Hello boys and girls. Nothing much to report on the wedding front as we’ve kind of been tied up with the day-to-day work that we do as well as buying a house(!). :-X
BUT I do have to report on how our engagement photo session went!
It was a miracle that Scott & I were able to schedule our engagement photos. We knew we’d have to do it on a Saturday because of travel to Buffalo, etc and we preferred a “sweet light” time of day, meaning sunrise or sunset. I was anxious to ask the Buffalo Central Terminal Restoration Corporation for one of these times because, according to what I remembered, they typically had their work sessions on Saturday mornings. Bummer. I was pleasantly surprised, however, when I was able to schedule the photos on August 28th at 5.30 pm!
We arrived a few minutes early and were surprised to see the Terminal open as well as quite a few cars outside. We wondered, is there some sort of event going on? Are they still working at this time of day? Well, it turns out they were still working from the morning! We met with Mark Lewandowski, who I guess is the head of the Restoration Corporation even though he doesn’t like to brag, who could not have been more nice or more accommodating to our needs.
But first, a disaster.
Upon meeting Mark Lewandowski we were startled by a limo bus that pulled up. An entire wedding party started to pour out and I became worried. Had Mark scheduled another photography session at the same exact time as us?! It would have made sense from his perspective, he would have only had to come and open the building once for two couples. But I wasn’t aware of this and isn’t that a little unfair? Well, it turns out these rude and obnoxious people hadn’t even contacted the Terminal prior to showing up. They were just driving around in their fancy limo and decided to “drop by” and take over my session.
Well, as many of you know, you really shouldn’t mess with me when it comes to things that I have meticulously planned. These rude guys came in and asked Mark if they could take photos and Mark was pissed that they thought they could just waltz right in during our time so he told them that they had 5 minutes (our photographer had yet to arrive). At this point the entire wedding party started to pour in and thought that they could also bring open bottles of beer. How disrespectful! Mark put a lid on that quickly (heh, literally).
So while this hooplah was going on in the concourse, Mark, Scott, and I continued to catch up, at which point a guy from the wedding party came over and had the nerve to ask us if he could use the vintage trunk that I had brought. The discussion went something like this:
Rude Guy: “Yoo, man, that’s a cool trunk you got there. Do you mind if we could use it for a couple of our shots?”
Me: “Excuse me? That’s my trunk and this is my photo session that you’re interrupting. No! You may not use my trunk!”
Rude Guy: [walks away] “Okay, well I thought maybe you’d be able to help out another girl on her special day.”
Me: “Well, you thought wrong!”
That’s right. Beat down. But I digress…
Terminal Improvements
Mark begins to take Scott & I on a tour of the Terminal. Much has changed since when we filmed our documentary there three years ago and they are doing great work. The clock is back of course and surrounded by a nice display and old wooden waiting area benches. They were also working on laying some concrete down by the Ticket Booth area. The most visible part of their work was the restoration of wrought iron railings along the top platform area under the windows on one end. They were painted silver and gold and apparently one of the volunteers had reproduced them from old photos. It really spruced up the place!
And of course the best addition, as well as the most useful to the Restoration Corporation is the installation of full-out bathrooms! These will be so helpful to them for future events! It was so nifty how they did it too. Apparently it was a BOCES project and you go in around where you would have gone over to the train tracks. What you don’t realize is that when you go in to this nicely finished and modern area that you’re actually entering a shed that’s been installed in to the waiting room. If you go around the other side you can see the building that they built in the room – kickass!
But wait, another disaster.
The day couldn’t have gone off without at least one other disaster happening of course – and I haven’t even gotten to the actual picture taking part yet! While I was admiring the beautiful bathroom I heard a crash behind me. Our photographer, Brandon Lata from Fellici Studio, had arrived by this point and had been going around the building with us a bit to see what the creative options were. When I returned to the group I discovered Brandon and Scott mulling over Brandon’s camera and lens. To my dismay I learned that somehow Brandon’s lens had fallen off the mount on his camera and went tumbling on to the pure stone concourse of the Terminal. Ack!
Needless to say, that lens was out of commission. Brandon was pretty bummed but like a true professional was ready to move on and start our session when we discovered that he lived but a mere 10 minutes away and had other lenses at home. At this point we told him to go home and get them if it would make him more comfortable with his equipment. He was grateful and merrily went on his way.
And finally, the shooting.
A half hour later Brandon returned and we were finally able to start shooting! The sun was doing spectacular things to the building and there’s really not much explaining that needs to be done when talking about the beauty of the Buffalo Central Terminal (learn more on Wikipedia).
Brandon was cool to work with. He gave us pointers on what to do and how to act. It was awkward being on the other side of the camera for both of us – especially when you’re paying for it! We were decked out in our “vintage” outfits and hopefully looked pretty snazzy. What I think I’ll remember most about the actual shooting with Brandon is the hilarious way he’d try to make us laugh. He had the most booming and funny/fake laugh that you just had to laugh yourself. Hopefully it looks natural!
Eventually we changed into the customary black shirt and jeans outfit and did some shooting outside. It got too dark too soon for my taste that night but I have a good feeling about the Photoshop prowess of Brandon – he does such amazing work!
All in all I think our session couldn’t have gone better. It was great to reconnect with some of the people at the Restoration Corporation and to see the Terminal again. She’ll always have a special place in my heart and I can only wish the Restoration Corporation the best in all of their endeavors.