Grand Central Station & New York Public Library Portrait Session || Denise

The internet can be a scary place sometimes, but for my April solo trip to NYC, it really came through. I’d had so much going on that I hadn’t actually made any plans for this trip, so while taking the train from Newark into the city I posted to the Girls Love Travel NYC Chapter Facebook group that I would be in the area and would love to photograph a few ladies. The idea was to take a creativity vacation - not a vacation from creativity, rather a rest from commercial work - to casually photograph people in their natural setting all while location scouting for future sessions. Not ten minutes later, I had a message from Denise saying that she would be available after work that afternoon! In many respects, this has been a difficult season for me. But within and outside of my business I’ve been able to work with so many badass women lately who remind me and inspire me to keep working towards the life I want, and this trip full of photoshoots with amazing women seemed to be the kickoff of all of that.

So that we could have plenty of soft evening light, we met right after Denise got off work. I was already amazed she was willing to meet on a Thursday evening after work, but as soon as we started photographing together and she whipped out her model moves, I was in awe. This spirited lady had no fear posing in the middle of the busy street, so any reservations I had about photographing amongst a crowd of onlookers quickly vanished.

For these portrait sessions in the city, I wanted to focus on a few things: the vibrant colors, the historical architecture (perfect for framing our photos) and the constant sense of movement. Denise’s gorgeous blue shirt certainly brought the color, so when I saw slew of taxis in front of Grand Central waiting to pick up their passengers, I knew we had to make use of the contrasting color. For these images especially, because of the symbolism of the ever-moving cars, I wanted Denise to simply be still, to be the calm amidst the craziness. I wanted this juxtaposition to also illustrate Denise’s strength, as a traveling mother of two and as a woman in general.

I have always wanted to photograph on the New York Public Library steps, and I finally got to live out that dream. While our shoot had an editorial flare, I wanted to maintain the integrity of my style candidly capturing Denise in her element. Of all things, the gilded stair railing proved the perfect framing device for my model’s gorgeous grin.

However, sometimes, your vision and reality don’t quite match up. Such was the case while trying to photograph Denise surrounded by the steam from the subway below. I saw the perfect place to do it - in the middle of a busy intersection - and must have had her cross the street 20 times in an effort to capture her walking towards me with the smoke perfectly behind, no other people in the image. She was totally a good sport about it, but we eventually took what we had and moved on. It was a good lesson in not fixating on getting one particular photo, rather going with the flow of what’s working.

We ended where we started, right back at Grand Central, where Denise hopped right back on the train home. That evening I posted a few of our photos to the Facebook group and immediately scheduled three more sessions for the next day! Thank you, Denise, for trusting a random stranger to meet up and photograph you around your wonderful city.