Favorites from 2023
Some of my favorite photos from a busy 2023 as a family and lifestyle photographer in Worcester.
Last year was a real hectic year here at Tom Godfrey Photography and for Tom Godfrey general life. My daughter, Eejin, was born in the last weeks of 2022 so 90 percent of 2024 was climbing the often sheer face of the first-time parents learning curve. I also entered into my last semester of graduate school which was great because they saved the most intense work for the end. In October, by far the busiest time of year for any family / lifestyle photographer in New England, I was also trying to conduct interviews, research, and write a 60 page paper on the connection and value of diaspora as seen by second generation Asian Americans. There was not much sleep involved but it’s done! My degree is currently sitting at the top of a pile of stuff in my office that I have yet to sort. Then my wife SiEun, Eejin, and I went to Seoul after the holidays.
This is all to explain why I am posting my favorite photos from 2023 in almost-March of 2024. Here are some of my favorite non-commercial photos from this past year.
2022: A Year in Review
2022 in Photographs
This has been a busy, busy year. In a lot of ways, my business has changed more this year than it has in any year before. This became apparent to me while grabbing photos for this post when I realized just how much of what I photograph is now commercial, real estate, or editorial. Families and family moments, like weddings, are still a huge part of what I do and I am proud of the photographs that I came away with this year. Here are some of my favorite shots. I let a few headshots and houses slide in there but for the most part there are a lot of families and a lot of genuine love. The last two are of my daughter, Eejin, who is one of the reasons why this year was so busy. Here’s to a happy and healthy 2023!
Rebecca and Sean: A Granite Rose Wedding
Rebecca and Sean’s wedding at the Granite Rose in New Hampshire was full love and golden New England foliage. Check out some of my favorite photos from my last wedding of the 2020 season.
Rebecca and Sean were my last wedding of the extremely eventful 2020 wedding season. Their wedding was at the beautiful Granite Rose in Hampstead, NH and was the perfect note to end the year on.
I am always advocating that people hire wedding photographers that they can get along with. A long time ago, I would seek out any client that would hire me regardless of personality. Everyone goes through that phase in anything that they do- hungry for experience and unwilling to turn anything down out of fear that you won’t get another opportunity. As I got more experienced and became comfortable in my own shoes as a photographer, I realized that it’s just better for everybody if you work with clients that you would like even outside of the wedding environment. As a result, most of my business comes from referrals from past awesome clients or from people who see my extremely specific ads on Facebook. Rebecca and Sean were pointed in my direction by their friends Kayla and Daniel and I am so happy that they were because they are exactly the sort of people that I like working with.
The first time that I met Rebecca and Sean was during their engagement session in New Hampshire. There are ALWAYS nerves when you meet people for the first time- particularly when that entails telling them to kiss on command in front of a camera - but it became clear real early on that we all had a similar laidback vibe. We were all go-with-the-flow people and I think that kind of attitude really helped us come up with some great photos as we wandered around space we were shooting at and the lake across the street.
They took this same vibe to their wedding at the Granite Rose. There were the usual masks, space, and precautions but for the most part it was easy to forget about the outside world for a while. I spent the first part of the day bouncing between Rebecca’s prep with her friends and family and Sean’s prep with his groomsmen. Everybody was energetic and ready to go. Their ceremony was lovely and I truly had a blast spending some time with Rebecca and Sean taking photos all over the Granite Rose property. Just like their engagement session, we basically hit gold in terms of New England fall foliage. After an awesome session I headed home happy to have finished the wedding season on a really high note.
Weddings are team efforts. Check out some of the vendors that made this wedding rock! Click their names to visit their sites.
Venue: The Granite Rose by Wedgewood Weddings located in Hampstead, NH. Packages include food, ceremonies and receptions.
Dress Alterations: J Mason Design located in Windham, NH.
DJ: Justin from Main Event Entertainment in Londonderry, NH. Justin killed it and was a blast to work with from a photographer’s standpoint.
If you’re a laid-back couple looking for a laid-back wedding photographer I would love to chat! Fill out the form below and I will send you some info!
Brittany and Ben: The Old Stone Church
Fall weddings in New England are beautiful. You don’t really need more than a nice place with awesome people. Check out some photos from this wedding at the Old Stone Church in West Boylston, MA.
Brittany’s sister reached out to me a couple weeks before Brittany and Ben’s wedding to see if I would be available. Like a lot of people, Brittany and Ben’s plans had changed and they decided to get married at a small ceremony outdoors followed by a nice dinner celebration afterwards surrounded by the people they love.
Their wedding took place at the Old Stone Church in West Boylston in the middle of the fall. The colors were beautiful. I have shot here a million times but this was actually my first wedding here. We had a nice layer of clouds to kill any harsh light coming directly onto us.
Brittany and Ben, along with their families, were awesome. I enjoyed talking to everyone before Brittany arrived and this continued through their ceremony and onto their dinner at O’Connor’s Restaurant in Worcester- a place that I always love.
Everything was relaxed and simple and I think it’s really obvious that weddings in New England don’t have to be complicated to be beautiful.
If you are planning an intimate wedding celebration at the Old Stone Church, O’Connor’s, or any other place then I would love to hear from you!
Holly and Joshua: A Country Wedding
One of the great things about getting married in New England is the sheer diversity when it comes to venues and vibes. Holly and Joshua got married on a working farm in MA and the wedding was distinctively them… and awesome! Check out some photos from their wedding at historic Elm Hill Farm in Brookfield, MA.
Holly and Joshua might be two of the most easy-going and cooperative couples that I have worked with. They were always game to do something a little bit different and most of the time it was their idea to do so. On the day of their engagement session, there was this really intense fog and I was worried that it might be a little less rustic-country and a bit more horror movie than they wanted but they were game. I think by embracing the weather we were able to capture some awesome colors and set a vibe that really fit them well.
So, they’re adaptable. That was key because their wedding fell right, smackdab in the middle of the pandemic. They had to improvise quite a bit but in the end their wedding day was a huge success. It also seemed to be very much THEM.
The prep / ceremony took place at Elm Hill Farm in Brookfield, MA. This is a place that means something to them and that they spend a lot of time at. It is rustic and photogenic but also a working farm. One of the highlights of my walkthrough a couple days before the wedding was talking to the owner when somebody brought up the farm’s Facebook page.
“We have a Facebook page?!”
I love rustic stuff and historical places. I shoot at a lot of barns-turned-venues but you really can’t beat the real thing. Holly and Joshua got ready in an old farmhouse on the property that didn’t really look like it had been changed much over the last 100 or so years. It was really awesome to have this place as a backdrop. I also didn’t see any ghosts, which is always a plus.
Their wedding ceremony took place in front of a huge barn and we got to wander around taking photos afterwards. Their reception took place at their house underneath tents with a ton of food and space to dance with a roaring fire to keep everybody warm and happy after dinner.
Check out some of my favorites!
If you’re a horse person, check out Elm Hill Farm on Facebook by clicking here.
Getting married somewhere unique? I’d LOVE to hear from you!
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