video

Wedding at St. Michael’s in East Longmeadow

On Friday, I was at St. Michael’s Church in East Longmeadow, MA, to tape Theresa and Ben’s wedding. Theresa’s cousin flew in from Ireland to celebrate the wedding Mass. Though it was raining on and off most of the day, the bride and groom seemed to avoid the heaviest downpours. The reception was at La Renaissance in East Windsor, CT—a great place to accomodate a large wedding.

Totally new to me was the Photo Booth, which you can rent for weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs, reunions, etc. It’s one of those boardwalk photo booths that take your picture four times, then spits out a strip of black and white photos. It was a huge hit! There was a steady stream of guests using it for all six hours of the reception. Guests were encouraged to leave their favorites in a basket for the bride and groom. Scissors provided.

Mount Holyoke College, Hotel Northampton

1st Anniversary thank you from a bride’s mother:

Dear Tom,
Okay, I know I already sent you an email about the wonderful job you did on my daughter’s and son’s-in-law video, but I just had to write again. Because they just had their first anniversary, and because we were together with relatives for the fourth of July, we played the video for everyone. They couldn’t get over how truly beautiful it is. We are amazed that you took a whole day and managed to condense it into a beautiful work of art. I guess in these days, anyone can point a camera and record an event, but your artistic choices on what to film and how to edit it (I suspect the most important part of the job) made it stunning. Thank-you again.
Lorraine

(Laura and Jeremy were married at Abbey Chapel on the campus of Mount Holyoke College, with a reception at the Hotel Northampton.)

Local First

Attended a meeting last night at The Northampton Brewery, the oldest operating brewpub in the Northeast. Independent business owners were gathering to hear about Pioneer Valley Local First, part of a nationwide network encouraging people to buy into their local economies and support their local businesses. The emphasis is on sustainable, environmentally-conscious ways of building strong local economies. Defintely worth checking out their website, and that of their parent organization, Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE).

Another nice note

Received lately from Rosanna and Joseph, married in NY last year:

“We just wanted to thank you for the beautiful DVD. We will have this wonderfully crafted memory for the rest of our lives! Thank you!”


This was the first wedding I shot with my new Canon XH A1 camera, and I was very happy with the results—the picture was very sharp, and I really enjoyed composing shots in the 16×9 format.

The Log Cabin

Met with Mirella and Rich today about producing their wedding video. They are getting married at The Log Cabin in Holyoke, MA. It is located on Mt. Tom, and has spectacular views. They will be in the Southampton room, which has a huge bank of windows with a southern exposure. Their late September wedding should give them beautiful views of the autumn leaves.

Four Seasons Boston

Tonight, I was at the Four Seasons in Boston with my favorite photographers, Glenn and April Livermore! Anne and Marc were the wedding couple, and they were so easy to work with, very sweet.

The Four Seasons was, well, The Four Seasons—luxurious, efficient, and AMAZING food! Anne and Marc did a fabulous planning job, everything looked so beautiful.

Here are some pics:

The cake…

The bouquet…

And a detail from the ketubah.

Linden Hill School

The next two days, I’ll be spending part of my time at Linden Hill School in Northfield, MA, taping their commencement ceremonies. Linden Hill is a middle school dedicated to helping boys with dyslexia or language-learning differences realize their full potential. Thursday night is their awards night, and Friday morning is their more formal commencement. A portion of their commencement is given over to “book awards” where faculty members get up to speak about their personal connection with two boys in the school, and present each of them with a book, specially chosen. There is never, never a dry eye in the house (camera operators included!), and the faculty members usually need to recover themselves in the middle of their speeches. It’s amazing, and I’ve never seen anything like it.