creative philadelphia documentary wedding photographers

winter engagement photography teaser- Nicole Polk

Nicole — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:59:29 +0000

Ok, I still have other things to blog before this shoot, but I got so excited to shoot out in all this snow I wanted to share a quick image I was working on to help get rid of my winter blahs. Shoots like this will help me get through till spring! Next week I have an e session with a couple on skis! No need to wait till things are blooming for an e session with snow like this

Destination wedding photos

Erik — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 02:11:05 +0000

Last summer I met Lindsay while photographing Jen and Todd’s wedding. Lindsay is a great makeup artist! I met with her towards the end of the summer about photographing her wedding in Jamaica!

I feel good each time I am asked to photograph a couples special day, but I was SO excited to have been trusted so much that they had to take me with them to Montego Bay.

After meeting with Chad and Lindsay – I was even more excited, as the wedding and reception was held at the all inclusive, 5 star resort – Iberostar Rose Hall Suites.

Destination weddings are a lot of work – not only for me, but for everyone involved and attending. It means taking a full weekend (or more) off and lots of travel and commitment. That makes it so much more special when you have over 60 people there with you!

Since I was in Jamaica for a few days after the wedding, I suggested to Lindsay and Chad that we walk around for a little while for a day after session. They were both really excited and ready for it.

Take a look at some pictures from the day and be sure to check out the slideshow at the bottom.

Jeff Dietz Photography – Places in International Print Competition (ISPWP) – Scranton, PA

Jeff — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:45:45 +0000

Hello everyone

I am happy to announce that today it was released that two more of my images placed in the International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers image competition.

The images are listed below. You will also see that the wedding of Jane & Mike was featured in their real wedding section as well, which you can read here.

Enjoy! Oh and by the way. The new website is being switched over as we speak! Should be any time now!

RECEPTION CATEGORY: Taken at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, PA

FAMILY LOVE CATEGORY:

the evolution of me – Nicole Polk

Nicole — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 22:17:33 +0000

So, today (January 25th) is my 30th birthday and it has me reflecting on the life I’ve lived so far and the life I want to live from here on out. This self reflection is not spurred solely on the idea of entering my thirties, it’s been an ongoing project of mine for some time, but this feels like an appropriate time to post a little bit about it. I’m finding as I turn 30 that I’m more interested in learning than ever before – about myself, life, love, art, and all sorts of other stuff. This has become so important to me both in terms of my personal and business life. I’d like to share one project that I have done in conjunction with a continuing class of sorts stemming from Jesh de Rox’s Life (as an Artform) workshops. I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to continue learning and growing in this community of people who have beautiful hearts. They have provided a safe haven for us all to learn from each other and grow more with each passing week. This assignment in particular has struck a chord with me because it challenged me to really look at how I’d like my life to be on the whole and how I’d like others to see me. In short, we had to write the blurb on the back of a book that would be our biography. Here is what I came up with:

It’s impossible to sum up a life in a few hundreds pages. Aptly named, “An Intimate Portrait” is just a glimpse at the life of Nicole. An explorer of light and love, perfectly imperfect, a collector of moments – these are just a few phrases to describe Nicole. She brought passion to a great many interests in her life – art, music, snowboarding, friends and family. Photography was a great vehicle to express the beauty she saw in the world. Beauty in people, relationships, new life, nature, and simple pleasures in life have been captured both with her camera lens and pastels. She was fascinated by light and color, not only in the world, but also in her subjects. Most interested in capturing emotion and innate beauty, she lives on in the artwork created for her clients that has been passed down generation to generation. Though she achieved success with her artwork, it is her journey of self discovery and exploration of life through her artwork that was most important to her. She learned to “unlearn” to experiment and imagine, pushing herself outside her comfort zone and overcome fears to truly embrace all experiences in life. She failed at things in her life with grace and humility and learned from those experiences to grow further. She learned that life is hard and complicated, but sublime in both its pain and joy. A favorite quote of Nicole’s by Anais Nin wonderfully describes this turning point in her journey. “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” She believed the infinite and the invisible held the most important lessons in life. She believed life’s magic was in genuine experiences, physical and emotional experiences in life. It was her life’s greatest success not in touching the lives of many in some small way, but greatly impacting the lives of those she loved.

So, there is just a little tiny taste of my journey so far. My birthday wish is to throw myself fully into all I experience this year, play more, not to let fear guide my actions, and continue to learn all I can so that I may someday be able to pass on that knowledge in some form or other. And since no post is fun without pictures, I’d like to share my self portrait that I took at the last life (as an artform) workshop I hosted this past fall. I did another self portrait during last years workshop as well.

Chesapeake Hyatt Cambridge Maryland **Mark Gardner

markgardner — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:47:33 +0000

See more of Mark’s work at his website Mark Gardner Photography

Christian (+ Otto) – Philadelphia portrait photographer – Nicole Polk

Nicole — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:40:19 +0000

I got to photograph this little guy and his beautiful companion this fall right in his beautiful backyard. Christian is a rough and tough boy through and through, more content to play with sticks than toys, we had a ball traipsing around the wooded yard. I can’t wait to photograph him again when he rides Otto like a horse! I had such a hard time picking favorites for the blog, so here is a rather large smattering of images of the shoot!

Megan + Kevin {Wedding} *Cindy Guessford

Cindy — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 22:05:29 +0000

There are certainly some things that inspire me more than others. Usually before a wedding I will prep in my own mind the little details about my clients and their personalities that I surmise through their e-session and correspondence. From there I pretty much show up and let inspiration come through the elements of the day. Well, for Megan and Kevin’s wedding, inspiration floated through the air like tiny unseen particles and landed everywhere! Megan’s details were so beautiful and artistic and she had a hand in putting together a lot of them. The flowers were exotically adorned with feathers and Megan herself radiated this timeless yet super cool vision. The girls were not only chic and glamorous but also can I say FUN! They all totally rocked out their portraits and mom got to jump in and partake in some city fun as well. Don’t worry, the guys had their fair share of owning the camera =) It’s always a pleasure for me when I suggest locations or ideas and the response is let’s do it! We are all yours! I can not say enough nice things about the way that both Megan and Kevin and their family and friends made Val and I feel, so welcome and artistically free and excited to document the events of the day. So, suffice it to say that despite the utter chill in the air the warmth of love, family and friends surely won tonight! Congrats to you both and thank you, thank you, thank you for hanging with us today and for the bottles of wine! Yes, Kevin, the Merlot was a very yummy choice =)

Philadelphia Wedding @ Franklin Institute *Mark Gardner and Jeff Dietz

markgardner — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:07:16 +0000

Megan + Kevin {Engagement} *Cindy Guessford

Cindy — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:05:43 +0000

Megan will say the Jimmy Dean, their pug, stole the show and Kevin will say that Jimmy only listened to the commands accidentally =) Regardless, I say that I love when I’m able to just wander the streets getting to know my clients and seeing the “before photo session anxiousness” melt away into a fun experience of enjoying the moments. Megan pretty much left it in my hands for locations and both her and Kevin were up for anything. I can’t stress enough how important trust is when photographing or being photographed. This session really set the stage for the images to be captured on their wedding day. I’m thankful to have clients like Megan and Kevin and I’m excited to share these images as well as the ones from their amazing wedding!

Updates and News from Jeff Dietz Photography

Jeff — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 06:45:00 +0000

Soooooooo. Ok I know it has been a while since I have blogged, but BOY has it been a busy time lately. I wanted to make a quick post to update you on a few things that have been happening as well as a few teasers of things to come.

MYSTIC 5 – Mystic, CT

This past week I had the pleasure of going to Mystic, CT to learn even more from some of the best wedding photographers in the world. It was great to see photographers again like Jerry Ghionis from Australia, AltF from Las Vegas, David Williams from Australia, DQ Studios, and two time Pulitzer Prize Winner Greg Gibson. It’s really exciting to go to an event several states away and have people recognize me from my work. It was also great chillin with the Circle of 8 group for the week and seeing a lot of old faces.

More importantly is the inspiration that I have come away with from attending. I have several new projects in the works and new ideas for how I want to photograph going into the 2010 wedding season. I can’t wait to get started!

Charitable Project

I am working hard with a large name charity (to be announced later, shhhh), to start a very important charitable project. I can’t go into too many details about it at this time, but I can tell you that it is going to be very cool and I believe will have a large impact locally and nationally as we grow the scope of the project. Stay tuned for more information about this project and how you can get involved!

Weekender Model of the Week

Just a note that you can continue to see my work published each week in the Times Leader: Weekender Model of the Week.

New Website!!

The brand new website is almost complete! I hope to be able to launch it some time this coming week. It is a new site built from the ground up with the wedding couples in mind. You will be able to see my past weddings and even be able to see what vendors the couples used for their weddings. Since I have the priveledge of working with some of the best vendors around, it will make a great resource for you while you are planning your wedding.

2010 Dates

2010 dates are flying fast! There are still spots left and I would love to photograph your wedding! So make sure you give me a call or email and get your wedding booked asap.

TEASERS

I have a few new things on the horizon that I can’t yet speak about but are going to be very exciting! Here are a few hints:

- The introduction of Fine Art Prints

- A better solution to 8×10 prints

- An Engagement Session like you have never seen before!

- The Fashion Bridal Session

- Albums explained. Why they are so important and why a photographer is doing you a disservice if they do not take care in producing this priceless heirloom for you.

- And much more!

2010 is going to be a really fun year and I can’t wait to get started. I can’t wait for the warm weather to whip around especially so that we can get back outside creating awesome photos!

I encourage you to make 2010 your best year yet!