A Happy 6th to the best photo assistant in North Attleboro.
Here are some over wedding photography and planning related sites that I found for you to browse. Thanks for visiting Mark Andrew Photography!

Rock n Roll Bride
Weddings Unveiled
NY Times – Unique Save The Date Announcements
Offbeat Bride
100 Layer Cake Blog

---

I’m not a big fan of taking a “day” to show our love to another person. I think it’s something that needs to be done every day, not just February 14th. I don’t show much of my personal work on my blog, but today is an exception. As a wedding photographer in Boston I like showing uplifting pictures and the pictures above tell the story of lost love, so take some time every day to let the important people in your life know what they mean to you.

These two photographs were made on the day after Valentine’s Day in 2007. Milton “AKA” Memo lived in the 9th Ward his entire life. After the hurricane he really had no where to go so he volunteered with Common Ground in the Lower 9th Ward and was living at a house the volunteers had gotten to habitable conditions. I sat down and talked with Memo that afternoon and he was very open to being interviewed and having a few photographs taken. He talked about how the girl he loved had moved to Missouri and that her father did not like him and did not want her to move back to New Orleans. Memo had just started to date her, but had been in love with her for quite some time. He was heart broken and read the letter he had written to her asking her to go out with him again. If you look near the lower thumb you can read the passage where he compares their love to “Beauty and the Beast.” Memo was a true gentleman and as a photographer we sometimes need to just slow down and listen to people. We talked for 3 hours and I counted the photographs I took. 10.

This was a three plus year project on post Katrina New Orleans. It was a project of love as two of our children still live in New Orleans and I wanted to develop a photo essay over a period of years so they could see as adults how Katrina affected their childhood and community. It was a self funded project with me staying a extra few days each visit. There were days I’d sit down and cry and there was even a point where on one trip I just drove 2 hours over to New Iberia and Lake Martin to shoot wildlife with my friend Brian Champagne because I reached a breaking point. I guess every project at one time kicks us down if it really means something to us. I started this in 2005 and completed the project in early 2009. It was 3 plus years of love, sweat, tears, hate and joy all wrapped up in one.

 
Here are some over wedding photography and planning related sites that I found for you to browse. Thanks for visiting Mark Andrew Photography!

http://www.utterlyengaged.com/
Wedding Bee
Ruffled Blog
Style Me Pretty
Offbeat Bride

---

These two photographs taken at a wedding at the Boston Harbor Hotel really caused me to stop and think. As a dad to a precocious teenager who’s finding her own way in life I often wonder we’re she’ll be 15 years down the road. When I go to a wedding I can picture myself dancing with her and having all the emotions of letting my little girl move on to start a new family with a wonderful guy. The parent dances are some of my favorite moments of the wedding day. It’s a time where a bride/groom gets a chance to have a private talk with their mom/dad out on the dance floor way from all the commotion of the day. Some people get choked up with emotion, some grin joyously like the dad in the picture above, and some laugh hilariously and joke with one another. I can only imagine what they are saying. It’s a moment when real emotion and truth comes through and these small milliseconds of time make a photograph. These are the pictures I love. I see a big trend in wedding photography with tons of details and “stuff” and I think we have lost track of what’s important as photographers. I understand shooting some small details to set the stage of “where” but it’s gone well beyond that on blogs and in bridal magazines.

I can promise all my couples that I’ll gladly miss photographing a center piece if it means capturing a couple of small moments like what I’ve photographed above. I got into wedding photography because people and their stories interest me and that’s my focus on your day. I want to tell your story simply and honestly. I want you to see things that you would have missed because of my photographs. I want you to sit down and look at an album or a stack of prints and remember your day with your family and friends because these occasions can be counted on our fingers during our lifetime.
Here are some over wedding photography and planning related sites that I found for you to browse. Thanks for visiting Mark Andrew Photography!

NY Times – How to Take Great Wedding Photos
100 Layer Cake Blog
Snippet and Ink
Rock n Roll Bride
WPJA

---