Why should I choose you to photograph my wedding?

Do you just want pictures, or do you want meaningful pictures?

Compare my photos to most other photographers and you will find more emotion, more expression and more feeling – here!

I started young, and have always believed the only thing constant is change.

While most photographers today are either old or not so fluent in the digital world, or they are young with only a few years of experience, I am very experienced, but having gone 100% digital in 2001, have comfort, fluency and skill with the medium very hard to match.   So it is the best of both worlds.

My theatrical background, and parents in both artistic and technical fields, both feeling the image, and creating it are natural to me.

For twenty years I worked for the most demanding, particular and high end wedding photographers in NYC and the metro area.   Unlike so many freelance and independent photographers, who assist a few months and then think they are experts, I actually had my own studio in my early twenties.   But I realized there was much more to know and that being a photographer was much more than just taking pictures.   I closed my studio and worked for others, who were experts in their niche, with generations of experience and strong technical skills.

Back then, photographers worked for one studio, due to conflict of interest.  But my work, passion and reliability, led to my working for the top three studios simultaneously as clients requested me, or the studios needed me.   Ultimately I became known as a photographic artist.  My clients would use those and other endearing terms.   Each project was different.  I approached it in a unique way.   While studios very often want to sell a specific type of shots or shot sequences, I would fine tune my approach based on the feel I got from the client, the subject, the event.   Often persons cannot know what they will want or like in advance of an event.   And then they are not in any mind set to discuss, or decide.  And there is no time.  So much must be done by feel.  My artistic and technical goals were to make each project special.  To do justice to the event, its participants and the craft of photography.

My work was extremely photojournalistic, for before that word was used.   It also could be very classical, flattering and “perfect”.  Romantic fantasy and glamor were other looks I brought to events that were simply not familiar to the studio staffs responsible for completing albums and prints from my shoots.  Studios often would follow through in a mechanical and automatic way.  Thus I left to offer clients the artist’s vision from start to end.

And Here I am for you.  For those who want something special, flattering and meaningful.

My portraits involve verbal direction as I pose you to look your best, or a natural conversational style that combines the best qualities of posed shots with the best of a candid style, so you look great and feel great too.

My lighting changes and is appropriate for each shot.

Candid photography candid, truly photojournalistic… called advanced photojournalism due to it’s skillful use of light while documenting the unexpected and momentary. This very unique approach elevates candid shots from the common snapshots so many professionals do, to the look of great photographs.

Always on the cutting edge of technology but with a vast skill set from years of experience, the photo shoot can be lightning fast and efficient, and my coverage of the event is unobtrusive and easy.

Photography and video both involve light, timing, the same people, and occurs together in one place.   It makes sense to have one technical and artistic person in charge of both the photography and video.  It makes sense to avoid a paparazzi situation, and have a harmonious crew, rather than a competing and fragmented crew.   Rabenko Photography and Video Arts offers the best in both still photography and Videography ( today called cinematography, film, or motion).   I have many articles here to help you understand the situation and make the right decision.

Gary Rabenko may be reached at gary@rabenko.com. Rabenko Photography & Video Artists is located at 1001 Broadway in Woodmere.