My VIP client who first brought me to an epic maternity shoot in Greece now immersed me into the ancient culture and irresistible giggles of her family photography in Westchester.
I can’t stand this Greek family… without laughing and melting. The vibes around working with them are just irresistibly positive and heartwarming. Poised and wise Eleni, witty jokester Mantho, always camera-ready sweet Andriana, and evaluating pundit Ioanna bury you with a never-ending stream of photo opportunities for family photography.
Returning Client
As a quick flashback, I did several jobs for Eleni’s sister, including a striking Sweet 16 underwater project, and both maternity sessions for Eleni. The first was a two-day adventure in Greece on an island I’ve dreamed of since childhood, and another — on Staten Island, NY, a less exotic locale and tough to beat Corfu but we tried (right):
Eleni approached me in August and asked about family shoot for their Christmas cards this year. We talked about a few places but she came up with a discovery for me, the Untermyer Park and Gardens. Doing her family photography in Westchester first seemed unusual to me because she lives in Long Island. Taking a closer look at the park explained everything.
Untermyer Park and Gardens
Untermyer Park is a historic 43-acre (17 ha) city public park in Yonkers, NY. Built c. 1916-1940, it features several ancient culture ensembles, including a small Grecian-style open-air amphitheater with two facing sphinxes supported by tall Ionic columns, and the Temple of the Sky with a circle of Corinthian columns. (Sadly, the latter was under renovation and fenced off.) Therefore, it is no wonder that Eleni was drawn to that architecture! Now I wish we knew about it for her second maternity session…
Their family photography in Westchester was sandwiched between a corporate headshot job in Manhattan and a 10th anniversary shoot in Long Island. Timing was tight and the session only took two hours so we didn’t cover all corners of this garden. Yet, their energy and the mentioned never ending picture-ready ops resulted in an overwhelming number of images. Below are the edited photos, a tenfold volume of what I would have delivered without writing a blog. When I write these, clients get more edited photos than included in a package. I just cannot write as many blogs as I shoot…
Not All Rosy
One more disclaimer. You’ll see a few ridiculous photos. Not as many as in the humorously captioned recent collection, which I mocked as “antifam” (meaning the opposite of what family photography clients normally display). I cannot resist including and sharing them. They add character and life to the overly clean and polished photos that we photographers tend to display. In fact, some were again begging for speech bubbles (a.k.a. captions). I skipped working on those in the interest of time now.
Kindly refrain from re-uploading images to social media during the first week of feature. Share instead and give credit to @ZorzStudios. 🙂
Farceur Dans La Famille
About Mantho… He looks like a soul of a party. I don’t know what I’d think of him as a live-in brother, but in smaller portions, like during this shoot, he’s one heck of an entertainer. The girls must have a time of their childhood with such daddy! Occasionally, we had to re-approach some “ruined” shots to make Eleni happy as well. 😛
Focus, Guys!
As for little Andriana, she’s a natural. I’m telling you, she’s a dream model — always ready, devotedly focused on the camera, perfectly smiling, knowing her poses or following the directions, and patiently waiting while the rest of subjects are still swarming around her like the confused bees. She approved me as a photographer and at the end, with a bit of shyness and support by mom, gifted me a little stone that she picked during the shoot as a token of appreciation.
Alas, this incredibly beautiful Greek family photography in Westchester had to end. I think we scored enough material for the Christmas cards! A farewell wave and I speeded off to the next shoot.
Client’s Feedback
10/22/20 UPDATE: A touching feedback that I received from Eleni:
