Weddings | Ryan T. Collier Photography

October 22, 2008

Two Beautiful Rochester Weddings

Well, it’s officially been over two months since my last blog post, and so much has happened I don’t even know where to begin. I’ve been extremely busy with my wedding photography, school, and life in general.

Last week I returned to Salmon Creek to photograph the wedding of Rose and Jeremy Norred! On October 11, 2008 – Rose and Jeremy were blessed with absolutely perfect autumn weather complete with royal blue skies and warm, 70-degree weather. Their wedding was held outdoors on the grounds of the Salmon Creek C.C. with the reception being held at the same location.

The early-evening fall light was absolutely picture-perfect! With the sun hanging low in the sky and a lush, green canvas to photograph the formal wedding photographs against, it was truly a wonderful time all around. 🙂

My day began early in the morning, traveling from Rochester to Brockport to photograph wedding preparation photos of the bride. I spent a few hours at Rose’s house, photographing everything from the wedding party getting ready to Rose and her family applying make-up, before riding over in the limo to Salmon Creek. I was especially excited to use a new 85mm, 1.8f lens I purchased a week or so before the wedding, and I couldn’t have been happier with the results.

That new lens affords me the possibility of shooting weddings in very low lighting conditions, such as churches, chapels, and dim wedding reception halls; however, I’m able to maintain a very high shutter speed (resulting in crisper images).

The pre-ceremony and formal wedding photos were my favorite out of the day’s worth of shooting, in which I ended up with over 2,500 photographs between me and my colleague, who was instrumental in helping document such a magnificent wedding day. But, the best part for me is hearing about how satisfied clients are when the see their photographs. That’s worth every second I spend with my camera and my eye behind the lens – when a client writes and tells me just how happy I’ve made them. 🙂

On September 27, I photographed Tami & Joel Hebert’s wedding in Hamlin, NY which is just outside of Rochester. It was a beautiful fall day with the wedding ceremony being held at St. John Lutheran Church and the reception following at the Salmon Creek C.C. After shooting a few wedding formal pictures at the church, we made a quick stop for more formal wedding photographs at the Adams Basin Inn right alongside the Erie Canal.

The Inn is absolutely gorgeous and perfect for outside weddings (for those of you looking for your future wedding). The innkeepers were extremely friendly and very accommodating. 🙂

Salmon Creek C.C. is barely a minute down the road, which made for a quick drive to the reception where the real fun began! 😉

I had an amazing time photographing Tami and Joel’s wedding; Tami’s such a special lady and Joel is a really nice guy too – they truly are a wonderful couple and I’m honored to have been a part of their special day.

July 3, 2008

Some New Friends and Some New Gear.

I met with my latest wedding couple, Kevin and Brittany, today at Starbucks to meet Brittany for the first time and to go over some great ideas that they both had for their wedding in June of 2009.

I can tell already their wedding will be fantastic, and I’m really looking forward to photographing their wedding next year!

Earlier today, I took delivery of some new photography gear that I will use immediately this upcoming weekend for my family portrait photography shoot in Webster. I purchased a new polarizing filter, UV filter, and some nifty cinch straps that will allow me to attach my tripod to my gear bag. I also picked up a new petal-style lens hood for my 17-85mm lens.

The lens filters were made by an Italian company, Hoya, and they are all multi-coated to reduce reflection, light scatter, and flare. 🙂 The only downside is they’re about twice as expense as non-multi-coated photographic lens filters. 🙁

But, you can’t compensate for a fine piece of glass. 😉

I took a few snapshots of before and after pictures with the polarizer, the difference is remarkable!

June 19, 2008

Occupation: Learner.

I worked mainly on preparing my NY sales tax return for the 1Q08 today.

Random thought, but if it’s one thing I’ve learned about me, it’s that when I get bored, I check out mentally. I need intellectual stimulation to survive. Not so much stuff to do, but I need stuff to learn. I crave knowledge!

I’ve often said that if I were ever to come into a large windfall of cash, that I would consider becoming a full-time student. Think about that – learning, full-time. And, always learning something completely new and different. I know that’s not a dream job to some, but to me it would be fantastic! How could one ever become bored with an infinite amount of knowledge to attain? If I got tired of learning one subject, I’d invest my time in another!

That’s when I know it’s time for me to move on from one thing to the next, when it become routine. I’m not saying that I don’t like routine, I just don’t like feeling as though my mind is being subjected to repetitive tasks. That is one of the main reasons that many of my friends have said I would make a good lawyer – there is always something to be researched or learned or discovered. 🙂

Tomorrow, I’m meeting my friend Craig for breakfast at Bruegger’s, it’s great that we’ve gotten back in the habit of getting together for breakfast at least once a week to solve the world’s problems. 🙂 It’s really a great way to not only start the day, but to also kick start the weekend. I’ve completed not only my personal journal, but also 2 out of my 3 relaxation technique lab reports, leaving just my final report for the weekend. I feel very on top of things and as though I can take on anything!! 🙂

If it’s nice this weekend, I’d like to devote some time to researching some cutting edge wedding photography techniques – something that’s really new and exciting and different! That’s one way I try and set myself apart from the other Rochester, New York wedding photographers – I’m always learning and trying new ways of photographing weddings in the Rochester area!

June 16, 2008

Flooded.

While I was at Panera Bread with a friend of mine, a pretty hefty storm blew through and completely flooded the parking lot! The power of water is an amazing thing. In about 15 minutes there was probably 8-10 inches of rain water flooding the huge parking lot! I started to think about an old schoolmate, Jamie, in Iowa who has had to deal with much larger flood waters. I can’t imagine what that is like – to be in a flood plain with water as deep as 7 feet. Crazy.

After about 30 minutes, the skies had cleared and the sun was beaming down. Craig and I watched as all that water disappeared into the storm drains – which was pretty neat because the water made a little tornado-esque vortex as it drained. Neat-oh!

Later tonight, when I got home, I decided to tackle my first relaxation technique for this week – meditation! It was a little weird at first, and took me a while to get settled in, but once I did it felt really good. I have to write a small lab report about it, so I’m not going to repeat information. But, it felt good – not only to cross it off my list of things to do, but physically, it was rejuvenating. 🙂

I think after photographing an engagement session or taking wedding photos, I might implement a little meditation time afterward to refresh and rejuvenate my mind! The next time I’m hired as a wedding photographer, I’m going to try and work in some meditation time. Shooting weddings is very much a non-stop job – I concentrate on delivering the best and most creative wedding photos possible, that it’s simply difficult for me to slow down. 🙂

June 14, 2008

Mobile Rochester Wedding Photographs.

I had to get up early this morning and participate in the community walk around for the home owner’s association that I’m a board member of. Basically, we had to walk around for 3 hours and make sure owner’s were taking care of their homes. After we completed the walk around, it started raining. And, it rained pretty much the rest of the day – washing out any chance of outside yard work. 🙁

I ended up puttering around the house, not really focused on any one thing. I was pretty drained both mentally and physically from the 3 hour walk around. I don’t like feeling that way because it is as though I’m being unproductive.

It was an early night for me, ending up going to sleep around 10pm – falling asleep to “Who Killed the Electric Car.” I think I got about 33 seconds into the film before waking up the next morning. 🙂 I watched part of it at work on Friday, which led me to purchase the movie on iTunes Saturday afternoon.

Man, I love my iPhone. I was able to download the movie for $10, transfer it to my phone, and watch the movie on my TV via my phone. That – is pretty cool. 🙂

I also keep a selection of my most recent wedding photographs on my iPhone so I always have them to show whenever people are interested in hiring me as their wedding photographer. People in Rochester, NY and Upstate, New York are really nice to work with, and photographing weddings in Rochester is a lot of fun too! I really enjoy meeting with new people and photographing their weddings! 🙂

June 12, 2008

Relaxing Lunch Retreat.

Seeing as how I had hot dogs for lunch on Tuesday, ham on Wednesday, and today an offering of pork, I was a little bit cashed out on swine. So, I did what most would do if they found themselves in a position similar to mine – leave for lunch. 🙂

My good friend Craig and I decided to go to Wegmans for a very relaxing lunch retreat. The Wegmans in Penfield has picnic tables along the right side of the store, a fact that is very unknown to most – including myself until today. We ate our lunch in the bright sun and afterward laid on the tables while discussing how to solve the world’s problems. I took a picture of myself laying on the table with my iPhone and sent it to my wife so she could partake in my joy too! 🙂

Afterward, I went back to finishing up the web site for Lindsay. The site had been a very slow work in progress for about 2 or 3 months so finishing it felt extremely satisfying; however, it will always be a work in progress as we unveil new upcoming events and list progress reports.

~~Check it out! http://www.LindsayGraygoEmpowermentScholarship.org~~

Afterward, I finished up some lingering yard work left over from the past weekend, including repairing some lattice work and priming it before I get a chance to stain it THIS weekend – sometime after working on my mini-paper for my Stress Management class. 😉

I also spent some time in the evening retouching some wedding photos, and researching some locations in Upstate and Rochester, New York for wedding engagement photography sessions.

June 5, 2008

Routine Basics.

I find writing to be relaxing and words easy to come by. In fact, one of the biggest problems I have when I write is trimming back the words. I guess I have a lot to say!

I started writing this blog at the beginning of 2008, and while I was able to maintain writing every single day for the first month, I simply found it impossible to write every day. I should really keep a voice recorder handy and just dictate my thoughts at the end of the day. 🙂

Tomorrow I’m looking forward to catching up on a long-distance project with a group of friends from high school. We’re trying to organize a fund raiser for a fellow student who was murdered back in February. The proceeds from the fund raiser will be used to establish a scholarship in her name – the Lindsay Graygo Empowerment Scholarship!

I’m planning on tomorrow being a good day to hunker down a bit on that project, and a few others. 🙂 For the most part, I’m in a good place with respect to my projects and my tasks that have deadlines approaching.

It’s hot right now – really hot, almost sweltering. In fact, at 12:32am, it’s 73 degrees outside. And, tomorrow is supposed to be 90! Someone kicked it up a notch alright. Bammm! I have a few more things to do before heading off to bed. I’m meeting my friend Craig for breakfast in the morning too, which will be nice as we have fallen out of our usual routine of weekly breakfasts. I’m definitely looking forward to it. 🙂

There is some photographic equipment that I’m looking to buy in the upcoming months, that should really come in handy photographing weddings here in Rochester, New York. Upstate is such a beautiful location to have your wedding photos taken, and the new equipment will surely augment New York’s beauty! 🙂

June 4, 2008

Finger Lakes Wedding Photography – James & Luba

Congratulations to James and Luba Mason on their marriage May 31, 2008!

I had the pleasure of photographing their wedding on Keuka Lake in Upstate New York this past weekend, along with my good friend Craig. It was a beautiful wedding with the ceremony taking place at Garrett Memorial Chapel and reception at the Esperanza Mansion – a truly remarkable setting for a gorgeous wedding couple.

Here are a few of my favourite images. Enjoy!

June 2, 2008

Wedding Photography At Keuka Lake.

I photographed James and Luba’s wedding on Saturday and I’m very pleased with how the wedding photographs turned out.

I spent most of Saturday photographing the wedding, which was right next to Keuka Lake in Upstate, New York. I wrapped up taking photographs by 5:30 and I was able to manage a few hours at home afterward to import the nearly 2,700 wedding photos, select all the good images, kick out the bad, and have them posted online by 12am!

There were some really excellent images that I was able to capture that I hope to post in the coming days. This was the first wedding trying out a new post-production workflow and I was pleasantly surprised by how quick and efficient the new workflow is – it will dramatically cut down on the amount of time I spend post-processing photos.

On Sunday I received confirmation that I would be shooting some family portraits in July at the Webster Arboretum which I’m really excited about! I’ve never shot there before, so I’m looking forward to it!

The weather in Rochester, New York has been gorgeous, perfect wedding photography weather!! 🙂

May 29, 2008

Do West-Coasters Get SAD?

Today is the Chase Corporate Challenge at RIT and I’m excited because I’ll be getting out of work a little early to join the other 11,000 participants at this year’s race. Though, I’m on the fence if I’ll run, walk, or just hang back with my wife and help her out at her company’s tent. 🙂

I’m going to bring my camera and see if I can’t pop of a few shots before the race starts. If I end up not running, I’ll take a few pictures of the race start and of the first hundred finishers and my wife’s team’s picture too!

Portrait photography is something that I’m starting to really enjoy, along with wedding photography and fine art photography. There are so many beautiful locations in Rochester, New York and really in Upstate, New York in general. Photographing weddings in Rochester is truly exceptional!

It is beautiful outside! Something that I’ve noticed is that I’m much happier when the weather is very sunny and warm. I started reading forward into my Stress Management text, to get a jump start on things and not fall behind, and in the chapter the text refers to SAD, a phenomenon that occurs when people do not get enough sunshine – such as in the arctic circle. While I definitely do not suffer from SAD, it was interesting to read about the link between weather and personal health altogether.

There’s a consensus that folks on the West coast are a lot happier than us East coast folks, maybe there’s a correlation there. Can sunshine make one warm on the inside too?

Anywho – I’m excited for the weekend, as I’ll be photographing a wedding in Keuka Lake, New York which will kick start the wedding photography season in Rochester, New York. 😉

I’ll post some of the wedding photos later on in the weekend. It’s gorgeous outside – warm, sunny, and 70Âº!