NYC Portrait Photographer :: West to East, with Friends in Between (NYC Portrait Photographer)

About a year ago, I was perusing a friend’s Facebook photos and noticed a photo from a wedding he attended. I clicked on the link to the photographer, Heather Kincaid, and spent the next few hours reading all of her blogposts. I was intrigued, someone my age, having that much fun, taking gorgeous photos…I had to know more! She referenced her good friend and fellow photographer, Meg Perotti a lot…so I spent another day reading her blog from start to finish; coincidentally, Meg went to the same high school that my best friends mom teaches at, and even had her as a teacher. I added them to my google reader, and kept up to date with their blogposts. A few months later, Heather started blogging about a trip she took with a bunch of photographers…A Traveling Heart, they called themselves. I immediately added them all to my google reader, and spent the next year feeling more inspired and excited about pursuing photography as a career, instead of a hobby.

One of the girls, Mary Frances of Floataway Studios, became a fast favorite of mine. I watched all of her videos, gawked over her photos, and just plain admired this girl. When she tweeted that she’d be in NY in April (this month) I responded to her…and then she replied back…and so on for a few weeks. She was coming to NY with 3 other female photographers, all of whom’s blogs I followed, Nessa of Nessa K Photography, Julie of Julie Harmsen Photography, and Jill of Jill DeVries Photography. And, they would all be staying with me.

Mary and I skyped a week before they arrived, I felt like I had known her forever, she had such a sweet disposition and was incredibly personable…it’s hard to get that feeling through video chat, but she did.

The terms were, they could stay with me, and in return they would photograph me. I have no professional photos of myself, and what better way to get that out of the way, than to have 4 professional photographers take them? There is no better way. We had such an awesome time together, touring the city, photographing everything, and even bowling, dancing, and rocking out at the Brooklyn Bowl on a stormy Tuesday night. We ran in the rain for 15 minutes to the nearest subway…soaking, but laughing the entire way. The rest of that night was unforgettable, and I will cherish that memory.

One of the places we visited was the Ace Hotel and Stumptown Coffee Roasters, both gorgeous places to shoot…My favorite was the basement of the Ace, it was like a retro music basement from the 70′s.

Mary also made this amazing stop motion video of their time here…I make a small cameo in the last 10 seconds, jumping up behind her

Here are some of the photos I took this week: