Blog | Patrick Rogers Photography

Jun 04
East Somerville Mean Streets event: Carnaval

The weather didn’t keep folks in East Somerville from coming out and enjoying the festivities of the third annual Carnaval event yesterday!

There was a parade, three stages with several bands playing, a drum line, step dancing performers, the Boston Militia women’s football team, the Boston Derby Dames roller derby team, the Vegetable Circus, and all kinds of other folks having a great time!

Take THAT, rainy forecast! We had a BLAST!!

May 30
My Secret about Weddings

So, I’ve never told this to anyone. I’ve hinted at it to Ben and Kristin (my second shooters at weddings), I suggested that I do this to my wife, but I’ve never said this out loud. Well, it’s time to come clean.

I’ve cried at every wedding I have ever shot, to some degree or another.

How could I not? I mean, I have known, and have talked to, couples for sometimes over a year. I have joked with them during our engagement photo session, I have heard of how their wedding planning was going, and in some cases, have become their good friends.

Each ceremony, no matter how short, is so charged with love and happiness. Each time I hear a betrothed break out in laughter during the ceremony because of the fumbling, nervous, excited fingers of their mate are struggling to slip that ring on their finger, each time I see a dad or a mom smiling from ear to ear while crying tears of joy, well, I lose it.

It makes me think about how I felt when I got married to my amazing wife Carrie. I think about how fantastic and life changing this moment was for me and is for them. I think about how hyper aware I was of everything, from who was at my wedding, of all the moments Carrie and I shared up until then, of the smell of the charred wood in the fireplace next to us, of the happy giggles from my friends in the audience. I think of all of this while simultaneously not seeing anything except of the enveloping beauty of my soon to be wife’s nervous smile and gorgeous eyes.

Luckily, I’ve photographed enough weddings that my lizard brain knows the shots I need to get and it just takes over for me. Even luckier for me, I have a big ass camera in front of the one eye that’s tearing up, and the other eye is shut tight, ostensibly to see best through the lens, but realistically to prevent any leakage.

This flood of emotions is one of the many reasons I love shooting weddings. People are looking their best, happy about why they are there, having a great time, and just an overwhelming sense of joy! I love this job!!! 🙂

May 28
What I Love About These Family Photos

These are two photos of my wife and my son, Carrie and Reid.

This is Reid, photographed in more of a studio setting:

Each of these mean so much to me because that’s my family, but those first two are not just what they are (my wife/my son/my family) but WHO they are, and who WE are.

The first two photos were taken the morning of game three of the Celtics play offs (that’s why he’s wearing the jersey that his Uncle Dave and Aunt Sanne gave him). That room they are in is Reid’s bedroom. Well, it actually use to be our room, but when Carrie was about 6 months pregnant, we decided to rearrange the whole apartment because we wanted Reid to have his own room. We were going to re-paint it from the color we had painted it before we moved in together here, but we had just painted another room, and our list of things to get done before Reid arrived was getting longer every day. See that quilt behind them? It’s one his Aunt Laurene made for him. It has turtles on it because I love turtles (it was actually my nickname for many years, to the point that few people knew my given name). The side of the quilt you don’t see is a fuzzy material that Laurene sewed in a large outline of a turtle in. So cool (and cozy)!!

You’ll notice an Ernie in the background of that second photo. I have quite the collection of Ernies that I’ve collected over many years and now I’m super excited to share them with the little guy! Oh, and yes, I love chess, too. Carrie got those chess piece outlines to put on the wall for my second birthday. For a while, they were on my home office wall, but then that room became our bedroom, so we moved them into Reid’s room because I’m hoping that will influence Reid to love chess as much I do so that I can finally have someone to play with!

I love the first two photos more because they will trigger these memories, and this time, in our lives for many years to come.

That second shot is… Well, it’s Reid. That’s what he looks like. His grandparents enjoy having a copy of that to frame. I know which day I took it because I can see the metadata in the file information. And, well, that’s about it.

I do what I do because I want to capture memories, not just photos. I want y’all to remember that day, that moment in your family’s life. I want these photos to start a conversation for many years to come.

What do you want photos of your family to say?

May 25
Experiencing the Awesomeness That is Frendy!

About a year ago, on a long, rainy drive out to western MA for one of the many weddings I photographed at Bucksteep Manor, I got a call from Wendy.

Wendy is a good friend of Lorena, who is a good friend of my wife (and hopefully, by extension, me!). Wendy called to ask if I was available for her wedding in May of 2012. Luckily, I was, so we chatted for a little while about what she was looking for, how I could be of assistance, etc. We ended up talking for over 30 minutes. After the call ended, I felt so positive about things. I just KNEW this would be an amazing wedding.

From that moment until their wedding last weekend, Wendy and I chatted from time to time to discuss details of the wedding weekend, to plan and shoot the engagement photos, and sometimes our conversations turned to how my pregnant wife was doing or how she was handing the sometimes overwhelming demands of planning a wedding. We were getting to know each other pretty well. This familiarity and semi-friendship really helps a wedding day go so smoothly.

Fast forward to their wedding, which was last weekend.

It was on Sunday in Newport, RI at Oceancliff. They had planned a rehearsal and a rehearsal lunch on Saturday (at Flo’s Clam Shack, right across from the beach!), so I asked to attend. I’ve never photographed at Oceancliff (or at Flo’s), so I wanted to check out the venue, and to find some great shooting locations there and in the surrounding area. Also, thanks to the kindness of Matt Grazier at Grazier Photography, and Agnieszka Wormus, two fantastic photographers who shared their experiences about shooting a wedding there, I was as prepared as ever!

It was at the rehearsal lunch where things changed. There was a moment, maybe insignificant to everyone involved except me, that really struck me. Everyone had been there for a little while, just chatting and mingling, and I was busy trying to blend into the background and photographing what what going on. Then, Frank (the groom) and Wendy waved me over. Frank’s parents were there, and I assumed he just wanted to introduce the hired help. This was only partially true. He nodded in my direction and said “this is our friend Patrick.” Then there was a pause. Not an uncomfortable one, just a moment of reflection. Then, as an afterthought he said “oh, he’s our photographer, too.”

Wow. Really?!! Sure, as usual, I try to connect with the couple during the planning process and certainly during our engagement shoot, but they considered me their friend?! That just felt amazing!

This was just the beginning of Wendy and Frank’s (referred to friends and family as Frendy, ala Brangelina) amazing kindness and what I hope to be a growing friendship. They actually had a place card for myself and my second shooter Ben Bocko to sit at one of the tables during dinner (that’s only happened once before). And at one point, I was busy photographing guests during the reception, when Wendy called me over to their head table just to make sure I had dinner.

On top of all of this, and despite Wendy planning a wedding (in greater attention to detail than I have ever seen before), selling a house, moving to a friend’s house temporarily, looking for a job in California, and making plans to establish a new life with Frank out in California, a few days after the wedding, my wife and 18 day old son and I got a package in the mail. Not too surprising, as friends and family have been sending us gifts for the little guy in the past few weeks. So we opened it, thinking it might be another present from an elated grandma (Carrie’s mom has been over the moon with excitement), or a gift from a friend of mine in Olympia, WA, but no, we were wrong. It was a super cuddly blanket/rattle with a giraffe’s head attached and a note that read: “Dear Rogers family, Congrats on the new bundle of joy. Mr. Reid is very lucky to have great parents. Live, Love, and Laugh! Sincerely, Frendy” I’m getting all emotional again as I transcribe this! These two have grown to be dear friends!

I may have said this before. This was a gorgeous wedding with an amazing couple! But, I know I’ve never said this before. It was an honor to photograph my friends’ wedding!

May 24
Sneak Peek-Frank and Wendy’s wedding

There were only two times when Wendy wasn’t smiling ear to ear, and that was during the vows, and for a few moments when we had the first look. Other than that, she couldn’t help herself! This joy and laughter was infectious!

But, I did find it odd at one point. I was photographing Frank and Wendy out on the lawn at Oceancliff (in Newport, RI), and they were smiling and being happy. Then, they started laughing. Now, I know I’m a pretty funny guy (or at least funny looking), but this was more laughter than I was used to. Only after I got home from the wedding and looked at the photos did I realize that Frank’s wily sister Ceretha was “helping”!

Oh, and for those who were curious about who took a bite out of the ENORMOUS gummy bear, see below! This is just a sneak peek of what will be coming soon!