I know, I know, I've always been pretty wedding photography oriented, and I've shied away from doing senior portraits. But Ian, you ask, don't you do event shooting, and commercial portraiture and all that? Well, yes, but deep in my past, I started out with a firm that did those assembly line cap & gown shots (I was really hired to shoot the sports and events that were part of our contracts with the schools), and I've never had an appetite for it in the past.

Anyway, recently, Suzi Hjorth from Magnolia Floral Design, whose work you've been seeing little by little as we continue the edit of Ann-Maria & Kevin's wedding, she asked me if I'd consider shooting some senior portraits for her son, now that the cap & gown was out of the way. Well, now that it's a friend asking, that's different. I'll find a way.

I knew when I met Will, that he was probably a little nervous about all this, so I sat down with him, let him noodle around on a piano, while I got an idea of what he was hoping to do. (Mom wanted a shot of him at the piano, so it was double duty, really.) We ended up going to a neighbor's nearby farm, and let me tell you, Will just killed it. He looked like he'd been posing for magazine ads his whole life. Eventually, we also traipsed down to downtown Lexington to get some shots by the graffiti mural on Vine that he'd been hoping to do.

Here's a few from my quick edit tonight:

More after the jump...

One from yesterday's pre-event portrait session at the Henry Clay Estate, Ashland, with Mariska and Billy…

We've re-released all 2011 and 2010 events on Pictage for those of you looking to place an order for Mother's Day. If your event is not available (or you'd like a previous event available), please call at 888.577.6355.

Real Weddings: Rachel & John from Ian Lozada on Vimeo.

The big story of 2011 in our shop started a week before Rachel and John's wedding last year. By now, if you're in Kentucky, you've probably seen an image or two from their wedding in some of our advertising. Well, a week before their wedding, I had one of my camera bodies die on literally the last shot of a wedding. The camera went off to Canon for service, and I rented an extra body from Murphy's Camera in Lexington for Rachel and John's ceremony.  Well, the body I rented, it had HD video capability, so I figured, why not shoot a little test footage while I'm shooting the wedding in my normal fashion?

I have a secret weapon here. My brother Tim, who you might have seen in the music photos from Buster's last year, his primary work is film editing-- he's worked on things like the Ben Stiller movie Keeping the Faith, the first season of Dog The Bounty Hunter, the front half of the PBS series Carrier and he does a lot of work on internet video for people like Unicef and Pepsi. Despite my inability to keep the camera stable, he made something pretty decent out of the above.

Flash forward a little. Since Tim put this together for me, he's acquired a broadcast quality HD camera that's approved for use by the BBC, significantly better than using a DSLR camera like mine, and the microphone equipment to make the audio sound as good as the camera makes the visual look.

So Tim and I have been talking a lot about weddings as a result. Like me, he values a non-intrusive documentary style, and we think that short, concise films of about 15-25 minutes say more about the look and feel of your wedding than a long, drawn out video that shows every single moment of ceremony and reception. Let's face it, that gets tedious on multiple viewings-- just try and get your husband to sit through the whole thing on your second anniversary.

If you haven't guessed by now, Tim and I are going to be forming a second business, Lozada Visuals, which is going to be doing HD wedding films (also vintage style Super 8 films) and film/stills fusion pieces. For the present, that's going to be specific to the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut metro area . If you're interested in hearing more about that, give us a call at 888.577.6355. We'd love to explore the possibilities with you.

My thanks to Melissa Buck and Kellie Stoddart of Seasons Catering and The Signature Club for inviting me to be a part of this event. Didn't really have time to get a camera out and take proper photos, but tried to run a little video during the few and far between spare moments.

Got this one up bright and early since today's a travel day for me… You'll have a pretty good idea how far along I am in the editing process judging by where this group of photos falls-- it's all details from Ann-Maria's prep time.  Make sure you check out the most unique set of wedding shoes I've seen in 5 years of documenting weddings after the jump...

Going to try something a little different this season in the way we handle real weddings posts, with sneak peek images for the week leading up to the full story post.  I may refine this a little over time with one day for details or location, you know, work in progress.

Today's sneak peek image after the jump...

First wedding teaser image of the 2011 season!  Congrats to Ann-Maria and Kevin!

We're a week away from our first wedding of the year, and today is that happiest of days around here-- the two big lenses just arrived from Canon's clean 'n' check service-- it's like having new equipment, really.

Last month, I did an engagement session with Ann-Maria and Kevin, this week's bride and groom, at Talon Winery.  I was really looking forward to this one, but while I was packing the bags that morning, I get a call from our good friend, wedding planner Jackie Lee of Every Last Detail-- it seem the hair & makeup person is down with the flu and we need a replacement on the fly.  We get on Facebook and Twitter, and start crowdsourcing like crazy.  Well, Jackie got a hold of Deata Sexton Gregory from the The Wedding Center (warning for those at work-- website has music autoplaying), who took Ann-Maria in on short notice and did an awesome job with a nice, understated feel on the makeup that was perfect for Ann-Maria.  Can't say enough about the job she did, and it only knocked us about 20 minutes off schedule, too.

Had one adjustment I had to make-- this was mid February, and while it was unseasonably warm (I walked around in a t-shirt!), that didn't mean we had any greenery around.  Your choices were stark… and stark.  I decided to grab some flowers and some fabric ribbon beforehand and quickly put together a couple of bouquets to add just a little splash of color.  It also helped that Ann Maria wore some nice strong colors that helped her stand out against the backgrounds.

The folks at Vonage have screwed up my account somehow since I moved a Long Island phone number to Optimum Voice. I'm temporarily only available at 516.850.6899 until I get this squared away.

UPDATE: Situation resolved. 859.402.0634 is back up and running. I'm gonna go double up on my blood pressure meds now.