Half a Dozen

Oh hey, it's that time of year again! Zack Wussow Media turns six today. It's been an amazing, exciting, and busy year, though only about half of that is due to business. The rest, well...

Hint: That's me.

The coming year promises to be just as interesting, with a bustling fall season and some other big changes coming on the home front.

So just a little note to say, as always, thank you to my amazing customers who make this job a joy and put my name out there, my family and friends who support me, and my wife Heather who's always there for me (and increasingly often assisting me for work). Cheers!

Windy City Wedding

Caitlin and Jay are friends of mine from college. The day they announced their engagement, I told them I wanted to be their photographer, and thankfully they did too! It was amazing to see them on their special day, and a nice perk to get to visit Chicago.

After a quick stop at the Sheraton Grand, we moved to Salvage One, an amazing antiques store and venue. It really fit their style perfectly.

We started with a first look, then posed photos. This space is simply amazing for photos.

The ceremony was beautiful, with touching performances by some of their friends, and a fiery blessing of the rings.

After cocktail hour, they had their first dance: a choreographed number that Jay was practicing up till the last minute.

The rest of the night was amazing food (taco bar and pie bar!), fantastic music, and an amazing group of people celebrating the day to its fullest.

It was an amazing night, and I'm so glad Caitlin and Jay trusted us to capture their day.

Congratulations you two!

A Castle For Lovers

I met Shannon and Kevin atop Castle Craig in Meriden. (Which, wow, it was much more of an adventure getting up there than I'd expected from Google maps!)

It was a beautiful view, but chilly and just a bit too windy - made for some dramatic shots, but was more hindrance than help.

So we moved down the mountain - getting stuck behind a car that stopped to talk to every dog walker on the road... - to Hubbard Park. The rain held off and let us explore the park to find some scenic spots.

We were joined by Shannon and Kevin's dog Bentley, who was extremely cooperative and one photogenic little guy.

It was a great day for photos, with a bright overcast sky giving off just beautiful light.

Shannon and Kevin were great, very relaxed and good at making each other laugh.

And, even though we ended up not needing it for rain, we still got a few photos with Shannon's clear umbrella.

I can't wait to work with them again next spring!

Spring Has Sprung

Nikki and Matt's wedding day started in a hotel room where Nikki was getting ready with her bridesmaids.

They were married in the lovely Brookfield Congregational Church; an adorable little church filled with light.

For the reception, we moved to the Fox Hill Inn across town. We got some posed photos outside while the weather was kind to us.

The reception was so much fun, it flew by! Great food, touching speeches, a photo booth, and lots of dancing!

Oh, and Matt's ring was really cool.

Congratulations Nikki and Matt!

The View From The Other Side

I got married!

It was totally amazing, and about as weird being on the other side of the lens as you'd expect. Though it was great working with one of my second shooters (and a good friend) for our photos.

Heather's dress (which I just barely avoided seeing before the big day) was handmade for her by her friend Myla. I think it came out amazing, and Heather looked amazing (especially with her beautiful hair-do from Ashley Cruz at Eiffel Beauté), but then I may be biased...

We got married at home with a small guest list, a decision that appealed to us a lot but also brought its own problems. Not least of which was the weather - and of course we spent most of the last week with rain in the forecast just to end up with an absolutely perfect, beautiful day.

Our JP, Mary Pugh, was great, and helped us put together a simple, meaningful ceremony tailored to us.

Food was the first thing we settled on - New Haven PIzza Truck. I've shot a couple weddings with these guys and they're great. Appetizers, crazy amount of fresh, brick-oven baked pizza, and gelato and cappuccino for desert. They even made a gluten free pizza just for our one gluten-sensitive guest. And, of course, they let us get a picture with the truck.

We got our cake from Hope at A Little Imagination Cakes. I can't say enough good things about Hope. We met with her without any clear idea what we wanted or needed, and left with a remarkably affordable and totally delicious cake/cupcake combo that fit us perfectly and came out a work of art. The amount of time and detail she put into her work blows my mind. It tasted amazing, too (he typed, while eating leftover cake).

The rest of the day was just spending time with family and friends, laughing and crying over toasts, dancing, and enjoying the day. I won't lie - getting married at home is a lot of work, and we couldn't have done it without help from family and friends in the days leading up. But it was also a real pleasure being in a place that means so much to us, and makes it easy to be flexible on the day. We ended up moving a bunch of our tables and chairs from inside to outside when the weather turned out beautifully, and ended the night with an impromptu bonfire.

Plus we could invite our friends' dogs, which is awesome.

Needless to say, I couldn't be happier. Heather's been my closest friend and partner since we met, and I couldn't imagine my life without her.

Ok. Back to work.

Good News Everyone!

Apparently, I've been awarded the Wedding Wire Couples Choice Award for 2017!

According to their site:

“WeddingWire Couples’ Choice Awards® recipients represent the top five percent of wedding professionals on WeddingWire who demonstrate excellence in quality, service, responsiveness, and professionalism.”

So that's a cool thing! Ironically, I only learned about this because they called to ask me to pay for better placement on their site (which I refuse to do), and I had always assumed that these awards were another thing you could buy. But apparently not! You just need to have awesome customers who leave positive reviews.

So thank you to everyone who has left a review for me there, I really do appreciate it and it really does help Zack Wussow Media grow!

Now, back to hammering out last minute details for my wedding. Next week I'll be Mr. Heather Wussow!

Back to Work

Winter break is over, and it's back to work for me!

I met up with Angie and her bridesmaids at her mother's home for hair and makeup, while across town my second shooter Jeff was with the guys at a barber shop.

We all met up at Cascade in Hamden for the rest of the festivities, starting with an adorable not-quite-first-look.

The ceremony had to be moved indoors due to the cold and windy weather, but the space was beautiful, and the ceremony was incredible, written by the bride herself.

The reception was a blast, with a great DJ/singer Michael Nigretti. Great food, great music, and everyone having a great time kicking back and celebrating.

All in all, a great start to the 2017 season. And some exciting news:

The next wedding I go to will be my own. :)

Perfect Strangers

During my slow season, I like to try to fit in a few projects that are fun and let me try something new. A few weeks ago I drove down to NYC to visit my friend Sarah Smallwood Parsons and her comedic partner Brittany McDonald, who run Perfect Strangers: A Character Show. I thought it'd be interesting to photograph some of their characters, and they did not disappoint.

It was such a good time and hilarious watching these two hop in and out of characters.

Only two things I would do differently next time. First, use my crumpled grey backdrop rather than the bare wall we used. I think the added texture would be good and it would look better under the colored background light.

The other is the background colors themselves. I had intended to do a variety of colors, but on the day of the shoot I wasn't liking how the colors looked in camera. I decided to stick to green/blue, probably the least appealing colors to me, figuring I could alter them in post processing.

Well... When I got home and dug into the photos, the color looked fine, but altering it in post did not work half as well as I'd expected. 

Kind of a shame. But then, that's exactly why I like doing these experiments once in a while. If I do a similar shoot again, I'll know how to use the background lights to get exactly the color I'm looking for.

In the meantime, I still love these photos, just on the strength of the subjects. They crack me up! If you're in NYC, visit their Facebook page and find a show you can go to.  Or you can meet Mickey Nutello, one of Sarah's characters and the one who inspired this project, in this video. (Audio is a little NSFW.)