Robert's Blog

Erin & Jared's Beachfront Wedding....

On Saturday I had the pleasure of photographing Erin and Jared's beautiful and Intimate wedding and reception which took place at Lodi Point State Park on the east shore of Seneca Lake.  This is the first time I've ever been to this unique and spectacular location within the heart of the New York Finger Lakes region.

Although Erin and Jared originally grew up in the Finger Lakes region of New York, they now reside in California.  Nonetheless, they decided to host their wedding close to where both of them grew up since many of their family members and friends still live here (not to mention it's hard to beat the natural beauty and hence the many lovely wedding venues found on and around the Finger Lakes.

Like many of my clients, Erin and Jared were immediately drawn to my distinct style of wedding photojournalism and looked no further once they discovered my website (Erin's mother Sheila promptly commissioned me for the wedding which I am grateful for).  I always very much appreciate it when prospective and actual clients appreciate and understand my style of photography and the fact that I always put all of my heart and soul into the photographic work that I do for them. 

Speaking of work, Erin's mom Sheila also did the vast majority of the huge amount of work that was required to largely fulfill Erin's vision for her lakeside wedding.  Fortunately for everyone present, the weather cooperated on their wedding day (in spite of the fact that there has been more rain than usual this spring in this neck of the woods).

Here are a few images from this beautiful wedding day...

A few pre-wedding prepping images I created prior to the wedding in a lovely lake house....

The site at Lodi Point State Park where the wedding would be held (looking north)...

A bit more detail (there is an area in the lake in this direction where the lake is 1,700' deep!)

A little bit of floral detail...

The lovely bride and her father!!

 

Erin's mother Sheila making a beautiful speech from the heart during the ceremony...

An elated, freshly married couple...

A walk in the early evening light...

A tender moment...

Another one of many beautiful moments in the early evening light...

I think they like each other!!

Jared is definitely a solid fellow...

Ah, and one more image prior to my losing the early evening light (at around 9:15 PM)....

Thank you Erin and Jared for yet another most unique, beautiful, and enjoyable day!!!

A Wonderfully Haunting House....

Early last evening I was in Cortland, NY where I originally grew up to complete a photographic assignment for Catholic Charities of Cortland County.  I've been working on the imagery for some print and web usage that illustrate Catholic Charities programs and facilities in Cortland County.  During my last visit to Cortland I neglected to create an exterior image of one of their beautiful historic houses where they provide housing to people in need there. 

When I arrived at 7PM, it was still too sunny to photograph the house properly so I decided to stop by my friend's (Pam and Scott) house in an adjacent neighborhood to say hello while I waited for the natural light to calm down a bit.  Approximately two years ago, my friends Pam and Scott purchased an incredible old Victorian house on North Main Street in Cortland where they both reside and operate a top-flight massage therapy business.  When I arrived at their house, Pam was in the yard gardening so it was very easy to find her.

Pam is a very talented massage therapist and fascinating woman.  Scott (Pam's husband) and Pam have made this amazing Victorian house their labor of love, and they continue to work on it's restoration which will likely take them forever to complete (which does not seem to trouble them in the least).

While standing there speaking to Pam outside her magnificent home, I was taken by it's incredible beauty and details.  When I was around ten years old, I lived down the street from this same house while it was vacant for a number of years.  It stood there ominously, unpainted and colorless, no one living inside.  My fellow childhood friends and I would visit it during chilly fall evenings daring one another to get closer to this obviously "haunted" place.

Now it stands there, full of life and undergoing restoration inside and out.  The interior woodwork and details are as magnificent as the exterior. 

I left briefly to complete my Catholic Charities assignment, then returned and decided to photograph Pam and Scott's house in the early evening light.  Scott went inside as it got darker and turned on the  interior lights so that when I photographed it the many stained glass windows would emanate their beauty, and emanate they did!

Here are a few of the images I created last evening, some of which we plan on making into very large canvas gallery wrap art pieces to decorate the inside of this magnificent Victorian beauty and massage therapy business.  I hope you enjoy seeing these images as much as I enjoyed creating them!

Robert

 

Recent Client Testimonials...

Hello Everyone,

Just thought I would mention that there is a place on the internet where many of our highly satisfied clients choose to write testimonials on our behalf, which is on the Pictage.com website (Pictage is the company that enables us to make our client's imagery available on the internet and much more).

About five minutes ago, the mother of one of our recent brides left the following testimonial there (along with the many other enthusiastic testimonials from other satisfied clients) about me which I very much appreciate and thought I would share with you:

"Robert has photographed both of my daughter's weddings, and we've been extremely happy with him.  He is very professional, always listens to what you have to say, and creates amazing photographs very unobtrusively.

If I had another daughter, I would definitely hire him for the third time.  Roberta MacDowell".

I photographed Roberta's first daughter's (Leslie) beautiful wedding eight years ago at the Rose Inn rose garden, and then was commissioned by Roberta for the second time to photograph Roberta's second daughter's wedding (Sarah) most recently at the Whiteface Spa and Resort in Lake Placid, which was also beautiful and a great honor.  I am forever grateful for the MacDowell family's ongoing patronage and trust in my abilities.

Sincerely,

Robert

Cornellian of the Century...

Last evening, I had the great honor of photographing Bill Vanneman's 100th birthday party at the Statler Hotel at Cornell, which was one of the major events to kick off Cornell's 2009 Alumni Weekend (which is always a big event here in Ithaca).

Bill is a Cornell institution, and a graduate of Cornell's class of 1931.  He appeared to be in relatively good shape for his age, and he was truly a delight to meet and to spend some time with.  Since Bill's birthday this year coincided with Cornell's Alumni Weekend, he made it clear to his family that there was no place that he would rather celebrate his 100th than at his alma mater.

Bill's 100th birthday party was attended by many Cornell dignitaries to include current president David Skorton, Cornell's last president Hunter Rawlings, and former Cornell president Frank H.T. Rhodes.  Other attendees included Richie Moran, Cornell's former long standing Hall Men's Lacrosse Coach (and Hall of Famer).  When I asked Richie what his opinion was of the recent result of the NCAA Men's Lacrosse National Championship game between Cornell and Syracuse University (where Syracuse won), he said that he was happy to see Cornell play so well.

Here are a few images that I created at this most enjoyable event:

Here's a photo I created of Bill with his great granddaughters shortly before his party.

Here Bill is being greeted by Cornell's president Dr. David Skorton and his wife Dr. Robin Davisson.  Cardiology and music are two of Dr. Skorton's many skills I understand.

Here is Bill with Cornell President Emeritus Frank H.T. Rhodes and his lovely wife Rosa.  Frank was the longest serving Ivy League president ever; he served as Cornell's president from 1977 to 1995. 

Here the honored guest is being greeted by yet another former Cornell president, Hunter Rawlings III.  Hunter served as Cornell's president from 1995 to 2003.

Dr. Skorton gave an excellent speech at the party in honor of Bill and his 100th birthday.

While Bill listened in delight...

And of course there was the cutting of the cake...

Not to mention a customized performance by a Cornell A Capella Group (Cayuga's Waiters I believe)...

He stood and waived to the A Capella group as they left.

 

And there were mementos.  Bill is the first guy on the left...

And of course happy and proud family members...

Not to mention Bill being featured in the most recent issue of the Cornell Alumni Magazine!

Happy 100th Bill, and thank you for the honor of being your family's chosen photo documentarian!

Your friend (and photojournalist),
Bob Kaussner

The Joy and Honor of Photographing Multiple Family Weddings...

This past weekend I had the pleasure of photographing a second daughter's wedding from the same family which was truly an honor.  This sort of thing is somewhat rare, but seems to be happening with greater frequency as of late.

Eight years ago, I photographed Leslie (the first daughter) and Mason's wedding at the Rose Inn here in the Ithaca area.  I remember Leslie and Mason's outdoor rose-garden wedding as if it were yesterday.  Leslie was a recent Cornell graduate at the time (as was Mason), and she and her new husband Mason were (and still are) a beautiful couple.  Leslie's family hails from the Albany area.

In  preparing to photograph Leslie's sister Sarah's wedding this past weekend, all of the details of the first family wedding vividly flashed before my mind's eye to include everyone's faces, the emotions, the weather conditions, the sweet smells of the garden, and so on.  Hence, arriving at Sarah's wedding at the Whiteface Spa and Resort this past weekend was very familiar and pleasurable for me.  It was particularly exciting for me to see Leslie and Mason once again, eight years later, and to meet their sweet young son and daughter who are now likely five and six years old.

On a similar note, I ran into the mother-in-law of another bride who's wedding I photographed at Cornell five years ago who told me that the mother of her daughter-in-law was recently trying to locate me since her second daughter is getting married soon in Boston and she was having difficulties locating an appropriate photographer for that wedding.

I sent her an email letting her know what my current contact information are and mentioned that I would be happy to be of assistance in any way I could, and here is her reply:

Hi Bob!

How nice to hear from you! Yes, I was trying to hunt you down a while ago but was having trouble finding you online for some reason. I had asked Lynn if she knew anything about your whereabouts when I couldn't contact you.

And yes, Dayna is getting married in Boston in October.  The photographer story this time, so far, has been an unexpected nightmare to say the least. You set the bar quite high at Erika and Joe's wedding.  I wish you had run into Lynn a few weeks earlier because I would have snapped you up to come and do the wedding for us in Boston to be sure. 

The kids were in a panic when the first photographers they hired turned out not to have the professional standards we felt necessary to trust them at such an important event, or any event for that matter. It's a long story that certainly does not need to be repeated here. It was the kind of experience you hear other people tell stories about but I can't say I've ever come even close to experiencing anything like this myself. 

They finally went back to another photographer they liked initially, Joyelle, and fortunately the date was still open for them.  I so appreciate you emailing me. I will record your updated info. I have learned with weddings and life in general, you never know what might happen when you least expect it. So, perhaps our paths will cross again. 

I still have one more daughter, Laura, who just finished her first year at Cornell. So, there is one more wedding to come at some point. In fact, one of the photographs you took of her getting ready at Erika's wedding is one of my very favorites.  I hope you are well and busy criss-crossing the world treating people to your vast talent and passion. I am actually feeling a bit sad now that I have "refound" you just a little too late...............

Take care and enjoy the busy wedding season,

Cindy

 

Lydia & Chris...

Hi Everyone,

This past weekend I finally got to meet Lydia and Chris who recently commissioned me to photograph their wedding at Cornell on July 4th of this summer.  My good friend Nicky Wood (DJ extraordinaire originally from London, England) kindly referred this great couple to me a while back which of course I appreciate very much.

Lydia and Chris came to Ithaca over the weekend from NYC for a wedding planning trip as is the case with many of the Cornell-related alum couples we work with.  Their wedding will be taking place at Cornell's beautiful Sage Chapel, with their reception taking place at the Statler.  I'll be photographing the rehearsal dinner on Friday evening (solo), then Lauren and I will be photographing the wedding and reception the following day on July 4th.  James of the Heights Cafe and Grill and his minions of culinary soldiers will be providing the food for both the rehearsal dinner as well as the reception.  Some of the other players in this wedding are still to be determined.

Lydia, Chris, and I planned to do an outdoor engagement photography session after our meeting on Saturday, but the weather was quite cold and rainy.  Hence, we mutually decided to do a somewhat abbreviated photography session inside the Cornell Law School (a very familiar place to Chris from his time spent studying law there).  They needed some imagery to announce their engagement in the New York Times.

I started the session by creating a few images towards the bottom of one of the law school's staircases (using obliquely-bounced on-camera flash), which worked well.  However, the window light within the law school combined with the light of Mother Nature made for the most beautiful light possible.  And as any photographer worth his or her salt knows, appropriate knowledge and usage of lighting (not to mention truly enjoying working with people and a few other desirable attributes) makes all the difference in the world with regard to the creation of beautiful photographs.

With this in mind, I am happy to share a few photographs from this brief session together below.  I must also add that when doing the post-processing of these images, I was quite affected by the beauty of this great couple.  For comparison purposes, I'll start with an image taken on the stairs that I lit with the obliquely bounced light from my on-camera Canon 580 EX flash:

And below are a few images that I created simply by using some available window light.  Please note that you won't get the same effect unless you use a very light-transmittive lens on your camera.  The lens I chose to use in the following images is definitely one of my favorites which is the Canon L series 85mm, f/1.2 lens (which is a superb focal length lens for creating gorgeous portraits because of the perspective and exaggerated selectve-focus it provides).

Notice the differences between the two images above in terms of the color of the light, the quality of the light (as in it's diffusivity/specularity), as well as the direction of the light relative to the subjects.  There is no question that the window light is the better quality light (even though the bounced flash light in the first photo is good light).

Here's a closer image shot vertically by the window light.

Here is yet a closer image photographed using the available window light.  The lighting direction is not ideal here (relative to the subject's faces), but still makes for a beautiful quality of light nonetheless.

The following photographs resulted when I noticed a magnificently large bank of windows in another area of the Cornell Law School.  The layout of this particular room allowed me to orient the subjects, the windows, and myself such that Lydia and Chris were more front-lit than the windows used as was the case with my primary window-light source above.  Here are two of the resulting images:

 

Once again, note the beautiful quality of this light in terms of its color, direction, intensity, diffusivity (meaning essentially shadowless light resulting from a broad, diffused, natural light source coming through the windows).

I really enjoy my chosen profession since I continually get to meet many different types of fascinating people such as Lydia and Chris.  In addition to affording the creation of beautiful and useful imagery for my clients, engagement photography sessions also provide the opportunity for my clients and I to get to know one another prior to the big day!  Lauren and I really look forward to being an important part of Lydia and Chris's wedding on July 4th!

Eleni & Brad's Engagement Session at Taughannock Falls...

Hi Everyone,

Last Sunday afternoon I had the pleasure of doing an engagement photography session with Eleni and Brad, a great couple who recently commissioned Lauren and I to photograph their upcoming October 17th wedding which will be held at Logan Ridge Estates on Seneca Lake.

Like the vast majority of the couples we work with, Eleni and Brad reside and work outside of New York State (although they both did hail from Upstate New York).

This winter has been an unusual one in that this is the first winter ever that I've had three couples who wanted to do outdoor winter engagement sessions, and of course I was happy to comply with all three couple's requests.

When I asked Eleni and Brad if they had a specific location in mind for the engagement session, they said that they would like to be photographed at Taughannock Falls State Park (which is definitely one of my favorite locations).

When we arrived at Taughannock Falls, the first thing the three of us noticed was the enormous amount of giant chunks of ice that essentially had devoured the land (and anything on it including picnic tables, etc) adjacent to the lower part of the gorge on the falls side of the park.

The ambient lighting conditions initially were challenging, since they consisted of bright sunshine amidst lots of white snow and ice.  Nonetheless, I made the best of the situation by orienting Eleni and Brad with their backs to the oncoming sunlight to provide even lighting on their faces as opposed to the blotchy, contrasty blaring light and dark shadows one gets when photographing someone in bright sunlight.  Hence, here are a couple of the initial images we created together that day amidst the ice and snow.

Talk about big chunks of ice!

Yet another perspective, this time showing some of the lower gorge, and lots of ice!

A blue-toned B&W image, for the sake of variety...

A nice, brown-toned B&W with the amidst the lower falls blurred in the background.

Here's another image and moment that I particularly like!

A similarly sweet, yet unique gesture of adoration, this time on the lake side of the park...

When we wandered to the lake side of the park, I suggested that the three of us go into an area where there's a small marina encircled by quite a few small elevated docks which I thought might make another nice location for some interesting images.  I really liked the potential simplicity offered by the ice-white background in the marina area.  Here's what I saw and captured through the lens of my camera:

After "working" for a while at the marina location, we then decided to investigate the lighting potential of a picnic shelter nearby.  It had plenty of big windows which made for beautiful lighting once inside.  Here is one example from that location:

Perhaps needless to say, Eleni, Brad, and I ended up having a wonderful time together that day.  And as a result of doing three outdoor winter engagement sessions over the past couple of months, I've learned that there is astounding beauty and very unique light to be found absolutely anywhere, anytime if you're looking for it.  Lauren and I are thankful and honored that Eleni and Brad have chosen us to photograph their upcoming wedding this October as we are with all of our wonderful clients and friends.

Current Schedule for 2009 (as of 3/27/09)...

As our 2009 wedding season continues to take form, I thought it might be useful to list our current confirmed wedding bookings here.  Please keep in mind that our schedule is an ongoing "work in progress"...

May 9th:  Tracey & John; The Aurora Inn

May 23rd:  Trish & Chris; The Fontainebleau Inn

May 24th:  Sarah & Fiance'; Lake Placid

June 6th:  Leagh & Ajay; Mirbeau, Skaneateles

June 13th: Lauren & Brent; Cornell University (Sage/WS MR)

June 27th:  Erin & Jared; Lodi Point/Seneca Lake

July 4th:  Lydia & Chris; Cornell University (Sage/Statler)

July 11th:  Becky & Tyler; Cornell University (Sage/Statler)

August 8th: Traci & Fiance; Houghton House Geneva

Sept 12th: Lindsey & Isaac; Cornell University (Sage/Statler)

Sept 26th: Serena/Chris; Chateau Lafayette Reneau Winery

Oct 10th:  Emily/Kris; The Fontainebleau Inn

October 17th:  Eleni & Brad; Logan Ridge

October 11th:  Kristen & Fiance'; The Fontainebleau Inn

October 17th:  Eleni & Brad; Logan Ridge Estates

Sincerely,

Robert & Lauren

Our New Ad in Wellwed Magazine New York...

Hello again!

Just for fun, I thought that I would show you our new ad that is now running in the Spring/Summer 2009 issue of Wellwed New York Magazine which just hit the newsstands as of yesterday.  The ad was designed by Nicole Santerre, Wellwed Magazine's very talented designer who has been a true pleasure to work with.

Jengi & Tom's Fontainebleau Wedding Featured in Wellwed Magazine...

Hello again, everyone,

Lauren and I've known for approximately two months that one of our recent couple's weddings (Jengi & Tom) which we photographed at the beautiful and historic Fontainebleau Inn in Alpine, NY towards the later part of our 2008 wedding season was going to be featured in the Spring/Summer 2009 issue of Wellwed in New York Magazine.  Wellwed Magazine is a beautifully designed, upscale wedding magazine that features some of the more interesting weddings that take place throughout New England and New York State.

We have been anxiously anticipating the arrival of the Spring/Summer 2009 issue of "Wellwed in New York" to make it to the magazine stands of Barnes and Noble, Borders, etc., and today it finally arrived!

Jengi and Tom's wedding was particularly unique for several reasons.  Firstly, Jengi's mother and father were married at the Fontainebleau Inn forty years prior to Jengi and Tom's recent wedding there.  Also Jengi unexpectedly lost her mother in June of 2005, which made the Fontainebleau wedding location particularly important and special to Jengi, Tom, Jengi's dad, and for many other family members and friends. 

Fortunately I had the opportunity to see Jengi's parent's forty year-old wedding album from their Fontainebleau wedding, and was taken by how beautiful Jengi's mother was on her wedding day forty years ago.  It was also fascinating to see the many changes that have taken place at the Fontainebleau since then.

The old oak and pine trees  which frame the left and right extremes of the lake-view are both much larger now.  Also, the one-hundred and seventy-year-old inn has been significantly improved over the past forty years in many ways by John and Terri VanSoest, the inn's current owners (not to mention the changes in formal wedding attire since then such as Jengi's dad and the groomsmen wearing gloves with their tuxedos back then).

Jengi and Tom were exceptionally creative regarding the design of their wedding, which was particularly delightful in terms of the tastefully done daisy-themed wedding cake, daisy cookies, dairy farm gentleman's cake, clustered daisy-balls rolling down the hill toward the lake, the lemonade stand, and fresh,  summer-appropriate yellow and green color scheme.

The five page Wellwed Magazine feature article on Jengi and Tom's summer Fontainebleau wedding as well as our photography follows below: