Nicole and James Long Island NY with Angelica!

A couple weeks back I headed out to shoot Nicole and James' wedding out on Long Island with my friend, and AMAZING photographer, Angelica Glass. If you aren't familiar with Angelica's work you have to check it out, she is a true artist. Her work is so true to who she is, very cool to see that authenticity.
I got to New York City on Thursday evening and immediately headed into town to a couple of bars that I was not even close to cool enough to be in lol! I kept looking around and thinking "I remember the 80's and this is more '80's than the '80s were!" We also ate at some BBQ place that really did a number to my gut, it took me over a week to get over that food poisoning! Good times, right? Gotta love being super sick 2,500 miles from home and having to shoot a wedding!
Well, the good news, besides the fact that I felt okay for the wedding day, is that Nicole and James ROCKED! They were such an hot couple and truly in love with each other. Funny thing; they met because of a prank phone call, how great is that! They were totally down to shoot whatever we wanted and were not shy about their vices at all...quite a refreshing change from all those who go sneak a cigarette out back haha!
One fun fact about me shooting this wedding (for any tech geeks out there); I shot the entire wedding with my 1DsMKII, a 50L 1.2 lens, a set of pocket wizards and a 580 flash! Lol, I've always wanted to just shoot an entire wedding with just one focal length!

Great dress, great shoe, beautiful bride; what more could I ask for!?


This picture really sums up the weather, it was a cold day!


Nicole figuring out her dress




Yeah, nice to have good looking grooms too :)










With the cold, finding a good spot for the guys was tough but we made it work


I tried to adapt my style a bit so it would work better with Angelica's


Beautiful details! You should have seen how much food there was. It was like, eat, dance, eat, dance, eat, dance and on and on!


In addition to his day job as a banker, James and his buddies all do a bit of DJ'ing so the company brought in quite a setup, it was rocking!


Every had a great time. I had to throw in the groomsmen dancing, too funny! They were a great group.


I had to throw in some Colin Michael style while I was there :)


Thanks to Nicole, James and their families for being so gracious. And a huge thanks to Angelica for flying me out to shoot with her, can't wait to do it again!

New Site!!!

Okay, I went underground for the past week and finally got my website update done... Yay, what a relief to be done!
If you haven't seen it, check out ColinMichaelPhoto.com and see the new design. Many thanks to my friends at Big Folio (especially Jeff, thanks Jeff!) for all their help getting switched over to this new design.
I chose to organize my images there in a totally different way and added in some new content. I think the design is much more dynamic and showcases my work better. I also added in an Engagement/Day After and Boudoir sections as I'm always shooting those but didn't put up a lot of it as I already had 100's of images up. There's so many great images from all my awesome couples that I had to make some room!
Over the next few months I will add many more new images so check back often as with my new site it is so much easier to add in new content!

Family Photos

One of my projects for this wedding "off-season" is to shoot much more commercial work so I had to clean up my studio to get it ready for some larger set shots. I finished cleaning it out on Thanksgiving morning so Steph started bugging me about doing some studio shots of the family. I was trained in the studio at Brooks Institute of Photography some years ago and while I apply my lighting knowledge to all my work, I generally stay away from standard studio family shots. But I have to admit, there is a certain appeal to shooting like this! Don't worry though, I'm not giving up my fashion/photojournalism anytime soon! Here were a few of my favorites.

Desiree and Chris' Carmel Wedding

I've been so lucky with rain...I guess my streak had to end some time! I've had it rain just after we finished shooting and I've had it pouring while everyone was getting ready but this time my luck ran out! Not to fear, Desiree and Chris were so awesome and it hardly even bothered them! Luckily, we made it through the ceremony and had just started the family photo's when it started really coming down. Of course I was prepared with umbrellas and all my lighting equipment so we jumped back into a hallway (there weren't a whole lot of covered areas at Rancho Canada Golf Course!) and went to work. Of course as soon as we finished the rain stopped! lol At least it let me get some use from the umbrella's that normally just sit in my trunk!
Thanks Desiree and Chris, you guys totally kept your cool and were so great to work with! Can't wait to do our "Day After" shoot next week!

Sophie and Brian's Carmel Wedding Photo's

This was just good times!
At the beginning of November I traveled up to Carmel Valley to the beautiful Gardiner's Resort for Brian and Sophie's wedding. November is such an odd time in California because you never know if it will be warm, cold, sunny or raining! Oddly enough, we got warm and rain! The other thing about this time of year is that plants and gardens tend to be out of their prime. However, I was amazed at how beautiful the staff at Gardiner's keep the grounds! I'm not normally a flower picture kind of guy but it was just beautiful and amazing to see at this time of year.
Now, for those that remember from their engagement session, Brian and Sophie are biologists from the Monterey area and Brian is a great bird photographer. Sophie's actually originally from Belgium by way of Mississippi (I knew that rhyme I learned in 3rd grade to spell Mississippi would come in handy sometime!). Brian is originally from New Jersey so pretty much everyone traveled quite a distance for their wedding! Both their families and all their friends were so much fun, great people all around. We had a great time and the rain held off (mostly) until the reception started so that was perfect!.I went out in the rain at night to get some night shots of the venue that I think are kind of cool. Besides, I need to give my tripod a workout every now and then!
Thanks Brian, Sophie and your families for making me feel so welcomed! And thanks to David Lee who did a great job helping me shoot!

Stephanie and Blake's Santa Cruz Mountain Wedding

This past August I was on my way up to some meetings and a commercial shoot in San Francisco when my friend Sara called me up to see if I could help her out with Stephanie and Blake's wedding in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Having grown up just a few miles from the venue I just couldn't say no! It was a beautiful and very warm day up on the summit. I do find that I'd much rather be the primary than the secondary photographer but I do think it's fun to try to emulate the other photographer's style so the client gets images that really work together.
Stephanie and Blake are a great couple and very gracious, I especially enjoyed that blue shot that is in the picture below, that was delicious! lol