Were you in line anxiously waiting for the doors to open at the Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel for Hudson Valley Magazine’s annual Best of Hudson Valley Party? If so, then you were in the right place! This year’s Hudson Valley extravaganza featured a sampling of all the area has to offer by way of restaurants, shopping boutiques, spas and salons, pet stores, fun things to do, or fascinating people to meet. Whether you were interested in wine tasting or sampling ale, this party had it. If you wanted to get ideas for your best evening look, there were makeup studios available to take care of you. If you wanted to simply arrive and dance the night away, there was plenty of live music to keep you on the dance floor. The celebrities this year were the residents of the Hudson Valley, and Ulysses Photography was chosen once again to photograph the party and to photograph YOU as you arrived for our very own red carpet event. We had a great time seeing many long-time friends, as well as making new ones.

The skies were clear, the red carpet was out, and Ulysses Photography was there as the official photographer for the festive occasion of Westchester Magazine’s annual Best of Westchester Party for 2011! This signature event is the one that’s waited for by residents and business owners alike. The beautiful Glen Island Harbour Club was packed with over 3,000 excited guests. Everyone was fashionably decked out for the ultimate party. If they weren’t sampling the food, drink, music & entertainment, hair & makeup demos, massages, or other area specialities, then they were lounging on the couches outdoors or otherwise enjoying the beautifully grand views of the harbor. With over 100 of the very best boutiques, shops, and services on offer (including Ulysses Photography as one of the select sponsors) this was a premium event not to be missed! If you didn’t get to make it this year, then start planning now to attend in 2012!

We’re thrilled beyond measure to see Katie & Chris’ gorgeous wedding published by Style Me Pretty. What a beautiful day we had with them! Katie’s attention to all of her pretty details, as well as the genuine love that she and Chris allowed to shine in front of the camera, combined with generous pockets of time with us, gave us ample opportunity to show off their day’s timelessness and loveliness. Their vision of classic beauty was a perfect fit for this premium bridal portal. We’re so excited that Katie got to share their story in her own words, too. If you’re looking for inspiration for your own wedding day or simply want to enjoy our happy news with us, please check out the article and accompanying photos. Feel free to leave a comment, too!

More with Katie + Chris!

We’re over-the-moon excited to have Jenn + Clario’s engagement session photos appreciated and published by the editors of the Best Hudson Valley Wedding Ever. We enjoyed reading Jenn’s narrative of how this incredibly sweet couple first met, and how they became a real couple. The genuine heart of their story is the very same quality you’ll experience when looking at their photos. Check out the article. And please feel free to take a moment to leave a comment!

More with Jenn + Clario.

It’s always exciting when others appreciate the honest beauty of photos of our favorite couples. We’re delighted that the team at Borrowed & Bleu has posted about some of their favorite things from Nicole + Tom’s Manhattan wedding at the Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers. This NYC couple had everything you could want for a beautiful day full of joy. Some of the visual highlights included Nicole’s handmade details, her elegantly detailed Jenny Packham dress, and more. We loved spending time with them and showing them off in photos. Hop on over to Borrowed & Bleu to check it out!

More with Nicole & Tom.

We’re excited! The photography from our recent wedding with Courtney & Matt at the the Sleepy Hollow Country Club was just featured on the Style Me Pretty Blog. This premium bridal blog is a portal for all things related to weddings. Whether you’re planning an extravaganza like Courtney & Matt’s Westchester wedding, or casual elegance is more your style, or if you’d like the distinct beauty of your cultural heritage to be the signature of your day, or perhaps you’d like to feature lots of hand-crafted details, Style Me Pretty is a place you’ll want to frequent for delightfully inspiring ideas. We had an amazing day with Courtney & Matt. She shares her thoughts in the article about what made the day so special for the two of them. Make sure you check it out!

And please feel free to leave a comment for Courtney & Matt (or for us). We always love hearing from you!

See more with Courtney & Matt.

When you’re as marvelous and unabashed as Julie & Greg, it’s no wonder others take notice. The fine folks at Borrowed & Bleu certainly did! This lovely bridal blog features couples whose relationships and weddings are particularly unique. Make sure to check out their favorite selections from Julie & Greg’s engagement photos, as well as the rest of their inspirational blog!

More with Julie & Greg.

It’s always exciting when a bridal blog loves our photos and features our work. The Bride’s Tea blog highlights weddings and engagement sessions that feature the beauty of cultural diversity, while also providing practical advice for planning weddings that combine a rich cultural heritage with a western lifestyle. They’re succeeding beautifully. They’re currently featuring our breezy engagement photo shoot with Sora & Alex. Make sure you check it out!

Hudson Valley Magazine put out the invitation to “Party With the Best”. Guests from all over the Hudson Valley region drove out to the Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel, where vendors of all sorts showed off their very best offerings. Whether you were interested in food & drink, health & beauty, fun & entertainment, kids & pets, music & dancing, shopping ’til you dropped, or just wanted to network with other professionals, there was plenty on offer at the BOHV Party 2010. As guests filed into the hotel entrance, they were individually greeted by the excellent staff of Cosmopolitan Management. After being provided with a floor plan to find their interests, the red carpet treatment continued with an opportunity to have their photo taken before entering the main party room. The comments we heard from everyone were very positive, and it was definitely not a party to be missed. Even the Poughkeepsie Fire Department showed up to make sure everyone was safe while having a good time. It was great to be invited back again by Hudson Valley Magazine as their event photographer. We got to network with a number of community professionals, and to our delight we had a chance to see some of our very own favorite couples, too! Thanks for joining us for the gala evening!

Read more about the winners voted Best of Hudson Valley 2010.

Autumn is one of the most popular seasons for future brides to enjoy a lot of shopping for their wedding extravaganza! Once again, Westchester Magazine accommodated by hosting their annual Unveiled Bridal Event at the CV Rich Mansion, a grand Victorian estate with strolling gardens, elegant sun rooms, and a majestic ballroom. Even the thunderstorms couldn’t prevent enthusiastic brides from coming to see some of the area’s top wedding vendors so they could discuss their mutual vision of how to create the most enjoyable wedding experience possible. It was a joy to be the magazine’s photographers for the evening, capturing the models on the runway, sample the food and drinks, experience the buzz and energy of the evening, talk with brides and their moms, and to see lots of familiar faces once more.

Westchester Magazine has done it again! Hosting their annual Best of Westchester Party at the beautiful Glen Island Harbour Club in New Rochelle, NY, all VIP and invited guests were given real red carpet treatment into this extravaganza. This premiere event is always the perfect opportunity for a variety of vendors to show off the very best that Westchester County has to offer in the most delicious dining destinations, sensational stores, amazing after-hours entertainment, uncontested culture, superlative shops and services, and stunning spas. If you want to sample all that Westchester has to offer by way of restaurants, shops, drinks, cultural institutions, service providers, kid wranglers, and more, then this is absolutely THE party you need to attend to discover everything that makes Westchester County the exciting, vibrant place that it is. It’s always a pleasure to be the magazine’s Go-To photographers for events like this. Seeing faces of celebrities (got to talk briefly with Alan Kalter, the announcer for Late Show with David Letterman) , reacquainting with friends both old and new, and rubbing shoulders with familiar colleagues is one of the things we most look forward to doing each summer. It’s an New York event like no other!

After a trip to visit family, we’re back in the office taking care of client emails, designing books and albums and wall art, and doing more of our favorite thing — photographing YOU! We’re having a fast-paced and fabulous 2010, and we hope all our wedding and portrait clients are enjoying the same. We have a LOT of couples and families coming soon to the blog, and we can’t wait to show them off! 

If you’d like to enjoy a fabulous experience with two of the happiest photographers on the planet, then take a look around this blog and our website, and contact us ASAP as our calendar is filling up quickly!

See more reviews of Ulysses Photography on Project Wedding.

We’d like to thank the the staff at the magazine (especially Angie, Aimee, Tracey, and Jessica, who each worked so hard) for inviting us to photograph this event for them and for putting such a fabulous event together.

Best of Hudson Valley 2009, Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel Best of Hudson Valley 2009 Best of Hudson Valley 2009, guest with Whoopi Best of Hudson Valley 2009, huge cupcakes! Best of Hudson Valley 2009, food and drink Best of Hudson Valley 2009, Hudson Valley Magazine team

(Click any image to see a larger version.)

Each year brides come from all over to attend Westchester Magazine’s “Unveiled” bridal event. This exclusive event is a fashion extravaganza where brides have opportunity to talk firsthand store owners and designers about choices in gowns, hair & makeup, jewelry, etc. This energetic event was held at the CV Rich Mansion in White Plains, NY. Some of the area’s top service providers were there to talk about photography (including our studio), music and entertainment, limo services, cakes and confectioneries, body care, and many other services that might interest a bride planning the perfect wedding. There were beautiful models to show off the latest in fashions for brides, as well as grooms.

Not only were we very glad to be represented there with our own booth (a big shout goes out to our friends Annie & Jason, a fantastic couple whose wedding we photographed two years ago, for manning our booth), but we got to photograph the fashion show and the excited brides as they enjoyed talking, sampling, and simply oooh’ing and ahhh’ing at everything. Westchester Magazine always throws a great event. And it was great meeting so many happy brides as well as vendors.

Each summer Westchester Magazine hosts one of the most fabulous collections of Westchester area vendors for a party like no other. If you’ve been searching for the absolute best, the most different, and the newest, then you have to look no further than the Best of Westchester Party 2009. A red carpet entrance greeted the literally thousands of men, women and children who flocked to this gala event at the Glen Island Harbour Club. Jenni and I were privileged to be on location to photograph and enjoy the party ourselves. We spied a few celebrity faces including musician and television host John Tesh. We even had a chance to see some of our very own wedding couples of both the past and future. It was so good to see them again!

The editors and the readers of the magazine have cast their votes and selected the cream of the crop when it comes to food & drink, night life, shopping, arts & leisure, health & beauty, home accessories, and so much more! Whether you’ve been on the hunt for the the perfect way to pamper your body, the ideal opportunity to party the night away, or the ultimate wining & dining experience, you’d be certain to find it at the Best of Westchester Party 2009, an event not to be missed!

UPDATE: The entire gallery of photos are available for viewing and purchase. Just go to our main website, and click on the “Client Proofs” section to find the Best of Westchester Party 2009. Enjoy!

Here is the image that caught his eye and the article I wrote to go along with it (you will find it on page 118 in the book):

GOT IR?

When shooting weddings, it’s always my goal to find a way to bring just an added touch of the surreal to an already unbelievable day. Sometimes that means playing with f-stops or looking for interesting angles. And other times it means using an entirely non-traditional tool to create imagery the bride & groom have never seen before. One such tool is a DSLR modified to photograph in infrared light.

Since I’m always experimenting with new gear and cameras, I had a Canon Rebel that wasn’t seeing a lot of day-to-day use. So I had it modified for IR-only photography. The resulting tool was exactly what I needed to create some of our favorite and most compelling images.

On the technical side of things, I always shoot my IR images in the RAW file format. This gives me the greatest amount of headroom for recovering blown highlights in the initial file capture. Additionally, creating and using a custom white balance for your camera will help you to more easily visualize and review your images during your photo session. I find that one of the joys of photographing in infrared is the unexpected surprises you get after pressing the shutter release button. While you generally need strong sunlight to produce optimal IR photos, break the rules now and then. Make sure you EXPERIMENT with your camera settings and shooting conditions to find something special and unique.

Of course, photography is about so much more than technical details. It’s also about emotions, feelings, and reactions. If you have a love for photography and an eye for the unusual, then you may well find yourself drawn towards an infrared romance.

Click this link to find Rick Sammon’s book at Amazon.com.

The results are in for the Spring 2009 contest of the International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers (ISPWP). In a field of literally hundreds of incredibly talented photographers  with some spectacular images from all around the world, we’re particularly excited that six of our images placed in the Top Ten across several different categories. Thanks go out to our amazing couples who allow us to make images like these possible.  Here are the winning entries.

(Click the thumbnail above to see a larger version.)

Our goal was to find just a few of our recent favorites, and then choose display methods that would truly showcase them as pieces of loved art and decor, the exact same way you might want beautiful photos and art pieces displayed in your own home. With displays ranging from our Art Mount and very popular Canvas Wraps in various sizes, to eye-catching Collections and Triptychs, we’re each incredibly thrilled with the results! You can get an up-close look at these when you stop by for a visit. And we know you’re going to love a similar approach when you make your own photo selections. Please send us your feedback by clicking on the “COMMENTS” link at the top of this blog entry.

Here’s a look at how our spring refresh has come together in various rooms of our home studio. Just click the “PLAY” button in the box below.