tuyet began the session in a beautiful Vietnamese, traditional wedding gown. Check out the photos below to see her gorgeous dress! She changed into her white wedding gown and we then drove down to Newport Beach to photograph sunset portraits. We had so much fun! I am so happy with the results of this shoot and was able to get these results because of the care-free nature of Tuyet and Khoi! Even though the wedding day is less than two weeks away, they put all of their energy into making this shoot successful. Amazingly, they were not hesitant at all about getting wet and dirty!!! Below are several highlights!

Angie and Chris at the Vegas Sign

Ray Anthony — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 04:30:34 +0000

This was my first attempt ever at shooting an engagement at the historic “Welcome to LV” sign. I have to admit, I never wanted to do this because it seems so “cheesy!” Every one goes there and the photos always look like really “bad” postcards from the 1970′s!!! Thank you Angie & Chris for letting me have a little fun with your shoot. I wanted to do it as differently as possible. Forget doing this location on a Saturday afternoon! We had tourists and wedding parties there to contend with. So with limited time and people waiting in line, this is what we came up with!