The Year of Jon’s Bar Mitzvah

This is Jon. If you’d like to see the slide show from his Bar Mitzvah, shoot me an email. (You can also email his parents, Jeff and Roseann, for the link. It’s an awesome slide show! I love it! Took me forever to find just the right music.)

I kind of flipped out when I walked into the ceremony room and saw the backdrop: the New York City skyline. All that one-directional light directly behind the podium meant I needed some quick-thinking lighting solutions. Considering that I don’t like to use flash during religious ceremonies, this was going to be a challenge.

I took a quick break to think. Solution: Jon has just turned 13. This will be his one and only Bar Mitzvah. My goal was to not worry so much about the ceremony itself, and instead, focus on Jon’s relationships with his friends and family.

Three of his friends hitched a ride with me to the restaurant where the ceremony was held in Jersey City. That’s my son, Brad, on the left. He’s one of Jon’s closest friends.

One solution to the lighting challenge was to shoot from the sides. Window light adds great depth to photographs when used as a sidelight instead of a backlight. And I did end up using flash on a few shots, which, thankfully, was fine with Jon’s parents.

I love all the angles in the room.

Moving around the periphery of the seated congregation allowed me to capture this nice shot of Jon’s dad.

 

Every now and then, when I anticipated a touching moment was on the way, I bounced some light in the direction of the windows. I love this shot!

Take cover! The tradition in Jon’s family is for the congregation to throw candy at the celebrant.

While Jon read from the Torah, his parents watched proudly.

Here’s another sweet moment I was happy to find in the images I captured.

This is one of my favorites — Jon’s love for his family really comes through in these pictures!

I love this one too.

After the ceremony, I went outside to gaze across the Hudson River at the New York City skyline.

Jon and his friends loved being out on the patio.

Jon’s Bar Mitzvah was on June 28. It was really hot that day, so not many adults were brave enough to hang out there.

This shot captures the younger children listening to Jeff’s speech about his son at the reception.

After the speech, a hug.

Jon’s friends were such good sports about posing for some fun shots!

YAY JONATHAN!

He likes Jelly Beans.

I love this picture too!

This was a cool alternate version of musical chairs.

The deejay did a great job entertaining kids of all ages. Before claiming your chair you had to find an object that the deejay shouted out. “A cell phone!” He also shouted out things like, “a woman’s shoe,” and later, “a man’s shoe,” which sent players scouring the roomful of mostly adult non-players to beg them for their shoes.

To end the game he shouted, “A one hundred dollar bill!” That one was tough. But here’s the secret to winning: the winner, Elizabeth, figured that the only way the deejay could ask that question was if he knew somebody who had a hundred dollar bill. So she asked HIM if he had one, and he did! I shot Elizabeth’s Bat Mitzvah a couple of years ago. Smart thinking, Elizabeth!

When the reception was over, we took a few fun family shots. (Lots more in the slide show.)

As part of my Bar Mitzvah coverage, I include a family session on a different, more relaxed day. I usually try to schedule the family session within a week or two of the main event, but this one didn’t happen until late October!

The goal of the family session is to capture the essence of the celebrant’s relationships with his core family at this turning point in his life. It also allows me the opportunity to get informal closeups and lots of fun family shots for the coffeetable book that’s included in their photography package.

I shot Sarah’s Bat Mitzvah last year. I love this shot of her. She has matured so much in a year!

Jon’s little sister, Diana, has beautiful blue eyes!

I love how Jon and his parents interact with each other. They make it so much fun for me that I have to remember to stop laughing and keep my finger on the shutter.

Just a little playful fooling around. I got lots of fun pictures of the kids at the family session.

I got some good shots of Jeff and Roseann too.

Jeff mentioned that he had just refinished the deck. Beautiful. I love family shots like this.

Jeff and Jon were showing me this beautiful Torah scroll.

Jon asked me to take some pictures of him with Diana. That’s so sweet!

Sarah was not feeling very good on the day of our family session in October. She was a real trooper though, and I love this image of her! “Not feeling very good” is an understatement. She was actually a very sick young woman. So glad you’re feeling better now, Sarah.

Thank you, Jeff, Roseann and Jon, for waiting so patiently for your slide show while I got through all my holiday card designs. I hope it was worth the wait!

Peace, and congratulations, Jon!