GE2 Holiday Show & Party

For the 3rd year Griffin Editions hosted a holiday party & staff art show. Unfortunately I'm a little under the weather, as well as in the middle of some really nasty winter weather so unable to attend this year. It's too bad cause it looked like it would be an amazing show and holiday party.

All of the staff at Griffin Editions are wonderful people as well as talented photographers. I work for Griffin Editions printing photos since 2000. We help photo artists produce their work, tweaking and viewing, and so often an impression from our job(s) is made on our own art. The piece I submitted was from my landscape work. A 16x20 b&w silver gelatin print mounted to 4-ply museum board affixed to Sintra. It's a group of trees I shot with a 35mm camera on summer vacation exploring upstate NY. Influencing what I'm doing in this vein would probably be: Sally Gall, Gerald Dearing, Bernd & Hilla Becher, & Erica Lennard. I'm a fan their b&w landscapes.

Happy Holidays to all the Griffin Editions staff, our families, friends, and (importantly) clients!

Lily Fund Holiday Portrait Shoot

On Sat. Nov 21st. we kicked-off the first ever Family Photo Event for the Lily Fund. The organization is out to raise $ and awareness for children with brain cancer. I got asked to participate by fellow GE staff Orianna Riley who knows the charity from her child's school. The idea was to offer affordable portraits in a studio setting to people that will make a donation to the fund. The timing near Thanksgiving was genius to provide photos family's could use in their holiday cards.

It went really well. We had fashion photographer Ron Cadiz also volunteering to do portraits in the morning and help set up and get the lighting just right. Mike Vorrasi was helping out on the computers and on the fly photo editing. Fred Soffa was our event coordinator and had scheduled the day booked! Hair and make up services were offered to guests. The day felt like a party. Really a great energy with kids and sweet snacks, music and flashes popping in the studio.

It's always good for me when I get to practice my craft, collaborate with brilliant people, and on top of that be doing something that provides help to the community.

Brooklyn by Bridge

This summer wedding was set for Manhattan, Brooklyn Heights, and the Clinton Hill Navy Yard. I worked with my team of Peter Riesett, Erick Gibson, and myeslf. Three is the magic number, and I knew we could get better photos if we had the trio in effect. The bride and groom are super fun, friendly and have an apartment in lower Manhattan. Our day began there. Amy was getting ready in a suite at the the Millenium Hilton on Church St. around the corner and Peter met up to photograph the groom Sean at home. The ceremony was across the river near the Promenade. Brooklyn Heights is one of my favorite neighborhoods from the Patty Duke Show to the Cosby Show it always entranced me with it's wide tree-lined brownstone streets. The ceremony was in one of the oldest parishes is Brooklyn. The reception was a short drive up the coast to Steiner Studios. This location was excellent with views of downtown NYC. Amy and Sean had a family and friend-filled spectacular reception. We got tons of great guest and dance photos with the extra tight music group. I'll remember this wedding for a long time for how cool the couple, smooth summer's day, and what an amazing wedding went down in New York City

Amy and Sean were married in August '09 in New York City. I booked the photography a year in advance with this couple. They knew of Virgil Stephens Photography from a friends wedding the year before, which they were guests.

Mary Kate and Pat

Saturday June 29th I was received as a guest at my friends wedding and reception at The Knoll Country Club in Parsippany New Jersey

A sweet time in the North Jersey summer environs. Mary Kate and Pat are friends of Malissia's that I have known for a few years now. Super cool couple that loves life, friends and family. Their wedding was amazing and I really enjoyed myself as a guest -the was ceremony officiated by two priests and music from guest singers!

I have to say I was really impressed with their photographer. They had 3 shooters and excellent coverage. We had the photos done earlier in the day presented to us at their reception. Photography was done by Al Romero.

This June '09 it's rained almost every day for the entire month. The grass and the tress look healthy because of it. I put my brand new digital point/shoot camera to the test. I bought a Canon (first) Powershot SD 880 Elph from B&H in June with some birthday $$. It's a compact digital camera with excellent color, wide field of view, and good resolution (10 mega-pix). It preformed well. I had a little small with lag time focusing and using the flash. I think the difference between using face detection focus vs. center-weighted focus was the reason. The face detection focus was dynamic catching people moving out of the frame. Center-weighted is self explanatory. Photographs I captured were fun. Hooray for this wonderful couple!

Web Design '09

Working with Eric Thomas to design my new websites. We plan to split my photography website into two separate sites. VirgilStephensPhotography.com will be the Wedding & Event Photography business, and VirgilStephens.com will be my creative personal site.

We've been doing the new sites with Drupal. This should be easier for me to maintain, add pictures, etc. Looking like we will try to get this done pre July 4th. Hopefully. I'm looking forward to the professional photos I've done to come across sharp and dynamic, and the interface be ridiculously simple. The personal site will contain images from my street and landscape series Groundscapes. More to come stay tuned!

Manhattan in May

Family and friends came to the 4th Unitarian Church at 76th street and Central Park West. A beautiful old church in the wilderness-bordered Manhattan jungle. The bride had arranged for us to meet with her family before hand at the parks entrance to do group photos. This made the day follow a smooth timeline, and the couple could maximize their time with guests. (I didn't learn until after that the bride Sara is a writer, and has been writing for the WETV website)


I was being helped by friend Natalie with the camera work. It made everything easier, and took away stress having an assistant. But I always stay cool.. We changed the plan and took photos at the Museum of Natural History's lawn across the street. Being in the shade allowed the guests more comfort and made the photos less glaring from the mid afternoon sun. The temperature this day was 88 degrees!

Cheers and best wishes Sara and John!

Photographing a wedding as Central Park blooms in Spring we had a great time! Sara and John married at a tremendous and intimate New York City wedding.

Expectant Mother's Portraits

Always interested in working on the portraits, I've been photographing pregnant friends. Here are some results..

VSP in the NYP

The New York Post published my photo of Kate and Gabe Capone both in the online and print edition Sunday Dec. 28th, 2008. Not a bad way to end a busy year! Thanks to Tara Geremia from Exquisite Affairs Productions. She was the Wedding Coordinator and is to be thanked for getting the submission published.