by Zlatko Batistich

I’m very happy to show some of my favorite photos from Meredith and Dan’s engagement portrait session in NYC.  Starting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, we walked to Belvedere Castle, the Bow Bridge and Bethesda Fountain.

NYC photo shoot – Linda & Gary 06-14 from Neil van Niekerk on Vimeo.
[ if the video is choppy, let the clip buffer completely first, or turn off HD ]

Here is a glimpse of how much fun it is to work with a couple during their engagement photo session.  Linda and Gary’s wedding is coming up later this year, and I met up with them this weekend in Manhattan and we roamed the Meat-packing District and Times Square for some vibrant portraits.

A slightly surreal image from a recent engagement photo session - the couple, Shannon and Peter, played with the idea of not just walking across the reflecting pool at Skylands Manor (Ringwood, NJ), but levitating across ..

.. and this gave me the idea for a theme for this post – jumping shots.  Bridal parties and couples who jump.  Some may think it cliched, but I love it when a bridal party has energy and is excited and willing to play around.  Anything to break it up from that ‘usual suspects’ kind of line-up.  Exuberance and excitement goes a long way to making the photography on a wedding day interesting.

The next image is from a recent wedding in Manhattan, where I shot with the hugely talented photographer, Monika Broz.  The bridal party was unstoppable!

… and another wedding which I had the pleasure to photograph, with an enthusiastic bridal party.

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And who wouldn’t have boundless energy on a beach, especially when on a destination wedding in the Bahamas?

During their engagement session, Stephanie, the bride-to-be, jumped with such enthusiasm that a shoe went flying!

I just know a wedding will be fun to photograph when you have a bride like Kristen,  just leaping into her groom’s arms.

We have touched the subject of engagement sessions a few times on this blog. As wedding photographers we often encourage our couples to work with us before their wedding and get together for a few hours of fun photography. We happen to live in a very random and rich in dramatically different lications area. When it comes to one of the basic question of “where to shoot?” – we are always happy to consult and advise. Urban, beach, woods, rural, day or night, big city or countryside – you can find it all in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Yes, you can surely just go to a nearby park and shoot a few traditional poses with a long lens and beatifully blurred background…but hasn’t this been done millions of times over decades? Whenever you get to work with an unusual couple like Jenn and Tim, a door of opportunities opens. It was them who came up with all the locations for their engagement session, including the supermarket (yes, we got chased out of one by security guards but it dodn’t stop us from finishing the shoot at another one just down the road!). All of the below, very different imho images were captured during a few hours I spent with Jennifer and Tim a few weeks ago:

I know I just posted a few weeks ago,  But I just finished what I jokingly call an engagement session marathon!  5 couples in 3 days. A variety of locations starting in Hoboken after sunset,  Central Park, Newark,  Belleville ( Branchbrook park for the cherry blossums)  and wrapping up in Sandy Hook at sunset.

Later!

Josh

www.joshlynn.com

As visual artists, we tend to carry our ‘professional eyes’ with us at all times. I travel a lot, and often find myself guilty of not always having my ‘real’ camera on me.. that’s when I truly appreciate the technology, and thank the ingenuity of the Iphone! Enjoy a few – captured between NYC through Beverly Hills, San Diego, Carefree AZ, Florida and Jersey .. The first image is (how fitting!) the Apple store in Manhattan!

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY EVERYONE !!! It’s today that all the happy couples do special, crazy things for love, isn’t it ? In the spirit of this amorous holiday we want to bring something exclusive to our clients !

Two of my very favorite locations! I love this job - we get to know eachother better and start to develop the trust and insight that makes for beautiful images! Photographing Lindsay and Mike was so much fun, I truly wanted to keep scheduling more location shoots. We had one really glorious day at the Jersey shore, and another beautiful day in Manhattan. Even though these types of photo shoots are not candids, they always seem to capture the incredible little moments and real feelings between the couple.