As we neared our last wedding of the year, we could barely contain our excitement! A perk of being behind the lens is that we get to help capture the happiest moments in the lives of clients that become friends.  We first photographed Courtney and Adam’s Engagement Session a year before their wedding and knew during that session that their wedding day was going to be tons of fun! Courtney and Adam were a blast to work with during their Engagement shoot and their big day was sure to be nothing short of memorable. They didn’t disappoint.

Courtney and Adam are just one of those amazing couples: their personalities are a perfect match for one another and their day was absolutely beautiful. They made it official on November 11, 2011. As if the date wasn’t momentous enough,  we had some light snow flurries and crisp temperatures to create a memorable backdrop.The classic beauty of the Stroudsmoor Inn, in Stroudsburg, PA  set the stage for the couple and their family and friends to celebrate a union a long time in the making. Courtney and Adam have been together forever, even their families are close! They got ready in Hackettstown, NJ before heading to Stroudsburg for the wedding; a day full of love, laughter, and lots of dancing!

Here’s a sneak peek at Courtney and Adam.

When searching for a wedding photographer, most head right to the Internet and head straight for Google. This was the case for Amanda and John! We had a blast at their wedding and after their special day, we received their review:

There aren’t enough positive adjectives in the English dictionary to adequately review this vendor!!! They are just simply amazing and completely made our day…they are fun, flexible and professional. This was by far the best decision we made!!

Here is a little sneak peek of our bride and groom on their special day!

I first met Michelle and Jerry in 2007 at a holiday party they hosted. It was then that I first saw how much they were in love with each other. I had met Michelle prior to the party and first experienced Jerry’s friendly demeanor at the event. Our friendship grew from there and there was no surprise when they asked us to photograph their wedding.

Their wedding day was absolutely beautiful, sort of like a calm before the storm with the Hurricane Irene knocking on the door. Everyone at Bally Owen Golf Club in Hamburg, NJ made the day very special for the couple. Enjoy the sneak peek! More images to follow.

I first met Tim and Melissa at Melissa’s parent’s home in Unionville, NY. Being graduates of Minisink Valley High School and hearing about what we do for the school, they wanted to meet with us to view some of our albums as well as show me where they would be having their ceremony. Her mother had received many compliments on her garden and Tim and Melissa loved the idea of a simple, back yard wedding.

While meeting with them, I discovered they were both avid Antiquers -  something they enjoyed doing together. With that in mind, Chris and I decided to incorporate what they love to do in their engagement session, so our first stop was the Lumberyard Shops in Milford, PA. Rich in history, Milford has many Antique shops that both Tim and Melissa have visited in the past. With the permission of the store owners, we were able to photograph Tim and Melissa doing what they love to do in some different rooms of the Antique store. We also took a stroll around Milford to get some different looks.

Being graduates of Minisink Valley, they also wanted to revisit some of their childhood days, so we left Milford and headed over to the Minisink Valley Middle School to capture some images of the two of them on the playground. We enjoyed how cute Tim and Melissa were while we watched them interact on the slide, the jungle gym, and then holding hands on the swing set.

After all was said and done, we had a blast getting to know about Tim and Melissa and the details of their wedding. We are looking forward to their special day at the Farmstead Golf and Country Club in Lafayette, NJ.

I often wonder what I love to photograph the most. For me, I just love the opportunity to be creative. When people give me creative freedom, I feel like they are trusting me to create awesome images for them during that special time in their lives. I find I have most of that freedom with my clients and my seniors love it!

Kyle is one of our Senior Models for Middletown High School and left us this review of his experience during his session:

I wanted to thank you guys for all the pictures you have taken for me! They always turn out amazing and there’s no one else I’d rather go to for professional pictures! I can’t wait to see our most recent shoot and for Chris to do my football games this year! You guys are awsomeeeeee!!!

As a thank you, here is a sneak peek of a couple images from your session! Can’t wait to work with you again!

One of the things we are complimented on is how much fun we have with our clients. We had been looking forward to Tim and Melissa’s wedding since their engagement session. Chris and I met with Tim and the groomsmen at the Andover Inn, which was right in the middle of a couple Antique stores. Tim appeared very calm and excited all at the same time and it was very easy to work with him and the guys as they were all about having fun.

This was the case with Melissa and Tim! Their day started with the threat of questionable weather and cleared perfectly for their ceremony at Melissa’s parents house in Unionville, NY. Her mother’s garden was a perfect setting for their emotional day!

After the ceremony, we headed over to The Farmstead Golf and Country Club for the party to start! Melissa and Tim had some secrets up their sleeves…from the kick-off dance to the deliciously awesome cake! The party never stopped and everyone had a blast!

When we’re commissioned to photograph a couple’s wedding, we are thrilled because it allows us the opportunity to be a part of one of the most important days of their lives together. We’re even happier when we receive reviews, like this one from Terence and Toni Ann, because we know that the services we provided have forever touched the lives of two amazing people! In their words …

I am never one to comment on the internet in regards to service because half the time I feel that people are hired to do this and it doesn’t come from people who have utilized the actual product or service in question. In this case I will make such an exception. Chris and Loretta are two of the most professional and flexible photographer’s I have met and I have a family full of them. Not only are they beyond what my original expectations were but any time I was hesitant, anxious, or doubtful, they put me at ease with their actions not just their words. The photo’s they produce are meticulously scrutinized before the final product is complete and you can expect nothing but perfection from these two. They were personal in every session and listen to what my wife and I wanted and especially what we didn’t. I can not stress enough how uncomfortable I am in front of the camera and how much I must have drove them crazy . . . especially Loretta. With that being said, by the end of our wedding I felt more comfortable with their abilities then any other vendor I commissioned. This company is destined to be a premier provider in the industry of formal photography and my wife and I feel privileged to be among their clientele. If you feel this review is not the real deal give them a call and ask them to contact me and I will gladly follow up with you personally.

Be sure to check out some of the other wonderful reviews left by our clients on WeddingWire.Com or our own Testimonials page!

It’s never too early to begin thinking about the holiday season, especially when it benefits those who are less fortunate. On December 4th, 2010, we’ll be hosting our second annual Toys For Tots Charity Event at Franklin Sussex Automall in Sussex, NJ from 12PM until 5PM.

When you bring any new, unwrapped toy or make a donation to the Toys For Tots organization, you’ll receive a complimentary portrait with Santa and a raffle ticket for your chance to win other great prizes! Plus, there will be fun and games for the kids all day long.

For more information or directions, check out our Toys For Tots Charity Event page …

I love when we photograph our bridal couples for the first time during their engagement session – it gives us a chance to  see what they’re like before the big wedding day.

The majority of our couples are a little shy and reserved at first since they’re not sure what to expect and it takes them a little time to get warmed up to the idea of having cameras in their face for nearly two hours. This was not the case with Jennie and Frank! These two had no problem being themselves while Loretta and I followed them around.

The first of two engagement sessions took place in Point Pleasant, New Jersey along the beach and on the boardwalk. The moment we started our stroll, Frank and Jennie lit up and let us capture some amazing images of the two of them as a beautiful couple. Continuing our shoot, we made our way onto the beach where Frank took to the sand and water like the little kid is us all – even taking Jennie with him at one point! By the end of the session, our stomach muscles hurt from all the laughing and we couldn’t wait for their next session.

A few short weeks later, we met again at Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey. The college held special memories for the two of them as this was the place they first met. Though a little more subdued than the beach shoot, it was no less fun – at one point, we decided to stop and revisit the memories of “great tasting” college food!

Though there is some time between now and their June wedding at Merri Makers at Water’s Edge, we’re super excited for their big day. If their bridal party is anything like Frank and Jennie, I know we’re going to have a lot of fun!

That last image was Frank showing us his “Karate Kid” moves against the incoming waves!

]]> http://www.wanamakerphotography.com/frank-and-jennies-engagement-session/feed/ 0 http://www.wanamakerphotography.com/flynn-family-portraits/ http://www.wanamakerphotography.com/flynn-family-portraits/#comments Mon, 11 Oct 2010 12:37:16 +0000 Loretta Wolff http://www.wanamakerphotography.com/?p=2063

I love family portrait sessions in the fall! The colors of the trees adds so much to an image that the possibilities are endless!

Recently, my cousin Karin called me to do family portraits of her, her husband John and Ryan, their adorable little boy! Since Ryan seems to be growing so quickly, Karin wanted to capture some lifestyle portraits of the family enjoying time together. After chatting for a bit, we decided to do the session in Barryville NY where Karin had grown up.

When we got there, Ryan, like most children, was a little nervous and slow to warm up to me at first. However, that didn’t last long after we brought out the pumpkins and let him run around for a bit! By the time the end of the session rolled around, Ryan was so tired that he fell asleep before I even started to put the gear away!

Needless to say, I cannot wait for their next session!

Every time we photograph a wedding, we are showing numerous other couples what we can do and the type of service we provide. After photographing Jeffrey and Kaitlin Haas’ wedding in April, we received a call from Toni Ann insisting that we do her wedding as well. The best part of this was that Toni-Ann and I played soccer together for the Eldred Yellow Jackets when we went to high school together!

When I initially met with Toni Ann and her fiancée, Terence, he made it very clear that he absolutely hated having his picture taken. Though he would try his best not to be a pain, he told me that he couldn’t make any promises. Fortunately for him, we like challenges and it gave us something extra to work towards during their session!

For their engagement session, we met them out in Lake Wallenpaupack PA to capture some images along the water, the beachy area, the woods and eventually with the sunset. Since they both love to ride their motorcycle, we decided to close off a parking lot and get some shots of them riding as if they were on the road and after a few tries, we got the shot that we wanted!

Even though the two of them were not feeling great that day, they did an incredible job and loved every moment of the session. We can’t wait to photograph their wedding at the Wallkill Valley Country Club in Middletown NY in a few weeks on 10.10.10!

If you or a friend are expecting a child in January or February 2011, you’ll want to visit the Contest Page at HVParent.Com and sign-up for your chance to win a Maternity Session + Baby’s First Year package. As the winner, Wanamaker Photography will document the first year of your baby’s life, from an intimate maternity session before birth to the baby’s first birthday. The photos will not only appear on both websites, but will also be featured  in the magazine!

Here is a quick glimpse at some of our Maternity and Baby’s First Year work!

]]> http://www.wanamakerphotography.com/a-year-in-the-life-contest/feed/ 0 http://www.wanamakerphotography.com/sneak-peek-mike-michelle-bennett/ http://www.wanamakerphotography.com/sneak-peek-mike-michelle-bennett/#comments Tue, 07 Sep 2010 17:27:27 +0000 Loretta Wolff http://www.wanamakerphotography.com/?p=1790

Last October, we met Mike and Michelle while photographing the Whitson Wedding. While at most weddings we typically sit with the other vendors, the Whitson’s decided to seat us with guests. A few months later, we received an incredible message from Michelle on Facebook letting us know that she too was now engaged and wanted to use us as her photographer for the big day!

The months flew by and before we knew it, their wedding day had arrived! With an unbelievably clear and beautiful  day for them to enjoy, we knew it was going to be perfect! Their wedding ceremony was held at Saint Johns Catholic Church in Chester, NY with the reception to follow at The Tides in North Haledon, NJ.

As the day went on, we knew that the end was coming closer … but we didn’t want to leave because both Mike and Michelle, their entire bridal party and all of their family and friends were just a blast to be around! Enjoy the sneak peek! We’ll have more to come soon!

]]> http://www.wanamakerphotography.com/sneak-peek-mike-michelle-bennett/feed/ 0 http://www.wanamakerphotography.com/baby-masons-newborn-session/ http://www.wanamakerphotography.com/baby-masons-newborn-session/#comments Mon, 06 Sep 2010 14:15:48 +0000 Loretta Wolff http://www.wanamakerphotography.com/?p=2031

We love when our bridal client become family portrait clients! Laurel and Patrick, who’s wedding we photographed in 2008, are members of our Lifetime Portrait Program and recently welcomed Mason into the world on August 3, 2010. For his first session, Mason was a trooper – although he was more alert than most babies at this stage. This was also Chris’ first baby session, so we put together a game plan because we were working a lot of different angles in an intimate space.

With nearly all of my session, the newborn is fast asleep – allowing me to move and position them for the shot I need. Mason’s session was different. He was awake for the entire session and decided to fall asleep as we were packing up the equipment. Aside from a few “newborn accidents”, it was so much fun photographing Laurel, Patrick and Mason together!

I have known Chris and Becky forever as we all went to Eldred Central School together. They contact us to do family portraits since their little one, Victoria Rose, is growing up so fast. When I did the design consultation with them, Victoria was not yet crawling – yet nearly a week later, she was crawling and ready to go on the move!

We photographed their session at their In-Law’s home in Yulan, NY. They selected this location because they live right on Washington Lake and this is where they spend most of their time. With Grandma’s help, we got some great photos of Victoria as well as some really cute family portraits. We’ll be doing another portrait session together in the winter months and I cannot wait to see Victoria’s reaction once the snow starts flying!

I had my senior pictures done with Wanamaker recently and everything went as smoothly as it could be. Loretta was full of great idea’s. She was so flexible with everything that I asked about. I was nervous about taking the pictures but the session was so laid back. I loved every minuted of it. She had a lot of great ideas with basketball part of the shoot. I would love to use them again! If you don’t use Wanamaker you’re not getting the best service!

As a thank you, here is one of our favorite images from the session as a sneak peek for you!

Originally, their Westtown, NY session was scheduled to be an outside one, however, it rained that day, so we decided to move everything inside. A few days after the session, Jenna, one of the Ferrier’s I photographed, posted this testimonial – letting us know how much fun they had during their session!

My cousins and I recently had our pictures taken with Wanamaker just a little over a week ago. There are a lot of us Ferrier’s, so Loretta took some shots of just the girls, then some shots of just the boys. Eventually we all took some photos together. Loretta took pictures of us in a pyramid, jumping shots and posing like Charlies Angels. No one was expecting to have as much fun as they did. Loretta is an amazing photographer who really knows what she’s doing. She even managed to take some great shots of the boys who were really just goofing off the whole time. The last time we all got our pictures taken together was awhile ago and I’m happy that we got to work with Wanamaker.

As a thank you, here is a quick peek at one of the images from the session featuring all of the girls!

Nearly 8 months along, Laurel and Patrick were super excited for the session and for the new baby to arrive. To make things easier for them, I packed up the studio and headed to their home in Middletown, NY to setup right in their living room. Having worked together before, it was easy for me to get some great shots of them almost immediately.

Unfortunately, we’re a little behind on getting our sessions on the blog. As of this posting, Baby Mason was officially delivered into this world on August 3rd. We can’t wait for his first newborn session!

This past weekend we met up with Kaitlin and Jeffrey in Highland Lake, NY to do some portraits along the lake. After we got some of the more traditional shots out of the way, we decided to turn up the fun factor using a trampoline in the neighbors yard. My only instruction to the couple was to have fun. The following shot was the first (and my favorite) from a series of Jeffrey.

More to come soon!

Yesterday turned out to be the perfect day to get married! All week, the weather channel was calling for rain and thunderstorms to show up just in time for the “I Dos”. Thankfully, as the weekend go closer, the storms disappeared off the radar and things shaped up to create the perfect wedding day!

Before they head out on their honeymoon to Bermuda, we wanted to give Justin and Brenda a quick sneak peek of one of their beautiful wedding images! More to come soon!

Wanting to do something different and unique for their engagement session, we decided to take a road trip and visit them at their home in Long Island. The best part of this decision was the fact that they lived a very short walk away from the beach and just up the road from beautiful downtown Babylon.

When their day finally came, it couldn’t have been any better – bright, beautiful blue skies with a few clouds and warm, summer-like weather! As things got underway, we walked up and down the shoreline, joked around, let them sneak in a few kisses and then surprised them with a little request – to get into the very cold water! Like two excited little kids, they accepted and we captured some incredible shots.

After getting the images we wanted, we headed back to the house so Mike and Michelle could get cleaned up before we headed to downtown Babylon for a quick stop in Argyle Park and then a stroll down main street. We made a few stops along our walk into alleys, store fronts and even a little outdoor cafe.

We ended the day with a trip to their local Sushi restaurant for some good food and the chance to wind down and talk more about their big day in August at The Tides in North Haledon, NJ. Having photographed Laurel and Patrick’s wedding there back in 2008, we can’t wait to return and get some awesome shots with Mike and Michelle.

Here are some of our favorites from their engagement session!

Recently, Loretta photographed a Portrait Session with Sammi, a Minisink Valley High School Senior. Normally, our work flow takes a few weeks to get everything processed and ready for the final sales session. To our delight, we received the following review from Sammi even before she’s had the opportunity to look at her images …

I just recently had my senior portraits done with Wanamaker and  I loved the fact that the pictures were more along the lines of what I wanted to do. It was so much fun laying in the grass then getting covered in it, climbing logs, taking pictures with my guitar! Everything was just simply amazing! I honestly hope to find a million more reasons to work with Wanamaker again. I guarantee I will and cannot wait for it to happen!

This is a great example of why our clients love us and continue to come back and ask that we capture their life in new and exciting ways!

As a thank you, here is one of our favorite images from the session as a sneak peek for you!

Our first stop of the day was to the Jeffery’s house in Yulan, NY for some early morning shots of the groom and guys getting ready. With everyone still recovering from the night before, we decided to hang back a little and let them forget we were there so we could capture those special “guy moments”! Once they were all ready to go, we took them outside, in between the bursts of rain, to grab some big group shots.

Once we captured everything we wanted, our next stop was a few miles up the road to where Kaitlin and the girls were getting ready – a beautiful house with an endless number of rooms and windows in all of the perfect places. Utilizing almost every square inch of the house and all the available light possible, we finished up with Kaitlin and provided her with some limo service to a second location for some additional shots with friends and family. From there, it was on to St. Anthony’s Church – a place we have been and are scheduled to be a few more times this year!

After a beautiful ceremony, we traveled down some incredible country roads on our way to the Villa Roma in Callicoon, NY for their reception. On the way, we stopped at the Stone Arch Bridge in Jeffersonville for some couple and group shots with the wedding party. We decided to photograph the group first so we could get them back on the party bus and really focus on Kaitlin and Jeffrey.

When we finally arrived at the Villa Roma, we were greeted with some incredible renovations. We later found out that Kaitlin and Jeffrey’s wedding was the first reception to be held at the newly updated venue. It was the perfect place for what was incredible wedding with a huge turnout at the reception!

Here are some of our favorite shots from their wedding day!

Last night was the commencement exercises for the Minisink Valley Class Of 2010! Looking back, it feels like just last week was the beginning of football season. As we listened to the speeches and watched the smiles on the graduate’s faces, we couldn’t have been more thankful to have shared their last year together! We would like to wish all the graduates the best of luck as they enter an entirely new world!

Graduation Gallery Access

If you would like to be notified by email when images from the graduation ceremony are available for online viewing, please take a moment to fill out the form below and we’ll be sure to add you to our list!

[formbuilder:6]

Their engagement session started out on the Hawk’s Nest along the Delaware River in Sparrowbush, New York. With the morning sun not having crested the mountain, there was a bit of a breeze along the rock face that gave us some challenging shots with blowing hair. As the two began to warm up to our cameras, we moved on to the Elks Brox Memorial Park overlooking Port Jervis and Matamoras, Pennsylvania. Though the drive took for what seemed like forever, the view was absolutely perfect. The rest of their session took them to the tracks near Eddy Farm, a quiet little park and a side lot next to the Erie Depot.

Once everything was done, we finished the engagement session with a few cold drinks, sandwiches and stories from “back in the day”! With their July wedding fast approaching, we even discussed some of the last minute details of what to expect when the big day finally arrived!

Photographing their wedding is going to be a lot of fun and we cannot wait for it to come! Check out some of our favorite shots of the engagement session!