Congratulations, Kevin & Sarah!! (1 of 2)

We dove right back into the wedding season yesterday by celebrating and shooting the wedding of Kevin & Sarah! Despite it pouring rain during the outdoor ceremony (they had a tent), the skies managed to break here or there for us so we could get some good shots. The bride and groom were daring enough to race out onto the golf course with us using some golf carts to get some shots, knowing it was about to pour within a matter of minutes - risks like that get the shots - I love it!

The wedding and ceremony were held at the beautiful Saratoga National (one of the top golf courses in the country I might add), where they did an amazing job, had great food, and allowed Kevin and Sarah to have a beautiful wedding all around. Even though they are "clients," I've quickly come to realize and think of Kevin & Sarah as good friends as well..... it was a huge honor to be able to capture and spend the day with them.

For those that attended this event (or should have, etc), you may click the link below to pre-register your email to receive automatic notification of when images go live (usually in about 2-3 weeks) - the password will be the grooms last name in lowercase if you need help. Congratulations again to Kevin and Sarah - here are a few quick samples from the day so you can see what an amazing day they had!

http://mattramosphotography.instaproofs.com/enterEvent.php?id=51463

Ok..... I'm off to do it all over again with today's wedding - see ya!

Opening Ceremony at Regal - Last One, I Promise!

Ok, Ok - I promise this is the last post you will see from me about Regal Cinemas new Theater..... but just wanted to share a few more quick shots from the opening night ceremony where they officially opened to the public. Instead of cutting a ribbon, the managers tore huge movie tickets, which was kind of cool, and a few big names like Mayor Jennings, showed up to speak and check it out - about 350 people got free admission the other night to see Iron Man and a few of the other new movies out...... talk about being in the right place at the right time!

We'll be shooting 2 back to back weddings starting tomorrow, so you won't have to worry about me blogging about the movies anymore - be sure to check back for samples of the weddings!

P.S. The hottest new blogging thing is apparently twitter, which is basically blogging in between blogging (if that makes any sense) - you can see my little tweets off to the right and I plan to post updates of what we are working on so people can keep up to date on when their photos will be ready, etc - feel free to check it out if you get REALLY bored and want to see what I'm up to.

Regal Cinemas - Colonie Mall Pt. II.......

It's extremely challenging to get an outdoor night shot of a business (especially a Mall location) when you have dozens of people constantly going in and out, and a full parking lot of vehicles...... Regardless, I needed to get my outdoor night shot for Regal that I promised, so did the best I could (still not the shot I wanted, but I'll take it for now).

Sorry to all the people that thought I was breaking into their car while trying to set up my equipment in between all the cars in the parking lot - I promise I was after the shot, not your new stereo system, haha! :)

P.S. I'm fully aware of how bad my humor is.

The New Regal Cinemas - Colonie Mall Center!

Every now and then it's nice to take a break from shooting high stress events such as weddings to shoot some different scenery, architecture, etc. The theater has not yet opened to the public just yet, however, we were selected by the Regal Cinemas corporate office to shoot their new Colonie Mall Theater for some marketing material as well as the grand opening, which is taking place later this week. I have to admit I'm not huge on going out to the movies anymore when I can sit at home and watch my 61" in the privacy of my own home, but I definitely look forward to seeing some of the new movies coming out after seeing how amazing this new cinema is!

We tried to do some cool outdoor shots, however the sky was very grey with cars everywhere, so will going back one night this week to get the killer shot I'm seeing in my head of the nighttime lights and atmosphere I'm looking for. Here's a sneakpeek preview of the inside until you all get the chance to check it out for yourelf next week.... popcorn, anyone?

E-Session w/ Matt & Kristin!

So, we learned the hard way today what happens when you try and schedule an engagement session on the opening day of the Tulip Fest! After sitting in traffic for over 30 minutes and not being able to park anywhere near, we eventually gave up and decided to move our shoot near the Capital Building, instead. (which I have to admit wasn't half bad to shoot at)

Matt & Kristin are an awesome couple, who are a lot of fun to hang out with, and I definitely look forward to photographing their wedding this coming August (we definitely have some fun couples this year, which I'm pretty excited to work with!) Anyway, today was somewhat of a test shoot to see how we work and to grab a few engagement shots for our good looking couple here. Thanks to Matt & Kristin for a fun shoot and for putting up with the crazy traffic and location change - here's a few quick samples from the day!

P.S. Notice the perfect color matching of the shirt color to the opposites shoes - very nice! :)

Another HDR Attempt......

A few posts back I talked about playing around with HDR photography and a little bit about what is is for those of you that have not heard the term. We were up on Sacandaga Lake yesterday, and on the way back decided to try another quick one since it seemed like a cool scene. The top 3 shots are the 3 shots I used straight out of the camera (not that pretty, eh?), and then the bottom shot is the HDR (high dynamic range) image I was able to creat using all 3 files...... it's amazing what you can do with a fairly simple process!

Random Wednesday Stuff........

Just a few wacky Wednesday updates and random updates that we are excited about (it doesn't take much to please me)..........

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- After numerous conversations and thought after being contacted by dozens of photographers over the past year or so, we'd like to congratulate, announce & introduce Jessica Bruce, who will be joining our team this week as a full-time Assistant Photographer! Jessica has amazing talent, an incredible personality and work ethic and I am very excited to have her on our team (she bugged me over and over for a year on this, and I finally gave in - just kidding :) On a serious note, if anyone is interested in having a 3rd photographer (absolutely free) for their upcoming 2008 wedding, shoot me a note (I need to get her some experience in the field)!

- This week we purhcased a few top of the line SanDisk Extreme Ducati Edition 8GB flash cards, which are supposed to be the best and fastest compact flash cards you can buy, with read/write speeds nearly double the speed of other compact flash cards - The extra speed will definitely come in handy this year for us, and what's nice is they all come with Rescue Pro software (not that I need it) that will automatically recover any lost image files - even months after the images have been deleted from the cards..... you can never go wrong with additional protection! (get your mind out of the gutter).

- While we have an insane lineup of top of the line professional lenses, my current favorite lens is without a doubt the Canon L 85mm f/1.2, which goes for close to $2K and gives you the ability to shoot insane images in extreme low light conditions and with superb quality and depth of field. I've heard great things about the sister lens, which is the 50mm version (still in a f/1.2), so placed an order for one today.... I have a feeling this will become my new favorite and can't wait to try it out on some shots this weekend!



- We are still accepting names/emails of anyone interested in doing a beginner SLR training class. This first session is more of a private (or small group) setting where we will be teaching many of the basics of how to use your new camera, what everything does, and explaning things in detail such as ISO, shutter speed, aperture, composition, tricks to using flash, etc..... we'll probably do a more advanced session down the road and possibly even a Photoshop session for those that need help learning the power of this amazing program. This is a great way to learn how to use your new camera and what you can do with it. If interested, please email John at john@mattramosphotography.com!

Congratulations, Stephen & Kristin! (2 of 2)

After getting about 4½ hours sleep from the wedding the night before, we sucked it up and drive 2.5 hours down to the amazing Tarrytown house (obviously, in Tarrytown, NY), to shoot the incredible wedding of Kristin & Stephen. If I've ever had a day I was dragging it was definitely yesterday, however did my very best to fake it and capture some amazing images from the day. We shot for a total of nearly 11 hours with this couple, and ended up with close to 3,000 images which will be a fun chore to go through next week!

Every now and then, we have the opportunty to work at incredible venus that are just absolutely breathtaking in terms of scenery...... we were somewhat limited to what we could do due to the cold and light rain here and there, however the Tarrytown House is without a doubt a photographers dream venue! Kristin & Stephen are such good friends, and it was very special to be able to spend the day with them and shoot what I think are some pretty incredible images throughout the day. A huge thanks to the two of them as well as their friends, family and bridal party letting us spend the day with them and tough it out in the cold (awesome job, girls!)

I look forward to sharing all the images from this wedding with those that attended, and for those interested, you can pre-register your email below to receive notification of when images go live. I'm absolutely exhausted and plan to hibernate for a couple days if possible (so don't call or email me - just kidding)..... it's time for my nap - I leave you with a few samples from the day!

http://www.mattramosphotography.com/events.html

Congratulations, Leigh & Chris! (1 of 2)

You'd think shooting a wedding on a day of on and off rain could turn out to be a disaster, yet we managed to beat the odds and made the very best of it! Chris & Leigh are such a great couple to work with, and Jamaica and I had a lot of fun spending the day with them to capture one of the most important days of their lives. You wouldn't believe me if I told you how dark everything was to shoot with, but luckily I had my magic lens, which allows you to get away with murder in extreme low light conditions :)

So that I can give a few props, we had the opportunity to work with Amy Smith, who did an amazing job on makeup, one of my all-time favorite DJ's, Jeff Richards of Piano Man, and had the opportunity to shoot at Rafael's, Mohawk River Country Club, which is always a treat to work at. We'd like to thank Leigh & Chris as well as their family for allowing us to take part in such a special event, and are very excited to share the hundreds of amazing images captured at this event. For those interested, you may pre-register you email at the link below to recieve automatic notification of when images go live (usually 2-3 weeks). I leave you with a few quick samples from the day!

http://mattramosphotography.instaproofs.com/enterEvent.php?id=49746

P.S. Stay tuned for samples from the Kristin & Stephen wedding coming up next!