by: Remember Danielle and Eric's real wedding and the hurricane that took them by storm? Well, we simply could not pass up sharing their engagement session too ... this time taking New York City by storm. This mega metropolis impromptu location couldn't have played out more perfectly for documenting Danielle and Eric's love story. Lights, camera, action--so much excitement and loads of visual interest. Here's Danielle to tell us about their session in the city that never sleeps, their fearless photographer and the rest of their unforgettable weekend.
Locations: Times Square, New York City ... Morgan Park in Glen Cove, NY ... Long Island, NY.
Photographer: Zac Thomas
"Our engagement shoot was so amazing!! After almost two years of going back and forth with Zac Thomas {who I initially found via a Facebook ad} about how amazing his photographs were and how different his work was from traditional engagement shoots, Eric finally popped the question. Zac was one of the first people I contacted upon being proposed to. I knew, even years prior, that I wanted him to capture our day. The engagement shoot was included as part of his package, as he uses it as a way to get to know the couple prior to the big day and get a feel for the kind of photos they are looking for at their actual wedding. He flew into New York and decided to stay in the city for the weekend--this was his first time.
The original plan was just to find a park or a beach that we could go to and get some shots that Saturday for our engagement shoot, but Zac emailed me as he landed in NY, “What are you guys up to after work? Why don’t you come meet me in the city and we’ll get some city shots tonight and do the park stuff tomorrow?" Well, we raced out of our 9-5’s and met him by 7PM, casually dressed, no frills, just out to take some pics in the city and get a feel for Zac’s photography. Needless to say, we all became fast friends.
Zac was literally laying down in the middle of Times Square, stopping traffic, just to get the shots he wanted. There wasn’t a cab driver in the city that was a fan of Zac that night!
We expected to have traditional city shots in front of notable buildings, since Zac was a tourist of New York--but we wound up in random staircases of restaurants, outside parking garages, and in front of random candy trucks. Zac made it a point to go past a few barriers in Rockefeller Center to get a couple shots he wanted to! I have a theater background, so we stopped to take a few pics in front of one of the theaters I had worked in and used the parking garage attached to it as a “theater space” for photos--which wound up coming out amazing- so amazing. I actually used a few of them as head shots, eventually.
We also took a few shots in a random subway hallway, which to this day, I recognize every time we pass it in the city- it was a little grimy and disgusting, but the shots came out gorgeous!
We went back to the parking garage and he decided to take a bunch of shots of Eric and I in the elevator, as it was closing and got an amazing stream of shots of the doors closing.
As we drove Zac back to his hotel, he decided to take a shot of my ring in the back of Eric’s car ... going full speed down the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, and it managed to come out like he did it in a perfectly still room!
The next day, we did our shoot as planned, going to Morgan Park in Glen Cove, NY--which was always a special place for me to take photos as it has so much variety--as far as backgrounds go.
We finished up in Long Beach, New York and Zac even managed to get us to “go a little crazy” getting soaking wet in the ocean for some amazing shots!! We finished up by taking a picture on the very bench that we shared our first date, and that Eric eventually proposed to me on ...
It really was an amazing experience and I really can’t say enough about Zac Thomas’ work!
Amazing indeed! Courageous, audacious ... we love every urban and beach-y detail of this weekend-long engagement session! Congratulations to you all three of you on your fun, adventurous session! Interested in learning more about Zac Thomas? Well by all means, learn more about his fearless photography style here...
Congratulations Danielle & Eric!
xo
