Jenna and her big sister, Julia

What I really love are the final results from this session. Mom knew in advance that she wanted a Storyboard with all of Jenna’s little details to match one she had for her first daughter. After putting that together, we decided to make a second storyboard with one photo of each of the three kids. The first we put in an elegant black frame while the second is a float wrap that hangs directly on the wall without a frame.

A nine opening storyboard, custom framed with non glare glass.

10x20 Float Mount Storyboard featuring each of the three children

Edge detail of Float Mount shows how the piece appears to be suspended in air

Thank you for inviting me into your home and lives! I look forward to seeing the children grow and recording their many changes.

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Interested in a family session? Call me, Lori, at 585-678-1905 to set up your session.

I am so incredibly thankful for many things… my husband, my dog, my house, my family and friends. Also, my health, my sight, and my freedom. One of the ways I show my thanks to God and those around me is by giving back in the form of volunteer work.

When I began my journey into the field of photography, I yearned to make a difference through this medium. Although, at the time I pictured myself in foreign lands, organizing relief efforts and donations based on my images…

It has taken several years, but my goals have shifted. I now realize that I do not need to be on the other side of the planet to make a difference through photography. I can make a difference right here in Rochester. I’ve been volunteering for years through my church and other worthy causes, but the one I’m writing about today is the MDA: Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Spotlight on MDA

My relationship with the MDA began last year when I received a phone call asking if I would participate in the local “Lock up” event. If you aren’t familiar with it, people from a community go “behind bars” and must raise “bail” from their network to get out. All of the proceeds are donated to the association in the fight against muscle disease. These events are held nationwide, so there may be one in your area.

At the time, I had just moved to Fairport so I didn’t think I would have many people to call. We had also just bought a house, so our cash flow was significantly pinched. I still wanted to help, so I asked if they could use a photographer. Sally and Lindsay were both very excited about my offer, so I attended the event and took “Jailbird” photos. It was a chance to use my camera and meet other volunteers.

Fast forward, its now May 2012. I receive another call from Sally, asking if I am available to photograph a different event: A Night at the Races. I didn’t know much about it, but it was the eleventh annual fundraising event with a Kentucky Derby theme. I cleared my calendar, and attended. And boy am I glad I did!

Silent Auction on the back deck at Monroe Golf Club

A Night at the Races

On May 5th, Monroe Golf Club was the place to be. Big hats and even bigger hearts! The MDA team made it fun and easy for folks to give with events like a silent auction, live auction, diamond raffle and wine pull. Can you guess which one I participated in? If you guessed wine pull you know me to well.

I was tasked with capturing the setting, the attendees and guests of honor. Everyone I met was just lovely, from the guests to the servers and the other volunteers. Everyone was out to have a good time and raise money for a good cause. And raise money they did!

In addition to donating my time, I’m also offering prints for sale from this event with a portion going back to the MDA. You can make a direct donation by clicking here or you can purchase a photo from the event. 25% of all proceeds will be given to the MDA of Rochester.

Guest of honor, Joe Marinucci, giving his speech

Guest of honor, Joy Parker, giving her speech

Rebecca LeClaire acted as MC for the evenings festivities

Maggie Brooks, second from left, was the guest speaker for this MDA event

Reward

At the end of the night, I left having made new friends, been inspired by speakers Joe and Joy living with a muscle disease, and feeling like I had made a difference. Thats the best reward anyone could ask for. If you would like to donate to this worthy cause, I encourage you to click here to give directly, or purchase a photo from the event where 25% of the proceeds will be given to the MDA of Rochester.

Thank you to Sally and Lindsay for asking me to participate!

Sally and Lindsay, MDA of Rochester, event organizers

To see more photos from the evening, click here.

Last weekend was the celebration to prepare for him: Nicole’s baby shower! I had the honor of designing the invitations, but other than that, this gorgeous event was planned by Kerry, Lyndsey, Maureen and Rachel. They did such an amazing job transforming the Church basement into a pink and black themed party, that I had to share it with you. One of my favorite parts was the “Mocktail” bar, featuring delicious virgin cocktails!

Nicole LOVES pink, which made designing the invitations a small challenge. How do we let people know its a boy while using the chosen color scheme of pink and black? Well, the creative solution came in the way of a poem on the back all about Mr. Landon Parker. The guests figured it out, and Nicole was graced with many monkeys, baseball paraphernalia and books to surround Landon when he gets to his new nursery.

Congratulations Nicole and Matt! Looking forward to getting my lens on –I mean, hands on– Landon Parker!

Custom designed invitations featuring a die-cut edge. The reverse side featured a poem for Landon.

Guests were invited to choose a book and leave Landon a message inside!

Mimi is excited to meet her baby cousin!

Leave a comment with your thoughts, or visit our Portrait Portfolio if you know a family that is expecting!

This opening spread is a scene-setting image taken from the reception. Pittsburgh is a gorgeous city, and on this perfect day I was so glad to be there!

Engagement and Background Story

I must say, Dani is one of my favorite people in this world. (Tim’s a lucky guy!) We met my sophomore year at RIT, while each looking for new roommates. We shared an apartment for the next two years, and one of those lifelong college friendships formed. After school, she moved back to her hometown of Pittsburgh, but we still see each other at least twice a year. I love hearing about her adventures at Heinz (she works in packaging) and she enjoys hearing about my progress as a business owner.

In August of 2010, she married her sweetheart Tim! Wow, its almost two years already. If you followed my blog back then, you might remember the Engagement Session I photographed for them. They are also the ones that did the cool Table Numbers and a custom guest book from these photos. This blog post is part three in their story, as it continues now to the wedding. My husband and I (we tied the knot just 3 months before they did!) attended the wedding as guests. The ceremony was at the historic Heinz Chapel in Pittsburgh, PA followed by a reception-with-a-view at the Le Mont.

I love watching the groom watch the bride. The two top-left images were moments captured from my seat!

Being a Guest at the Wedding

I brought my camera (would you expect otherwise?) with intentions to only take a few photos, and stay out of the professionals way. Honestly, I wanted to photograph the table centerpieces using my photos, and also try to get some unique shots from my seat. I thought it would be a fun challenge to see if I could get anything the main photographer might miss! I think you can say I succeeded. As the moms were escorted down the aisle at the start of the ceremony, I noticed the lead photographer had her back to them once they passed, and was focused on the next pair coming up. The second shooter was off to the side, getting a second view of those entering. From my seat, I could see the altar…. the mom’s were lighting the candles… the photogs weren’t looking. I stood up and took a few shots, knowing they wouldn’t have these moments otherwise. I sat back down, until the bride came down the aisle. I was able to get the coveted shot of the groom looking at her from my seat. That may have just been good luck meets preparation

Here, Dani is showing Tim my photo of the mom's lighting their unity candle.

This was one of my favorite images their photographer captured. I converted it to black and white and used it as the closing image in the album.

Designing the Album

By the end of the day, I was surprised to see I had made over 100 images. I thought nothing of it until nearly a year later, when Dani asked me to design her wedding album, and if I didn’t mind, include some of my images! I was both honored and thrilled to be asked, and gladly accepted! Since Dani purchased the files from her hired photographer, I was able to work with both those images and mine. It took some time to go through them all and familiarize myself with the way the other women worked. I found myself correcting glasses glare, straightening lines, adjusting color balance and cropping.

I appreciated the fact that Dani liked my style enough to really trust me. Sorting through over one thousand images to pick the ~100 best, I was able to take the images (some mine, some not) and apply my sequencing and layout skills to create an album that told their story. I’m extremely pleased with the results, and I don’t think it is obvious which photos are whose. Its not about crediting the work, its about telling a story, and this collection of images does just that. My layouts are very simple with thoughtful use of whitespace, sizing and placement to emphasize important people and moments.

The brides album, lower, and the parent album, upper, had different covers but featured the same layout inside.

The parent album, elegantly packaged.

Delivering the Final Album

Dani and Tim’s album is what I call my Signature Album with a two-tone cover. We produced two duplicate copies of the album, one for each set of parents. These clones were photo books with a photo wrap cover. It was my pleasure to hand deliver these albums, as nothing compares to watching the couple turn the pages and relive their memories for the first time. It was also an excuse to get to see their new home and enjoy the city of Pittsburgh for a weekend!

Dani and Tim viewing their album together for the first time.

I managed to sneak myself into the album since John took a photo of Dani and I on the dance floor.

Thank you Dani and Tim for the honor of creating this heirloom for you and your families. I hope it brings you years of happiness, and I’ll always look forward to the next chapter!

Yes, I photograph weddings, yes, they are a lot of work, and YES I will still photograph yours! Why? because I love them.  It’s come to the point now where I prefer photographing weddings over attending them. Maybe its selfish, but here is how I see the day playing out. I could-

A. I sit in the pew and happily clap for your first kiss. Then eat your delicious food and wait for you to arrive at the reception. Then, I’ll get to say hi for 5 minutes while you busily try to greet all of your guests, and maybe get a dance with the bride or groom.

OR

B. I’m with you while you get ready, watch the ceremony from the all of the best vantage points (visually– for the best photographs!),  Then, I’m excited to spend time laughing with you and the bridal party for formals.  And to top it all off, I’m with you on the dance floor for all of the important moments, dances and toasts.

Which would you choose?  The way I see it, there’s really no discussion involved.  I digress.

So yes, it was my honor AND my privilege to photograph the wedding of Anne and Marc.

The Story

March 21st we left an unseasonably warm upstate NY and headed south for flip flops, sunshine, Disney and oh yeah, a wedding! This wasn’t just any wedding, but the marriage of my cousin Anne to her best friend Marc, aka Marcie.

Yes, this wedding was personal. I sat with cousin Mar-Mar while she wrote her MOH toast after the rehearsal dinner. I danced with my niece and nephew, and even participated in the dollar dance with the groom. Later, I drank a home-mixed  “cabernet-noir” wine with my Aunt Kathy as we reflected on the craziness of the day. I’m honestly surprised we didn’t see tears out of Uncle Ron, but you could tell he was trying his hardest to hold them back.

The family, the memories, the moments, and I was lucky enough to capture it all.  In a word, it was awesome.

Country at heart, this rustic style wedding was planned perfectly. There were beautiful brown & green details, from the dresses to the cowboy boots. The centerpieces, decorations and even the sign in board were all hand made and assembled. The reception had a great view of the river and a beautiful park next door for bridal party photos. The dance floor was packed all night long and it was easy to see that fun was had by all, not excluding myself!

Without further ado, enjoy the pictures and leave a comment with your thoughts!

I love this moment when dad walked in to see his daughter getting ready!

The Who, What, and Where

Ceremony: Our Lady of Lourdes
Reception: Front Street Civic Center
Catering: Renaissance Catering
Baker: Oleander Bakery
Ceremony Musician: Cousin of the Bride
Reception Music: Celebrations DJ
Videography: Duprey Video Productions
Transportation: Geralds Limo
Reception Decorations: Friends of the Bride
Hair Stylist : Garlene
Make up Artist: Sandral

Our first destination wedding, and it couldn’t have been with better people. Thank you to my bestest Erin Perrotta for making this trip with me and helping to capture all of these wonderful moments! I couldn’t have done this without you!

Congratulations and many years of happiness to you both! Love you guys!

It was a huge honor to be asked to make photographs for my alma mater. The CIAS website was undergoing some serious renovations, and they needed photographs of each of the majors within these various departments. The project was time sensitive, as in they needed the photographs yesterday, and pretty broad in scope. I was handed a list of ~50 areas that needed photographs including programs, galleries, labs and facilities.

Over the course of four visits last Fall, I created hundreds of photographs for this project. It’s very exciting to browse the website now and spot one of my images! I can’t take credit for everything, as much of the work featured is by students, faculty and staff as well. But here are a few of mine that I managed to spot while browsing around!

What I loved about RIT then, and what I still love about RIT, is that in one building, you have such a huge variety of talent. From high end sound engineering, to 3D digital rendering, to hands on glass blowing and all forms of art. Being around these talented students was, and still is, inspiring.

The goal here was viewpoints from in the middle of things, not the doorway. I found out later that I was recommended for this job because I was a Visual Media major. This meant I had spent time in the Design and Print Media schools as well as the Photography school. I had also been the Senator Representing CIAS at Student Government, so I was familiar with the other areas as well. This was a job where you really had to be comfortable walking into classrooms and acting like you belonged there. It’s only been a few years, so it wasn’t hard for me to revert back to my college days. If anything, this job really made me miss them! Everything but the homework

I loved the jungle theme in Luke's nursery

Isn't he precious in his hand-made hat and booties?

Mom and Dad holding their little boy

Grandma stopped by to visit while we were photographing!

Such a good sleeper...

More sleeping. Isn't he beautiful?

Holding onto Mommy

Awake we can appreciate his deep, beautiful eyes!

If you would like to see more from this session, head over and “like” our Facebook page. Look for the highlight slideshow called “Luke”! Its worth it

And to Gabriella and Sal, Luke is lucky to have you! You are wonderful people that I have enjoyed getting to know. I wish you nothing but the best, and look forward to watching Luke grow into the little heart throb I know he will be! Thank you for inviting me into your home to capture this precious time for you!

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Interested in a newborn session? Call me, Lori, at 585-678-1905 to set up your session ASAP! Newborns are best photographed between 1-2 weeks of age, so its best to plan ahead.

I am very grateful to be in this situation: writing a note of thanks to the first official intern at Light+Ink. Sara was an asset I didn’t know I needed. A junior at my alma mater, RIT, of course I would take her under my wing. Each week I got to know her a little better. She grew up in Fairport, attended two years at SUNY Oswego, then transferred to RIT to finish her degree. We hoped her dog, Cody, would be friends with my Molley. They had mood swings, but enjoyed chasing each other around the yard every now and then. It kept things exciting in the office, lets put it that way She opened my ears to new music, which was good, because my Pandora list was getting stale. I also found it very nice to have someone to talk to about work, and I think my husband appreciated the break!

So here it is… the story of the first ever internship at Light and Ink with Sara Tiberio.

How it Began

Last October, I was asked by an RIT professor to speak to a class of Visual Media students about what I do. It was a round table discussion, with about 7 professionals and maybe 25 students. The students were broken into groups, and prepared questions for each of the guests. We had 10 minutes with each group for Q&A. The most common questions were, “How did you get started?” “What advertising do you do to get clients?” “What did you love about RIT?” and “Did you intentionally not put your name on your resume?” haha… the last one made me laugh. I hadn’t used a resume since I started my own business, so I went back and edited an old one. I put my new logo at the top replacing my old “Lori Duprey” logo. I never thought to put my new name! Oh well, the smart ones figured out my name.

But the most interesting question I got was, “Can I work for you?”

That made me do a double take. Huh? I stammered out a… “Hmm, maybe.” I thought about it later, I am only two years out of her shoes, what could I offer this person? Not photo skills, she gets that in class. Business skills… ahh yes, thats something RIT never taught me. To this day, I feel like I am in the middle. I myself am still learning from photographers I admire, new skills, new ways of working. But I have come from somewhere, and have learned a lot in the last few years. There are people with less experience and knowledge about this industry than me. Yep, I am somewhere in the middle, and I was presented an opportunity to help bring someone up a level.

My portrait of Sara was made with off-camera flash to keep detail in the sky and her face.

The next day, I got an email. She was serious, she wanted to work for me! This was new territory, so I called a friend in the RIT Co-op office to get some advice. I then quickly drafted an internship agreement, arranged a meeting with the interested party, and hired my first intern!

How it Worked

We met on Mondays at 1pm throughout the winter semester. She came to my studio armed with a laptop, notebook and camera. We agreed that we would help each other. Together, we crossed some pretty big projects off of my wish list. I gave her tasks that would help her learn more about running and operating a photography business. She assisted me on a few photo shoots, packaged some client orders, helped write content for the Fusion Wedding Guide, helped plan and implement our Christmas specials and much more. If she sounds familiar to you, you may have seen her photo tip blog posts. Create a Unique Portrait for your Holiday Cards and Blurring the Background were hers, as well as one to come about ISO.

We also spent a couple of days shooting. We photographed each other while practicing certain scenarios and set ups. She photographed some products for the website and example images for the photo tips. The most fun shoot was the last day, it was February, yet 50 degrees out. A very windy day, it didn’t feel like 50, but we played outdoors with some flashes and the sun. This image came from that brief session, before we headed back indoors to warm up with some hot cocoa.

Each week she had different things to work on. Usually, they were accomplished in the studio, but she also did some writing and research on her own time. I taught her some tricks in Photoshop, and she showed me some in Lightroom. It was a good system, and I enjoyed working, teaching, and learning from Sara.

The Result

As we approached the end of the semester, I asked Sara to write a list of things she had learned and what she still hoped to learn. I was pleasantly surprised at the length of the “Things Learned” column! Here I am, with no teaching experience, teaching. Really, all I did was try to verbalize why I do the things I do. It actually helped me sometimes to say things out loud, as it would either confirm my madness, or expose it for what it really was. I didn’t sensor much, it was not my goal to make things seem easier or harder than they were. I just put it on the line at face value.

I also looked at the wish list, and crossed those things off too. I showed her my strategies for lighting with flash, explained how Erin and I work together at weddings, and gave her tips for finding the direction she wants to go in. Sara is most passionate about photographing bands and live shows. We chatted about the pros and cons of that division of the industry, and I encourage her to follow her heart. So hey, if you’ve read this far, and you know any bands looking for some sweet photography, tell them to check out this artist named Sara Tiberio. They won’t regret it.

Our Monday meetings may be complete, but don’t be surprised if you still see Sara around every now and then.  Be sure to say hi, and wish her well as she  finishes her degree.

And to Sara, thanks for everything! I look forward to watching as your story unfolds and you figure out the direction to go in. More shooting together, and of course, more playtime for Molley and Cody