Gina and Rob had a very cold day for an engagement session. They both live out of town and would only be in Buffalo for a few days. We had to shoot no matter what the weather brought. Luckily, they wanted to do some of their photos inside of the Statler in Buffalo. It was perfect, as this is where their wedding reception would take place about a year later!
We had the Statler to ourselves! We were allowed to go pretty much anywhere in the building. We started in the lounge/bar area for portraits. Then we headed into the Golden Ballroom, where their reception was going to be. We wanted to try and get some different angles then what we are able to capture on the wedding day. We never really get to take advantage of the balcony area for photos during a reception. There are windows that line one side of the balcony. It was a perfect location to place the couple for a silhouette style image. We asked one of the workers if we could have the wall sconces turned on. Neal wanted to shoot the image somewhat dark, but have the sconces cast a nice glow in the image. They helped to show detail of the room too. Placing Gina and Rob in the window not only helped with the silhouette, but made them stand out in the photo. There was just enough natural light coming in from the window behind them.
We didn't zoom in too close on the bride and groom to be either. We wanted to show there were two levels and they were on the top. It was perfect that there are sconces right below. The framing was shot to look like a mirror image on both sides. To try and do this on the wedding day would have been really hard, as we would not have control over how the lighting would look. If the couple has uplighting, it is usually just on the lower level.
After shooting inside the Statler, we had Gina and Rob bundle up and we did a few photos in Niagara Square with both City Hall and Statler in the back ground.
Gina and Rob had their wedding ceremony at St. Peter's RC Church in Lewiston, NY. Then we went for photos in downtown Buffalo using some of the gorgeous architecture. It was so great to go back to the Statler where it all began with photos for this couple, now as husband and wife!
Location: 107 Delaware Ave Buffalo, NY 14202.
