Crystal + AJ | Engagement | Gramercy Park Hotel, NYC

A bit of a funny story:

Crystal and AJ love fashion and movies so when we were discussing the engagement shoot Crystal told me that she really, really, really wanted a photo where she is sitting on the piano and AJ is singing to her – sort of like in Chicago…

To be honest my mind came to a screeching halt then and there … Being a photographer I instantly started picturing a huge stage with a piano and movie set level of lightning equipment and thought to myself – where the heck am I going to find a setup like that???? But I always want to do my best to make my clients happy (especially when they are willing to invest extra time and effort  into coming up with ideas, costumes, etc.) and I love a challenge!  So, I told Crystal give me a few days to think about it and I would see what we can do.  Initially, I was really stuck – obviously I don’t have a theater or movie set at my disposal and  I could not think of a location where I could get to a piano with either an interesting background or enough space for the studio lights to make it happen.

Luckily for me – Natalia is a concert pianist and had a performance happening at the Gramercy Park Hotel.  A week or so before the concert I suddenly realized that there will be a piano in a gorgeous space and that we know someone who knows the owner of the hotel! 🙂  To make a somewhat long story short, we were able to get permission to shoot at the space after the concert! 🙂

Crystal and AJ – I want to thank you guys for providing me with this fun challenge 🙂 – and I definitely think that all your effort was worth it and that you guys look phenomenal!!!!
Huge thank you goes to the owners and management of the Gramercy park hotel – thank you so much for letting us use your gorgeous space!
And last but not least – a special thank you to Natalia and Liz without whom this shoot would not have happened!

Once we were done at the hotel we took a short walk around Union Square to see if I do couple of  interesting shots with a different look 🙂