Trash the Dress with Jess

Ok, so can I just say how THRILLED I am about this Trash the Dress?  A couple of months ago, I met Jess through a mutual friend, and something came up about her previous modeling experience.  My ears perked immediately.  A model, you say?  I promptly chimed in and asked if she would like to model for me at some point so I can continue to build my portfolio.  Jess was happy to do it, and as I spoke with her and other photographers, it evolved into a Trash the Dress session.  Having done a few of these in the country so far, I really wanted to do this one in the city.  With that in mind, I knew exactly what kind of look I wanted: simple but gorgeous white dress, bright red lipstick, hair slicked back with a birdcage veil.  Okay, so my homemade birdcage veil was slightly ghetto, but everything else was PERFECT.  Not to mention that the dress I bought Jess from DavidsBridal.com fit her LIKE A GLOVE.  It was a perfect city look, and I was so excited that Jess was totally confident and not at all fazed by walking around downtown Northampton in full wedding attire.  My new photographer friend Molly joined us on the shoot, and she was so awesome to work with!  So much energy, so nice, and she had some great ideas for poses and angles.  She even took one for the team and asked a group of hippies if they would mind being a background in one of our pictures, but they were too busy smoking... cigarettes.  

I got home last night and started downloading, and was so IN LOVE with the images I got.  I was also, as always, disappointed in myself, because there was so much about the city that I didn't get.  The big part of photojournalism, and my favorite part about it, is telling the whole story, and sometimes I get caught up in the moment and how beautiful the model or the newylweds look that I pull in too much with the lens, and don't tell enough about what's going on around them.  I'm working on it :)  I'm thinking I'll have to do another city Trash the Dress and really, really concentrate on telling the whole story and showing a gorgeous bride in the middle of a not-so-gorgeous urban environment, which was the whole idea to begin with.  Hope you enjoy what I did get!  Please, check out Molly's page too, and feel free to comment... aspiring photographers need encouragement :)

There's a church in Northampton that has a bright blue door.  In the fall I was up in Northampton shooting with my Saturday morning class and one of the students was complaining about it.  They wanted to use the columns in their shot, but hated the blue door.  WHYYYYYYYY would you ever hate this door?  I am in love with it.  Obviously, since I made everyone shoot there for about 20 minutes last night.  But seriously, these are some of my favorite shots of the day.

So we rounded a corner and Jess screamed "There's my boyfriend!"  I thought she was serious (since she seemed to know everyone else in Northampton) but she was actually talking about a statue of a sailor on the steps of a town building.  I decided to incorporate him (or at least his foot) into this next shot.

These next shots are really why I wanted to do a city shoot.  There is something about mixing a beautiful bride with a not so beautiful background that makes the most beautiful pictures.

Can we talk about the light that we got hitting these benches?  A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

More of my favorite shots of the day- Sweeties is pretty much an institution in Northampton, and at first I thought maybe we should shoot in the doorway (very cool black frame with a super old sign above it.)  But then I thought why would we not shoot inside the candy store?  So many bright colors and fun-ness.  Of course, I sent my little wing-girl Molly in to see if it would be okay.  We were so psyched to get out of the heat- and here are my other favorite shots of the day!

We decided to use these street signs for some shots...

Loooooooove the backlight here...

Perfect way to end a photo shoot:

Jess- thank you sooooooo much!  Molly and I (and your entourage of fans) had such a blast, and you were an absolutely gorgeous bride!  The dress is yours for when the real day comes haha. Thanks again!