Two Sticks Studios – Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Poconos Wedding Photographers » Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Poconos Wedding Photography, Senior Photography and Portrait Photography

The directions went a little like this. Take a right at the light, go a little while and you’ll see the castle.

OK, so that’s a right and then look for the castle. Got it. Seemed simple enough. I’m in the middle of New Milford. How hard can it be to find a castle. Harder than you might expect. Bob was in front of me as we were driving and looking for it, and he missed it. I seriously only caught it out of the corner of my eye. But there it was in a backyard – a replica of a Scottish castle called Valhalla built by Ron Hall. Now Ron’s an interesting cat. Turns out his ancestors are from Scotland and at some point he got the idea that he wanted to build a castle in his backyard as some type of nod to his ancestry. It also turns out the mountain behind Ron’s house has a lot of rocks. So for the 27 YEARS, Ron would take his wheelbarrow up the mountain and he would pick rocks and bring them down to his house. One at a time, he built Valahlla. Now you might ask, why didn’t he use a tractor or something along those lines to haul the rocks. In my brief conversation, I learned Ron is no dummy – crazy maybe – but not dumb. He would have preferred to use a tractor but the hill was too steep. So a wheelbarrow it is. I should also point out Ron didn’t use anything other than rocks. This place is just one stone stacked on another, stone, stacked on another. He repeated that process about a billion times. It’s freakin’ amazing!

But there is a point to this story – as if you needed more. We were there to do engagement photos for Emily and Jordan. Emily was actually the one who said, let’s do the photos at the castle. I had no idea what she was talking about but what the hell, let’s do it. Sounds cool. It totally was. Nice call Emily. We had a great place to do the photos and hang out for a couple hours and we met maybe the most interesting guy I will meet all year in Ron. All in all, a pretty great day.

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I guess I can’t really call him a wedding crasher. I mean he was dressed nicely, with a good suit. He didn’t really cause any problems. The sneakers were a little bit of a weird thing. The blue fur was definitely odd, but I like odd so that was OK, too. And hell, he could dance! Welcome to Jennifer and Andy’s wedding, Champ! The Scranton/Wilkes-Barres Railriders‘ lovable mascot dropped in for a dance with the bride and groom and pretty much everyone else over the weekend at the Radisson. It was awesome! I’ve been doing this long enough to know that when a seven-foot -tall pile of blue fur hits the floor, the party is about to get real.

This dude can work a room. Champ cut it up for awhile with Jennifer and Andy . He posed for some selfies. (Apparently mascots like selfies too.) He danced with all of the kids. It was such a cool moment in a day filled with them. Here are a few shots of Champ bringing the party to a whole new level!

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Somewhere laying around my house is a book that was really really popular like 20 years ago. It’s called “Men and from Mars, Woman are from Venus.” I haven’t read it but I can only assume it talks about the differences in the sexes and how to better navigate them. I really wonder if the author spent a day with a bride or a groom getting ready for a wedding. You could do a case study on that.

First, the guys. Guys tend to be cool and relaxed. Not all of them, mind you, but most of them. Their responsibility a lot of times is to make sure they get into their tuxes, get the tie on reasonably straight and BE ON TIME. The rest of the time is usually spent watching college football, maybe having a beer and chatting with the boys.

The girls can be a different scene. Usually there’s a bit more chaos and more taking care of last-minute details. And let’s face it, getting into the dress is a bit trickier than throwing a tux on. Plus, mom wants to be there to zip up and dad gets to see his girl in her dress. Those are unbelievably great moments. They are also moments that are unique to the bride’s day. For me, I love the  energy of photographing the girls. I love the details of last-second makeup touches and the moment when the flowers show up. I love getting shots of the bride against some beautiful window light just moments before she walks out the door to head to the ceremony. I love the chaos that often accompanies all of it. The excitement and adrenaline of those times is addicting.

And that’s the way it was this past weekend for Melissa and Will. The guys relaxed and told stories and laughed. The girls did all those things too. They also went to the salon, touched up make-up, tweaked their hair, helped Melissa get ready, made a bunch of phone calls and everything else you can imagine. And both were great. So here are a few shots form everyone getting ready for the ceremony. We’ll post more photos from their day later. A huge thank you to Melissa and Will for letting us be a part of it.

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So what do you do when you just run out of light and the bride and groom only have a few minutes until they need to be introduced for the first time as husband and wife?

Panic?

Well yeah maybe, but that’s not doing anyone good. If you’re Bob, an eternal optimist who believes there is always a way, you head for the edge of the lake and hope it’s reflecting enough light to give you  a cool background. That tiny crescent moon be damned; we can make that work too. So facing a tight deadline, Bob and our terrific couple, Nil and Jay, walked verrrry carefully through the dark to the water’s edge for just a couple more portraits Saturday night at Woodloch Resort in Hawley. I really like what Bob did here. He didn’t try to fight the elements. Instead he used them to his advantage to create a couple of really striking shots in less than ideal conditions.  In the end, they are a couple of really nice shots that I’ll admit I had my doubts about when they headed to the water. And Nil and Jay got back to the reception in plenty of time for introductions and a great party. We loved working with you guys, and we will post more photos soon. Until then, enjoy!

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At some point I’m going to write a tip section for our website. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do now for awhile. I’m putting it on my list of stuff for this winter. We can put stuff on there like how to plan a wedding with less stress, how to pee in a wedding dress (yes we know) how cuff links work, the best way to attach a corsage and maybe some stuff on how to dress for an engagement shoot! Maybe we’ll even have a guest blogger or too. I can invite Kaitlyn to do the “how to dress” section.

As a little background, Kaitlyn is Kaitlyn of Jim and Kaitlyn. So that should clear that up,  and we just did there engagement photos. Kaitlyn nailed it! Now, I sent Kaitlyn an email that morning to say, “Hey, it’s pretty effin’ cold out, make sure you dress appropriately. Don’t pretend it’s summer outside or you will freeze.”   And then she ignored me. She had her stuff picked out and weather be damned. I was worried about her but then she showed up and put on a clinic of how to look great and be yourself during photos. She was comfortable, mostly warm and it showed in her photos.  We absolutely loved spending the afternoon with them. They are fun to be around and had a good time during the shoot. god bless them,  they were patient when we kept saying, hey how about one more photo. It was pitch black when we finished. I should mention again that we just love our clients. All of you, seriously, put up with all of our, “Hey let’s take just one more shot. I think this will be cool.” It could be competely dark or minus 10 and every single one of you is like, “yeah, sure let’s do it!” We love you guys!”

Anyway here are some photos from Kaitlyn and Jim’s engagement session. Enjoy!

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Anyone who has read this blog before knows we love the Colonnade! It’s a truly unique space and in a lot of ways a photographer’s dream. There are all kinds of nooks and crannies and places to find great photos. Now we have shot there plenty of times but for various reasons have not been able to take advantage of a giant mirror that sits in a downstairs hallway. Every time I walk past it I kind of drool, thinking there are some great photos that could use that mirror!

Well, we finally had our shot at Jenn and Joe’s wedding. Bob and I mentioned before we like to get one final photo at the end of the night for our couples. Well, it was mirror time. I think we probably saw it as a black and white image as we were imagining it so that’s how we have it here. I just love the mood of the images, the reflection and the light. This was the photo I was thinking about every time i walked past it. For the record, we used just one handheld light off to the side.

These end of the night photos- which I love – just don’t happen, though. So I wanted to say a special thank you to the stars of the show, Jenn and Joe. They  are just a dream to work with and always listen to our sometimes crazy ideas. They are up for anything and that’s such a an amazing attitude. Thankfully, their story with us doesn’t end at the wedding. We are so excited to be taking Jenn in her bridal dress out this weekend for another shoot. We can’t wait to share more photos!

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