Ben Lau Photography | International Wedding Photographer

[Wedding] Sumi & Chad – The Winery at Bull Run in Centreville, VA (Sneak Peek)

Ben Lau — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:00:26 +0000

We recently spent the weekend in Northern Virginia with our dear friends Sumi and Chad, in celebration of their beautiful nuptials at The Winery at Bull Run. Truth be told, we were totally excited about their vineyard wedding; with its open air, rustic wooden doors and endless rows of grapevines that span as far as the eyes can see. It’s not very often we get to celebrate the weddings of our friends, as we’re usually relegated to more “private” dining accommodations away from the festivities. But nevertheless, Sumi and Chad made sure we never missed a moment…starting with this one.

Sneak peek for now. Many more to come soon!

Happy Wednesday ya’ll :).

Ben & Karis

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[Engagement] Diana & Jay – Jersey City, NJ

Ben Lau — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:18:54 +0000

They sit by the window, with their backs turned to an empty cafe. A guitar instrumental is playing softly in the background, with their conversation lost in the whirling of another cappuccino behind them. She leans forward a little bit, and reaches for his hand. He smiles at her, before taking another sip from his paper cup. This was the perfect escape from the unseasonably cold weather outside, a perch from which they observed young mothers pushing their strollers along the old cobblestone streets, and urbanites rushing to their 9am kickboxing classes in the lofts above them. This was a life Diana and Jay shared on this side of the Hudson River for many years, and this was the most logical setting from which to document this momentous milestone in their lives.

Many congratulations and thanks to Diana and Jay, who came all the way from Texas and Central Jersey (hey now, we started early!) and endured the cold and cloudy weather to be with us that morning. We sincerely hope you enjoy these as much as we enjoyed capturing them.

It’s a cold and cloudy Tuesday here in Northern NJ, and we’ve been super productive with this week filled with office days (finally!). This simply means all our clients will be getting their deliveries in a timely manner :).

Ben & Karis

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Father’s Day Weekend Recap

Ben Lau — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 16:00:38 +0000

When you have a schedule that resembles an overwhelming plate of scrambled eggs with a side of meatloaf casserole (I totally just made that one up), I’ve learned that it’s generally wiser to shrink everything down to much smaller, manageable bites. While I’m very well aware of all the craziness that’ll go on in my schedule these next 12 months, I’ve been tackling all this busy-ness week by week. This is done not only for organizational purposes, but for everyone’s sanity here at Ben Lau Photography HQ (which at the moment, comprises of two photographers and a 9 month old Lil Monster).

Blues, Pinks and Greens are shooting days, Reds are meeting days, and Purples are Work-In-Your-Pajamas days.
The blank days are days we get to eat, shower and do normal human being stuff.

On Friday night, we wrapped up around 12 midnight for a wedding in Central Jersey, and I made my way down towards Maryland for an 8am shoot. Karis would leave separately and head back to Northern Jersey (a much, much shorter drive!), where she had a morning shoot as well. It was about 2am when I arrived in Delaware, where I made the executive decision to “rest my eyes” for just a bit. I suppose it could’ve been worse: I could’ve been nodding off somewhere along the NJ Turnpike :).

Almost 12 hours later, I finally pass out in my parent’s guest room (which is actually my old room, now unceremoniously converted into a storage closet with a bed). Sometime earlier that day, I learned it was Father’s Day weekend. While it’s no secret that our family’s not the sentimental type, the least I could do was buy them dinner later that evening…after my nap, of course!

My dad nearly had rice shooting out of his nose when he saw this presentation.

The following day, I visited old clients/friends for a quick meeting, and headed back home to see my wife and kids – whom at this point, have probably started selling off all my belongings. But instead, I come home to this:

My very first Father’s Day tie! The first…of many to come!

Many thanks to my kids and darling wife for making this one of the most memorable Father’s Day ever.
I would gladly sleep in the car at every rest stop in the universe to see those happy faces :).

Hope you guys all had a great weekend. We’ve got tons of awesomeness coming your way!

Ben & Karis

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[Engagement] Melissa & Joe – Philadelphia, PA

Ben Lau — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 13:54:18 +0000

Despite living in a metropolitan area of 22 million people, I’m constantly reminded of how small our world really is. Melissa is connected to us through two different brides, who belong in two very different circles. But this wasn’t the only amazing coincidence: Melissa and Joe will be tying the knot on OUR five year wedding anniversary…AT THE SAME VENUE! What better way to celebrate your anniversary, than to revisit your old reception venue to finally enjoy the food you never ate (because you were too busy hosting your guests)? This was awesome beyond words.

We met for the first time at a local NJ diner, long before I discovered the fabulous-ness of disco fries. As they went through boxes of my portfolio, I scribbled notes about their wedding day into my moleskine notebook, as I usually do. Then I hear these words (not verbatim): “…engagement…(something, something)…old airplane…(something, something)…ginger ale…(something, something)…Philadephia…”. I looked up from my notes, and watched them flip through my prints as they reminisced about the day Joe proposed…who apparently did it on an old yellow bi-plane. Wowzers.

So they wanted to go back for their engagement session. Who was I to resist?

We went to their place for a wardrobe change, and met this little fella.

Melissa and Joe, thank you for inviting us to capture this moment of your wonderful adventure together. We hope you enjoyed spending your day with us, and we hope you enjoy these images as much as we enjoyed capturing them. But most of all, we look forward to spending our anniversary with you guys!

Hope everyone has a great weekend :).

Ben & Karis

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[Engagement] Winny & Conan – Prospect Park in Brooklyn, NY

Ben Lau — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 16:28:27 +0000

This post seems to be apropos for the weather we’re getting today in the NYC area. While most couples tend to shy away from rain for their engagement sessions, our couples this season haven’t had much of a choice in the matter; it’s pretty much been raining non-stop all season long. But in good Ben Lau fashion, I reassured them that lighting is pretty awesome in the rain, and that Channing Tatum only kisses his leading ladies when it’s raining outside anyway. And yes, I just referred to myself in the 3rd person.

As we tell all our clients, the focus during portait sessions will always be the couples themselves. The shooting environment and conditions are important, albeit secondary to all the love between two people that we’re going to capture into their images. Lucky for us, Winny & Conan had plenty (of love!) to go around :). Take THAT, rain-gods!

And yes, the umbrella has planes and cars on it, because our 3 year old son gets ONLY the cool stuff :).

I should also mention, we heard through the grapevines that today is Conan’s birthday!!! So let’s all give a big happy birthday shout-out to our dear friend Conan!!! We hope you guys enjoyed these images and we can’t wait to see you guys in a few more months…in sunny California!

Here’s to more rain and rainbows :)

Ben & Karis

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