A Lovely Mess: Paint Smash Session
Paint smashes are adorable when they happen on seamless backdrop paper in a studio and not in your house. Check out some fun photos from my first ever paint smash session!
Every family session I do is different because every family is different. Offering family sessions in Worcester and the surrounding communities means that one day a family session might be in front of Worcester City Hall, on one of the famous Elm Park bridges, or at the mill at Moore State Park in Paxton. Sometimes, it’s at the studio in front of some white paper.
One of the fun things about being a family photographer is that there are so many different themes to use as a tool to deliver memorable moments and big smiles in the photographs that we take. Cake smashes, park sessions, Christmas tree farm sessions, lifestyle- if you can think of it there is probably some photographer offering it as a mini-session somewhere.
Recently, a longtime client asked about a paint smash session. I have been working with Bryanna since shortly after I set up shop here in Worcester. I started off photographing kids and families at the Easter Bunny Breakfasts that she organized at Texas Roadhouse and continued through cake smashes, lifestyle sessions, extended family portrait sessions and now… paint smashes.
Full disclosure, Bryanna and her mom, Elaine, bring the set design to a borderline professional level. I realized this when I saw how much care that went into the Easter Bunny photo area and this was pretty much confirmed when it came time for our first cake smash. This, combined with Bryanna’s willingness to go for something new really makes her more of a collaborator than a client so I am always pumped when I get a message from her.
Her family is super photogenic, so it’s a win / win for me when it comes the ol’ portfolio.
Paint smash sessions are definitely not for the squeamish. They are messy as heck but are a blast to photograph. It was also super endearing to see these two brothers having some fun together. Check out some photos from Bryanna’s session:
Interested in a paint smash for your little one (or you, I won’t judge)? Use the form below and I will get in touch with session and pricing info ASAP!
2020: A Year in Photographic Review
2020 was a strange year but I took a lot of photos because life goes on. Check out my favorite photo from every session that I shot last year. From family sessions to a bride and groom jumping into the pool in full dress. It’s all here.
I always try to keep things pretty optimistic and cheerful on my site so forgive me when I say that 2020 was a big pile of garbage. I think that sentiment is pretty universal. It was a struggle to just stay afloat for a lot of us who were forced to close up shop for long periods of time. Businesses that were run by people smarter than me didn’t make it through because of things that were beyond their control. Lacking a ton of overhead and being married to my second photographer, I was able to survive by curling up into a fetal position with my camera popping up as regulations allowed. The efforts to support small businesses like mine were huge.
A few days ago I started going through all of my sessions during 2020 and I was reminded of why I do this. Life goes on. There was the pandemic, yes, but there were also marriages, adoptions, trips to the park, and engagements. Silver linings in the cloud are what you live for during hard times, right?
Very often my favorite photo from a session will not be the one that gets printed and framed. It will be a moment of tenderness when nobody knows that the camera is on them or it will be some hilarious moment when a kid crosses a line and is just done with the session. Photos without a story can be pretty but that’s not what I am into. If people wanted that anymore then we would still be loading into the car and going to Sears.
Below are my favorite photos from every session from the last year that was not a studio headshot or real estate shoot. I have a lot to be thankful for even during a year that went so so wrong for everyone. Thank you to all of my 2020 clients!
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!
Amy and Dan: A Long Road
2020 wedding couples had to deal with more than their fair share of turmoil and none more than Amy and Dan. Check out this spectacular wedding they put together in a matter of weeks after their plans fell through.
This is a long one but there’s a good pay off.
Working in the wedding industry is unique because we work with our clients for a longer period of time than, say, a family portrait photographer. Eight or nine months is probably the minimum amount of time I work with my wedding clients. During this time there is a lot of communication and back-and-forth, engagement sessions and brainstorming. For a photographer like me who is really into documentary photography this is super important. The rapport that I build with my couples lets all of us feel a bit more comfortable around each other and lets me capture an authentic story.
Amy and Dan have been my clients for a while. I was trying to remember when Amy and Dan booked me and I had to dig in my closet to find their contract because it was long enough ago that my filing system had changed. Being a responsible business owner I re-organized my old filing system by putting it in the back of my closet. 10/25/2018 was our contract signing and their wedding on 9/12/2020. They booked me with my wife, SiEun, as a second photographer because it was important for them that we captured the story in a way that’s not really possible for a solo photographer. They pretty much had all of the big parts planned with their big day happening at MAJOR MA VENUE. I’m intentionally vague there- a post-wedding blog wouldn’t be this long if there wasn’t a good story.
Fun fact- Amy and Dan met in a wedding tent at an event they were both working. They told me this at our first meeting at Starbucks. You can actually see them tell their love story as part of Worcester Wares (an awesome local business) by clicking here.
Shortly after our contract signing I photographed their extended family at the Farm at Summit Wynds, a local farm that sells all sorts of great stuff, has been raising show horses since the mid-60’s, and is extremely photographer friendly with fields of lavender, sunflowers and other beautiful things. Remember this place- it becomes important later.
I’m not going to lie- I was a little bit nervous for this family session. I’m confident in my skills but you always want to make a great impression on people that you know you will be working with again. It was all great, though. Amy’s family was awesome and it was fun to see four generations who were pumped to be together. It’s also relatively rare that I meet that many of the big players before the big day, so we all got a few bonus points in the way of comfort.
A lot of time went by and the next summer brought Amy and Dan’s engagement session at Scarborough Beach in Narragansett, RI. This is their go-to beach so it was both a beautiful place for photos as well as meaningful to their relationship. We spent an hour or so climbing over rocks, sitting in the sand, and eventually (them) going all in and letting the surf crash over them. It was fun. What’s the point, otherwise? I mean that. All jobs can be difficult but it’s important to have moments when you can smile and forget you’re on the clock.
That was late summer, 2019. Everything was all lined up and my wife and I were all ready to go!
Then 2020 hit the fan.
Man oh man. Industries all across the board took a beating. Those of us in the wedding industry took huge hits during what should have been our busiest season. Most of my clients opted to postpone. Several adapted to smaller celebrations. Every last one of my clients was open about their plans and worries and we all did our best to keep up with guidelines. We were really all in this together. Amy and Dan’s plans changed and their guest-list, like everybody else’s, shrank but they were determined to see it through.
For the most part, wedding industry folks were doing their best to help their clients, follow regulations, and go out of their way to keep others afloat. Almost everyone was looking out for everyone else except for a select few who must have missed about a thousand memos. About a month before Amy and Dan’s wedding I saw the first post.
“Did you guys here what happened at MAJOR MA VENUE?”
Soon enough it was all over the news.
“MAJOR MA VENUE hosts hundreds of guests at weekend weddings in the middle of a pandemic, violating all the guidelines.”
I remember sitting on my couch, facepalming and saying, “oh sh*t.”
The fallout was huge. Wedding industry folks who had been following health guidelines and were barely making ends meet were livid at a venue that ignored it all knowing the impact it could have. As expected, what happened at this venue was cited as one of the reasons why the governor of MA added even more restrictive rules to events and venues.
All couples getting married after this incident had extra stress to deal with. Couples like Amy and Dan who were supposed to get married AT the place got extra stress. While most (including me) would have shut down in despair, Amy and Dan said “f*&^ it, let just plan another wedding.”
So, a week or so later Amy, Dan, SiEun and I met for a drink at the Seven Saws Brewing Co. in Holden to go over the plan that was beginning to hatch. Amy and Dan had hit the ground running and by the time their big day came everything was falling into place to such a ridiculous degree that you would be forgiven for thinking the original wedding was a decoy.
We started off at Amy’s parents’ beautiful house in Holden. Now, I love doing prep photos at houses because that’s where people are comfortable. I stuck with Amy for most of the time and SiEun was hanging with the guys. One of the things issues you run into with photographing at houses is lighting is sometimes not great. Well, this is not the case when the house belongs to Marie who happens to owns Window Designs Etc. Lighting became a non-issue. Side-story: at one point I was struggling to close a blind and while my self-esteem plummeted Marie said, “Wait a minute, Tom. Watch this.” She then opened her phone and closed the blind with an app.
From there SiEun and I headed out to the first look spot. Amy and Dan wanted somewhere local and beautiful and conveniently they knew just the place. Fun fact- the Farm at Summit Wynds lets you rent areas of their farm for photoshoots. This includes their massive sunflower field. In a way it felt really appropriate that we were doing their first look photos in the place where we all first did photos together.
From here we headed back to Amy’s parent’s house for the ceremony. It was smaller than they had planned but it was beautifully arranged. Their backyard was level, green, and played the part of wedding ceremony venue exceptionally well. It was a beautiful ceremony and to finally see that after a pretty intense journey made me - their wedding photographer - very happy. I can only imagine that was the case ten times over for their families.
After this, SiEun headed over to the reception venue while I stayed and photographed the now traditional Wedding Car Parade. I actually really like this- I hope some form of it stays a a thing even after all of this is over.
Finally, we all drove to Amy’s sister’s house where there was a huge tent (I think I mentioned Amy and Dan spent a lot of time together in the event industry?) killer cheese spreads, and a traveling brick oven pizza truck that made some of the best pizza I’ve ever had. The DJ was great and those who chose to dance had a blast while others spent time hovering around a roaring fire. You can see their wedding video- made by Nicole Paquette Photography - by clicking here.
Amy and Dan’s wedding was a huge success on a lot of levels. They pulled off an A level wedding in less than a month. I mean, who does that? It had a meaningful ceremony and everyone seemed to have an awesome time right up until that last song. It hit all the benchmarks of a professionally planned wedding but more than that it was definitely an effort of love. Throughout the entire process I saw Amy and Dan’s family and friends all around them giving love, lending backyards, and just doing their best to make this day happen. Amy and Dan and everybody else really rolled with the punches and I was really proud to be a part of this- thus the 10 page blog post.
Check out some of my favorites from this one:
Amy and Dan had awesome vendors and I loved working with them. Amy’s parents probably won’t be renting out their house for bridal prep but check out Window Designs Etc. by Marie Mouradian if you’re looking to update your window fixtures. Click the links to learn more about the other vendors at Amy and Dan’s wedding.
First Look Venue: The Farm at Summit Wynds in Jefferson, MA
Hair: Vanessa Freitas Hair & Beauty in Worcester, MA
Make-Up Artist: Beauty by Carson Elaine
Videography: Nicole Paquette Photography (Note- Nicole isn’t offering wedding videography anymore but she is still offering photography)
Day-of Coordinator: Feathered Events in Barre, MA
Amy’s Dress: Designed by Justin Alexander, from Elizabeth Ann’s Bridal Boutique in North Auburn, MA
Alterations: Holden Tailors and Alterations in Holden, MA
Dan’s Suit: Rocco’s Gentlemen’s Clothing in Worcester, MA
Floral: Berg Florist in Worcester, MA
Music: Tc’s Disc Jockey svc. in West Springfield, MA
Tent and Rentals: Michael’s Party Rentals in Palmer, MA
Pizza: Anzio’s Brick Oven Pizza in Northborough, MA (holy $*@& this was good)
Cheese Spread: Pecorino Cheese Shop in Grafton, MA
Cakes and Pies: The Bean Counter Bakery Café in Worcester + Shrewsbury, MA
If you’re getting married and love roller coasters of emotion I’d love to hear from you! Fill out the form below and I will send you some info.
Tom’s Blog:
Pictures are worth a thousand words but check out what goes on behind the scenes during my sessions.