Recent Adventures at alyson levy PHOTOGRAPHY
There’s something truly magical about shooting on the Oregon Coast. Even on a fairly grey day, the skies and textures of the beach come through beautifully on film. That’s why I was so excited when a former client got together with some friends to hire me to travel out to Seaside to take maternity and newborn photos as a baby shower gift for Mandy and Dave.
As promised, Rob and Anna’s beautiful Mt. Tabor wedding ceremony! I’m not sure dear friends Rob and Anna could’ve made this any easier on me — in addition to being one of the most photogenic couples around (I can’t look at these pictures of Anna without thinking of old Hollywood Glamour), they chose to have their ceremony atop Mt Tabor. For those of you who aren’t familiar, Mt. Tabor is a volcano in Southeast Portland with views of the city and beautiful, mottled light. Add in a host of beautiful, thoughtful details, like a simple, classic fabric banner to mark their ceremony site, a hand fasting ceremony using her grandmother’s lace and his family’s tartan, and lovely coils of paper containing their vows, and you have a photographer’s dream wedding. . .
Tim and Sylvie are friends from Portland who traveled to Sylvie’s hometown near Minneapolis, Minnesota for their wedding. Beforehand, while they were making plans, Tim and I were chatting and he said, “I wish you could shoot my wedding!” And I responded, “me too! Wait… why couldn’t I?’ So we made it work, and I’m so glad we did, as these pictures are some of my all-time wedding favorites. A vintage tandem Schwinn bicycle for the lovely bride and groom to ride into the reception? Come on! Not to mention beautiful little St. Albert’s Church with the gorgeous light where the ceremony was held, the striking multi-colored flowered dresses on the bridesmaids, the amazing rustic decorations in Sylvie’s family’s yard, the super cute kids, the lawn games, and the amazingly fun Contra dance at the end of the night… The list goes on, but you should just see the cuteness for yourself.
Melissa was my very first maternity photography client, and I couldn’t have asked for a better one. Not only is she gorgeous and glowing and amazingly strong, but she was extra patient with me while I figured out how to get the best poses and angles for those great belly pictures. Maternity photography draws on skills I’ve honed in other kinds of people photography: it’s like wedding and engagement photography in that it’s about capturing a relationship and a moment in time, it’s like boudoir photography in that it’s very much about the human form, and in that your subject probably hasn’t done it before and needs a lot of guidance to feel comfortable in front of the camera, and it’s like fashion photography in that the mom-to-be conveys confidence and, ideally, a kind of glamour. It’s a fantastic and rewarding to combine these challenges in to one photo session. And then it’s extra fun, of course, when you get to come back and take photos with the new baby (more on that later…)!
Ali and Josh have big, boisterous personalities, and lucky for me, they’re not afraid to show them to the camera (or the world!) That, combined with scads of thoughtful details and lots of warm, lovely friends made shooting their summer wedding great fun for me. Oh, and the delicious barbeque from Reo’s Ribs helped too!
Lisa and Marc had a lovely, mellow, pot-luck style wedding at the absolutely gorgeous Silver Falls State Park. My favorite part of the day was the thirty minutes they set aside for us to walk around and take photos with just the two of them. There was plenty of warm, beautiful, dappled sunshine – basically a photographer’s playground. Specially- made homebrews and huge amounts of delicious food followed (and let me be honest, I enjoyed that part too!) – then instead of a first dance, the happy couple had a ceremonial first badminton game. What could be cuter?
