A few years ago I decided that I will absolutely, positively, hell-or-high-water follow through on my New Year’s resolutions. So far, I’ve been pretty successful. Following my New Year’s resolutions I quit smoking, started exercising or regular bases, learned computer animation with Adobe Flash, and learned how to play banjo. Last year, as I was going through the body of my photography work I realized that I had not worked on a personal project since 2007 – that’s four years of not stepping back from weddings, Bar/Bat Mitzvahs and commercial shoots. As much as I love event photography I realized that if I don’t start working on something personal, I would just burn out and stop caring about my work. I’ve always been fascinated with Marilyn Monroe and one of my favorite photographs is the one of Marilyn smoking a cigarette on a Manhattan rooftop (I believe it was taken in March of 1955 by NYC based photographer Ed Feingersh). From a photographic standpoint there is nothing particularly special about this photo, but something about it appeals to me. So, as one of this year’s personal projects, I decided to do a rooftop photoshoot. My friend Julia graciously agreed to model for me and an amazing hairdresser/makeup artist Igor Vavilov volunteered his time to do Julia’s hair and makeup. The “getting ready” part took well over two hours, but I guess beauty requires sacrifice:)
Now I actually know for a fact that part of my grandfather`s family came to the United States on October 12, 1923 and even have ship`s manifests from 
It’s a Friday night and I’m getting my equipment ready for next day’s wedding. I’m reformatting my memory cards, cleaning lenses and packing batteries when I get a call from the bride. Apparently, the minister who was supposed to perform the ceremony got sick and the replacement minister told them that he finds photographers distracting. He told my couple that the only way he would allow a photographer in the church is if the photographer stays all the way in the back corner behind the last pew. I photographed at that church before and I knew that staying all the way in the back would mean that I would not really be able to get any usable photos. The church is very large and a 200 mm lens (my longest lens) is not nearly long enough to get any type of decent close-up. If I had known in advance, I would have rented a 300 mm or a 400mm lens. Moreover, because of columns on either side of the isle all the photos would be from the same angle – essentially throughout the entire ceremony I would be photographing the bride’s and groom’s back. The bride was understandably upset and I had a few hours to come up with a solution. My first idea was to place a camera in on the other side of the altar and fire it remotely. The only problem was that I could not find a motor cable for my 
Manhattan through the rain, photographed in pouring rain from the Ellis Island Ferry 
View from my friends` apartment building 
Venue: 
