Future Miss USA?

Happy Memorial Day!

Rather than mowing the lawn or something I'm supposed to do, I had the opportunity to do two fun photo sessions today (I can't post about the other one yet).... One of the shoots was with Danielle, who as you can see is absolutely beautiful! Danielle is an up and coming model (trust me, you'll want to remember the name), and was selected out of thousands of contestants in the running to be a future Miss New York, and possible Miss USA down the road. She'll also be competing in other categories such as the most photogenic, which for obviously reasons, woud looooooove to see her take!

Danielle was super fun to work with and has such an amazing personality to go with her beautiful looks.... we really hope to see her do well in the upcoming months towards this competition. Here's a few shots I really liked and thought I'd share.

Thanks again, Danielle, and best of luck!!!

Plotterkill Preserve Hike

After the end of a long week, Tonya and I decided to enjoy the nice weather (and her 5 days off) to go on a nature trail hike at this cool new place we found near our house. I go together with hiking like trout & Dr. Pepper, but we actually had a lot of fun and got some cool photos. The Plotterkill Preserve is in the Rotterdam area, and has some really nice waterfalls, bridges, and other scenic areas. Since I didn't have a tripod with my, my water shots don't have that really nice soft water effect, but I definitely plan to go back and do it right sometime soon (and maybe some shots of the waterfall looking up from the bottom).

While hiking, we accidentally jumped trails when we weren't supposed to about 2 miles in, so a normal 2.5 hour hike turned into about 4 hours in the middle of the woods, and then later got lost and had to find another trail. The highlight of the hike was without a doubt me slipping on some moss in the water while trying to get the bottom photo, and landing right on my ass in the water with my $8,000 camera in my hand.... a good laugh, and luckily these things are weather sealed! (by the way, you can be the judge of whether it was worth it or not :)

Anyway, here's a few shots from the day.... I'm off to take a nap before our barbecue! :)

Out w/ The Family!

It's been a busy day for us, and much of it spent in the eye clinic, where Tonya was having some eye tests done. I am lucky enough to have better than 20/20 vision, which I sort of take for granted I suppose, but I can imagine it would be a miracle feeling to all the sudden be able to see when you've had to wear glasses or contacts for 30 years. I didn't realize eyes could be so expensive, but I suppose $4,000 to have lasik surgery is worth it to not have to wear glasses again. It's funny.... since I became a wedding photographer, I find myself being much more aware and careful of the things that could hinder my ability to do what I do (IE: protecting my eyes, making sure I don't do stupid risky things where I could sprain an ankle, break a leg etc.) I really hope I didn't just jinx myself :)

This morning, we had the opportunity to do a quick family portrait session with Molly and Tom and their two sons, Nolan & 2 week old little Samuel. With the 85+ degree weather, we had to work fast to try and keep the baby out of the sun. Here's a couple quick shots from our session.

I hope everyone enjoys the weekend and nice weather..... tomorrow we are apparently going hiking (I just do what I'm told), and have two shoots Monday that should be a lot of fun... see ya soon!

Luncheon w/ Roman Catholic Diocese

This week is a busy week for us as we have multiple projects going on, but has started out on a positive note - not to mention some great weather! We have some fun shoots coming up over the next week that I'm excited to take on, and should be a lot of fun (you'll just have to check back to see what I'm talking about I guess :)

We are beginning to take on more and more corporate and miscellaneous type shoots in addition to the wedding scene, which I really enjoy. Today, I had the opportunity to attend a luncheon at the Wolfer's Roost Country Club in Albany for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany. Each year they do this event (this was my second year doing it), and they take the opportunity to recognize some of the well deserved leaders that have made an impact for the church. There's not a whole lot of creativity invovled in shooting an event like this, but here's a few samples from the day.....

Congratulations, Ed & Rachel!

It's been a very long day of shooting & driving, but we had an amazing time photographing the wedding of good friends, Ed & Rachel Parga tonight. Ed and Rachel make such a great couple, and had a beautiful ceremony (1.25 hours!), and celebration in general.... it was well worth a trip to Utica to spend the day capturing their wedding with them!

It's after 1:30 in the morning, and photos are still uploading, however I figured I'd throw out a few "sneak peek" photos from tonight that I really liked. We have tons and tons of images from the day/evening, and will hope to have everything uploaded and available for online viewing/ordering within 2 weeks or so. For those interested, you can pre-register your email to receive notification of when images go live by clicking the link below:

Parga Wedding

On that note, I'm officially exhausted and think it's time for some ZZZZzzzz's - congrats again to Ed & Rachel!

Bridesmaid Contract...

You can never tell if these types of things are real these days, but I stumbled upon a friend of a friend's blog who claims to have a bride that actually had a contract for her bridesmaids. Here is a copy of the contract - I'm sure this went over like a ton of bricks - haha!


**Bridesmaid’s Contract**

Hello my beautiful bridesmaids! Let me just say again how happy I am that you are going to be a part of my special day! Below are just a few guidelines for the wedding that I’d like you to review, please initial by each point, sign at the end and send back to me. Just want to make sure they’re aren’t any surprises! The planning bride is a happy bride! Thanks a bunch! Love ya!

______ My hair will remain at the length it is now or longer.

______ I will not change my hair color without first consulting Katie and providing a sample photo or hair swatch for consideration.

______ I will use Sally Hansen’s “Maximum Growth-Daily Nail Growth program” every day for the 4 months before the wedding day.

______ I will not gain more than 4lbs from the weight I was when I was asked to be a bridesmaid.

______ I swear to attend all showers, (lingerie, bridal & bachelorette) to arrive in a timely manner and do everything in my power to support and “be there” for the bride.

______ I will purchase the David’s Bridal style # 81123 dress below in Latte/Champagne within 3 weeks of today.

______ I will NOT knowingly get pregnant without notifying Katie at least 4 months prior to the wedding so a suitable alternate can be found. I will also give my purchased bridesmaid dress to said alternate. I do hereby swear that I will adhere to all of the above & other understood bridesmaid duties for the wedding on September 21, 2007


X_________________________(sign, print and date)

Back up and Running w/ Vista!

After probably one of the more stressful weeks of my life, we received our new computer in today and are officially back up and running! Going without a computer is like breaking a thumb, in the aspect of the fact that you don't realize how much you need it to do things normally (well for me anyway).

I'm anxious to get back to work, and have a pile of about a dozen print orders on top of albums to build, files to move, appointments to update, etc on top of all the other little settings & things you have to do when you get a new computer. I will more than likely pulling an all-nighter tonight to get caught up over these next couple of days hopefully!

For anyone interested, I have owned probably about 10 computers now in my lifetime (I buy a new one every 2 years faithfully), and I'd have to say that this is the best computer I have ever owned. I ended up getting a Gateway FX8020, which has a quad-core processor, higher end graphics card, and I souped it up to 4 gigs of ram, rather than the 2 it came with for maximum performance! I should also mention that after all the complaining and worrying you hear about Windows Vista, I absolutely friggin love it - there are obviously some similarities to Mac OSX, however (knock on wood), I have not had any problems yet, and it runs lightning fast! I think the trick is to make sure you buy a computer with it pre-installed and making sure you have a computer with lots of power, a good processor, and lots of ram that can run the operating system to it's full potential.

Anyway, enough PC talk..... I'm going to work right now!

Engagements with Adam & Ashley!

I'm way out of my element this week as I still don't have a computer, and think I'm going through withdrawls, which has been extremely tough for me. Not having all my usual setup that I'm used is so strange, but the good news is I should have my new computer by Monday or Tuesday, (which is on special order) hopefully.

Today was a beautiful day outside and a great day to hang out with Adam and Ashley in a local park to get some fun engagement shots. Much like so many of our couples this year, Adam & Ashley are super cool to work with, and are so fun and laid back, which makes them easier to work with! The rose garden we had hoped would be in bloom was not even close to being ready, and we had some rather challenging lighting today as the sun was at it's high, however still managed to get some great photos from the day. Since I don't have my PC, I'm somewhat limited in working on photos right now, but here are a few shots straight from the camera that I liked and thought would share.

Thanks again to Adam & Ashley.... we had a lot of fun with you guys today, and will be in touch soon once's the photos are ready for viewing! :)

Eeeek - Computer Nightmares This Week!

It's been an extremely frustrating and stressful week for me as my PC decided to finally bow out (Dont' worry, photos are all backed up :) I've been a Windows user for years, however thought I would take use the opportunity to take the plunge and switch over to Mac, considering they offer some of the best products for photography. After dropping nearly $3K on a new beautiful 24" iMac, I soon realized all the issues of having a Mac that I didn't think of. Many of the programs that I rely on to run business in an organized/timely fashion are no longer compatible, I can't print with my new laser printer, I've lost several emails of clients, and can't access many of the backup files I need as they aren't compatible with the way a Mac works. (Overall, a real nightmare) The problem here, lies in the fact that the new Windows Vista operating system seems to have some major issues and many are complaining of its performance..... not something I want to deal with after all of this. Of course to make things even more complicated, all the major computer stores have upgraded, and only sell computers that have Microsoft Windows Vista installed, so I've been in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't situation" all week.

Today, I completely packed up the Mac to return it (which I know is unheard of to have someone return a Mac!), only to change my mind as I was about to walk out the door and set it all back up again to try and find a solution to my problem. After hours of researching and trying to come up with a solution, I'm pretty much back to square one, and will need to return it tomorrow to go back to windows I think. I'd hate to be the poor guy at Best Buy or Circuit City in the morning that has to put up with a week's worth of frustration from me - only kidding :)

This whole issue has been a complete nightmare, and I look forward to getting things back to normal as quickly as possible, so I can get back to work. Due to my computer issues, I've lost emails and been horrible at getting back to people, so please bare with me while we get things fixed. Nothing of any importance here - just wanted to keep in touch and let people know what's going on. I know many are anxious to see samples from the Monica & Jake wedding, and promise to have things online as soon as possible - I hope everyone's having a better week than me - TGIF tomorrow!

More of Monica & Jake.....

Please be patient while the show loads :)

Matt Ramos Photography Inducted Into Cambridge Who's Who!

One of the more prestigious awards a large company can win is the JD Power Award as it celebrates the acheivement of excellence. For smaller to mid-sized businesses, there is a similar award of excellence into the the Cambridge Who's Who of successful entrapreneurs, exectives and professionals, which is a great honor. You can read or learn more about this on their website at www.cambridgewhoswho.com. It's not easy to make such a list, and even after being recommended, you still have to take part in a short phone interview, to make sure you are worthy of making the featured list.

Anyway.... I'm super-pscyhed to have received a phone call this morning, confirming Matt Ramos Photography into the 2007-2008 list and registry of Cambridge Who's Who of executives and professionals. While I'm more excited about earning the recognition of such a prestigious honor, we also will be receiving two round trip plane tickets (which platinum members get during their induction) to go pretty much anywhere. I thought twice about posting this as I didn't want to come across as bragging too much, but I'm really excited/proud about this and wanted to share the good news. Obviously, the thanks and appreciaton go out to all our wonderful past, present, and future clients for helping us to earn this recognition! :)

Congratulations, Monica & Jake!

We celebrated yet another amazing wedding last night with Monica & Jacob at the beautiful Hall of Springs in Saratoga. Working at such a scenic venue makes my job a bit easier, but I've gotta be honest in saying that some of the photos we got yesterday are going to be tough for me to beat!

You can tell how deeply in love with each other Monica & Jake really are, as well as the closeness of their families. It was an intimate, 60 guest wedding, however they danced and partied more than most of the 150-200 people weddings we've been to, which was awesome to see! We'd like to sincerely thank the bride and groom as well as their familes for allowing us to capture their special day.

For those interested, we should have all the photos from last night's event online for viewing/ordering within 2 weeks or less, and you can easily pre-register your email at the link below to receive notification of when images go live:

http://mattramosphotography.instaproofs.com/enterEvent.php?id=19010

Congrats again, Monica & Jake, and best wishes in your new marriage!

Engagement Photos w/ Jennifer & Patrick!

Today was a blast hanging out with Jennifer & Patrick to shoot their engagement photos! It was a great day to be outside, so we headed to a local park, where we got lots of great stuff. I really like engagement photos, because it allows us to get to know our clients before the actual wedding, plus gives people a chance to see what it's like to work with us (a test round for everyone I suppose).

Much like many of the other couples we will be working with this year, Jennifer & Patrick are super cool and a lot of fun to hang out with..... I predict this to be an absolutely amazing and fun wedding to shoot, and they certainly make my job easy as photogenic as they are! It's an interesting story how we met Jen & Patrick, but will leave that for a later story as it's still sort of unfolding :) We have tons of really cool shots, but here are a few from the day that I really liked..... whatdya think of the last one - creative enough for ya?

New Family Portrait!

Call it an addiction or whatever you want, but I think it's so important to not only have more than one camera (especially when you're a wedding photographer!), but to also have a different camera for different purposes and events. I'm sorta having fun here, but we picked up our 4th professional Canon camera this week (The Canon EOS 5D) to add to the top of the line, "Ramos Camera Family." Some are higher megapixels than the other, some are faster, and some are lighter in weight to lug around, etc.

I can remember when we first started our business, and I only had one camera, and to be honest it wasn't all that great, but it's all that I could afford at the time. 5 Years later, I'm pleased to have over $50,000 in photo equipment, including 4 of the very top cameras you can buy. To run a successful business, it's so important to keep investing the profits you make back into your company, rather than just blow the money, so that you can continue to offer and provide more prodcuts, services, and extras for your clients. I know other photographers that do the exact opposite, and don't make the necessary investments, and their business struggles (not to mention they take great risks if anything ever happens to one of their camera's while at a wedding or important shoot!)

For those interested, or EXTREMELY bored, you can look up the stats and read the details of the cameras we use at our events & weddings here:

Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II
Canon EOS 1D Mark II N
Canon EOS 5D
Canon EOS Rebel XT

NewYorkCityFraud.Com Project

One of my many ongoing projects is working with Perry & Campanelli, LLP, who run a national fraud program covering the entire United States. Eventually, all the Capital buildings in the U.S. will need to be photographed, and we started today with our very own Capital, right here in Albany.

Though, I've driven by it dozens of times, I've never been inside the Capital building before until today, and thought it was very interesting to see all the details and amazing architecture that went into such a landmark. It's not easy to just march into a Capital building with a huge bag of photo gear, without security being all over you, but once we got through that, we got some great stuff. Eventually, the images will be used on www.newyorkcityfraud.com, and I'm hoping to possibly shoot some additional projects for my new freiends at Perry & Capanelli, LLP. Here's a few of my favorites that I quickly grabbed to share.

Studio Macbeth Project

This morning I drove way out to Ilion, NY (exactly) to work on a new project with Ray from Studio Macbeth. The company is a major animation and illistration artist in NYC, and had a lot of fun being a part of this project. The project will take a couple weeks to complete, but is going to be a killer ad campain for a major pharmecuetical company and have to do with curing disease and sickness such as cancer. We spent about an hour or so at a retirement home today, shooting out the window of someone's 3rd story window that had passed away two weeks earlier..... definitely one of the more "interesting" projects I've handled, that's for sure! :)

The sample shot is nothing to show off, but look forward to seeing what Ray and his team end up doing with the images to create the end result (I'll be sure to post it when I see it). You can check out some of the amazing work Studio Macbeth does by visiting their website at www.studiomacbeth.com. Tell me their website isn't insane!

More fun stuff scheduled for tomorrow... check back for details :)

Think You're Funny?

I had the opportunity tonight, to work with comedian, Chris Curtin. As you can imagine, Chris has quite the personality, and his keen sense of humor made it a fun shoot! I think comics are some of the most gifted people as they not only help to bring people joy, but take great risks to do so..... If I had to choose betweent he stress of a wedding or standing up in front of hundreds of people, and hoping they will laugh at my jokes.... I'd definitely go for the wedding!

Anyway, Chris will be performing live at some local venues and needed some new headshots for his portfolio. Thanks for a fun shoot, Chris, and hope to see you on Comedy Central someday!

Taking Some Time to Relax....

Now that the wedding season has officially begun, I'm really working hard to not only learn from last year's mistakes (not that there were many), to improve anything and everything about the way I run business. From customer service, to products offered, right down to the quality of work, I'm hoping to make huge strides. I'm an extremely organized person, however with a sold out year of weddings and other events, I'm fully aware of the workload and stress this year can bring if I'm not 100% on top of things at all times. My number 1 priority this year is going to be perfecting my workflow time in order to crank my weddings out to the client as quickly as possible (which is good for both the client as well as myself)

I put my new method to test by pulling a couple all-nighters in order to see what I could accomplish if I really put my mind to it..... surprisingly, I was able to complete an entire wedding in 2½ days by having it weeded, backed up, resized, categorized, and uploaded (how many wedding photographers have you heard of that can do that!!??) Anyway, I'm officially worn out, so decided to take most of the day to just relax and enjoy the nice weather. When you do photography for a living, sometimes the fun can go away if you're not careful - I decided to shoot a bit for fun today, which was really nice. Here's one of my favorite shots that shows how nice it is outside!

P.S. More great stuff coming up as we have LOTS of shoots scheduled for the rest of the week and next! I think it's time for a drink :)