Okay so I’ve written before about the poor state of the dress by the end of a typical Montreal wedding, and how it may be wise to squeeze a little more out of the dress by doing a trash the dress photo session. Now this doesn’t mean that the dress that you’ve spent a pretty dime on should be tossed in the trash bin by the end of this session. In fact, I’m all for giving the dress a nice dry-cleaning and keeping it even if only for sentimental reasons. Now weather this means you should do a photo session while you roll around in a muddy pit wearing it, or pose gracefully in a more sophisticated metropolitan setting is entirely up to the bride. One thing is for sure, she well get a lot more out of it by doing this session wherever that may be. Just take a look at some of those photos from the last few weeks, and I’m sure you will agree with me that those brides are happy they did:

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The trash the dress session is becoming one of the hottest most sought after sessions I offer. I try to keep these sessions fresh, romantic and as some brides have described them, epic. Still some bride’s have yet to here about them and I often get a negative reaction when I first describe that session to them. Some brides will immediately tell me that there’s no way they will trash the dress and, of course, I totally understand that first reaction. However, I always ask them what they are planning to do with their dress after the wedding? Ninety nine point nine percent of those brides don’t really have a good answer. They say that they haven’t really though about it, or that they will probably put it in a closet and forget about it. What most bride’s don’t really know is that in order to properly store your wedding dress, you will need to have it professionally dry-cleaned and prepared for long term storage.

Most brides don’t know that proteins excreted when we sweat along with other substances such as champagne, wine, beer, Vodka shots and even chocolate from the chocolate fountain at the dessert table, will accelerate the disintegration of the dress while it hangs in your closet. The dress will also discolor over time and wind up unusable in the long term if not properly cleaned.

Another thing most brides don’t know is that from the point they walk out of their parents’ house till they toss the bouquet, the dress has gone through a great deal of wear and tear. It is almost halfway trashed anyway. You should see what those dresses look like at the end of the night.

So I always say, if you’re going to hold on to the dress, and you will have them professionally cleaned anyway, why not get a little more mileage out of them by wearing them one more time for the trash the dress session. After all, you’ve probably spent a lot of money on them to wear them only once. Besides, despite of what the name of the photo session implies, the dress does not have to be trashed or even thrashed. Just dirtied a little more during the two hour shoot.

I should also mention that the weather does not always cooperate and you may not get to go to your favorite outdoors spot on your wedding day. So why not take advantage of a beautiful day that you get to choose soon after your wedding when the weather is perfect.

The resulting photos from those sessions are always breathtaking, and some brides will go as far as choose only the photos from this session to use in their wedding albums. Here are some photos from the last trash the dress session I did with Carla and Davide at a local beach in Montreal. I hope you enjoy it and I will love it if you shared your thoughts on the session in the comments below. Thanks and enjoy:

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Well, here’s a bride who was not only excited to trash her dress, she wanted to do it in style. And that’s exactly what she did. Check out these shots from this unforgettable session:

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Here are some shots I took from a wedding in Punta Cana at the Grand Bahia Principe resort:

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The trash the dress session is becoming the most sought after photo session that I offer my clients. Most brides who are coming to see me  for next year are going with the trash the dress package. That includes a 12 hour photo coverage of their wedding, the DVD with all the high resolution images, all touched up and ready to print, a beautiful 12X12 30 page album and a two hour TTD session anytime after their wedding.

I have to admit that it is my favorite session to do as a wedding photographer. The bride has the option to go back into her wedding dress or she could choose to go with a totally different dress. The idea behind this session is to be able to get stunning photos that are just not possible to do on the wedding day.

Here’s one of my favorite sessions from this year with the lovely Loredana and Giulio:

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I’d like to tell you that I was hired by this lovely couple from Holland, Christel and Robert, to be their destination wedding photographer. I’d like to tell you that they flew me all the way to Punta Cana and paid for my lodging at this beautiful resort, Gran Bahia Principe. The fact is I was there with my wife and kids on vacation and accidentally ran into this couple completely by chance.

While in Punta Cana, I woke up at sunrise every morning and took my camera and headed towards the beach in the hopes of catching some out of this world sun rise shots. Of course, if I saw someone on the beach at the same time, I would ask them if they would like to pose for me in front of this sunrise and so on. Well on one of those mornings as I had finished taking pictures on the beach and after walking for about an hour and almost loosing all feelings in my feet, I decided to head back to the room. On the way back I saw a couple dressed in complete wedding attire taking photos of one another on the beach with their point-and-shoot camera. I thought to myself that their wedding ceremony is probably about to start and they were there waiting for their photographer to arrive. I decided I would ask them to pose for me and then get going to the room.

It turns out that they were there on their honeymoon, and they had brought their wedding dress and suite in order to take some shots in front of the beach. I thought to myself, what are the chances of this happening? Of course they were very happy to go along with me and I ended up spending half an hour with them and I let them know that I will be blogging about this on my website and that they could see the photos there once they went back home. Here’s what Christel had to say once she saw her photos:

“As you said to us on the beach: the photos are really stunning WAUW!! Our honeymoon was great, but looking at those photos you made, makes me fall in love again and again. Beautiful! Really! Our family and friends were suprised when we showed them the photos. Most of them didn’t even now we took our wedding clothes on our honeymoon. Appreciating is still a small word. So once more: Thank you very much!”

I just love what I do!

Here are some of the photos I took of this beautiful couple:

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Hello everyone! As some of you already know, I’ve just returned from spending an amazing time at this 4 and half beach resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic: Gran Bahia Principe.

Aside from all the great weather and the fun times spent with my wife and kids, I took advantage of being there to capture some destination style photography. I think I went totally nuts with my camera as you can see and I now need a little vacation from my vacation.

I did what I love doing the most which is photographing people in love, except this time it wasn’t at the streets of Montreal, it was at the beach, baby!

Every day I went out for a couple of hours at dawn and right before sunset walking back and forth on this most amazing white fine sandy beach, asking cute couples to pose for me. Mostly I got “no-thank-you” and some “are-you-crazy” responses, but a few couples and some singles who could tell how passionate I am about photography agreed to let me take their photos which I am glad to be able to share with you here.

Check out  these shots and take a few seconds to let me know what you think in the comments please:

This couple is from Argentine

From Germany

Mirna from Montreal, Canada

Chris and Eduardo from Italy. Scroll down to see this sexy couple's photo session which I shot at sunrise a few days later.

Vicky and Mark are From England. Something about them walking on the beach wearing those cool hats caught my attention.

He is from Liverpool and she is from Scottland

One of the people responsible for keeping the beach tiedy.

This here is Megan and, hmmm, what was her name... Katie. From the US of A.

I saw Kris and Eduardo on the beach each morning at sunrise and I offered to do a romantic session with them before I left. I am very happy with how their photos turned out.

And finally, this beautiful couple from Montreal Canada, Jimmy and Slavia, who I bumped into on several occasions on the beach. Two words can best describe this couple; SEXY and FUN.

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So I’ve been wanting to blog about this session from last year for a while now. Why? Well the photos that came out of this session were probably the best shots I’ve taken to date anywhere. Not only were Sheila and Julio super hot, they were super cool too!

It was impossible to get a bad shot of this couple. Every move they took looked good on film and best of all, they were really easy going and they trusted us to work our magic and never once questioned what we asked them to do. It is not everyday that I meet a bride who is so eager to shoot a trash the dress session. So when Sheila came to me and told me she was looking forward to trashing her dress, I was delighted.

I remember the first meeting I had with Sheila; she came to visit me with her parents in law and we got along immediately. I just new that this was going to be a fun wedding to shoot. When I started talking about the trash-the-dress session, Sheila’s reaction was; “no way I am trashing my dress”, so I moved on. However, the next time I met Sheila sometime before her wedding, she told me that her mother in law had talked her into doing the ttd session. I was like YES!!!

A month after her wedding day Sheila and Julio called and told me they were ready to do the ttd session and asked where we should go to shoot this. Sheila said she really didn’t care what happens to her dress. I’ve always wanted to do this session and I had a few locations in mind. One of those locations was the beach.

The day of the session was predicted to be a rainy day with thunder storm warning which in my mind translated into super cool skies. All was needed was for the rain to stop long enough for the photo session. I suggested to the couple to go to Oka beach which is local beach about 45 minutes away from Montreal. By the time we all got there, the sky had become filled with clouds and you could tell a storm was brewing. In fact it started pouring as soon as we were getting ready to begin the session. My assistant and I immediately covered our equipment and we took shelter under the nearby trees.  The rain lasted for almost an hour which meant we barely had an hour of light left in order to do the shoot. The sky was still cloudy but the colors were out of this world. Here are some of the photos we took that day:

The white dots on the shot below are mosquitoes! I had countless bites at the end of the session. A few bug repellent are on the list for next time we go there , that’s for sure.

Sheila and Julio waiting out the rain under a tree.

The heavy rain had stopped at this point so we started shooting despite the light drizzle. I am glad we did this since this is probably the best shot of the day.

Sheila and Julio go deeper into the water.

My favorite shot of the day, and probably my best shot ever. Novel cover material that’s for sure.

Last shot of the day. All I can say is wow, Sheila is stunning and my hat off to her for maintain her grace in spite of all the mosquitoes!

All and all, it was one of the most memorable session from last year. Very few brides will do this to their wedding dress, but how many end up with shots like this?

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