About

I’m a New York City-based photographer of portraits, elopements, and intimate weddings. Basically, taking photos of other human beings at happy moments is my thing.

I am lucky to be able to capture the memories of young families, intimate backyard weddings, New York City elopements, and to make people who need online dating profile photos look fantastic. I’ve recently started to specialize in creative corporate head shots, and have worked with folks of all sizes, shapes, and genders who come to me to strip down boldly for boudoir photos.

Home is Brooklyn, and I travel absolutely everywhere.

Of course you should book me as soon as possible, but I can make bad time crunches work usually, especially during the week. If you and your sweetie just decided you want to elope next Thursday, get in touch. If I’m not free, chances are I can direct you to someone who is.

I am: pro-breast feeding, anti-discrimination, body positive, and trans-, queer-, etc. friendly. I am also unwaveringly dedicated to marriage equality, and am not afraid to get dirty, climb high, sweet-talk, and wedge myself in a goofy position to get good shot.

I like cheese, Chucks, micro brews, holding babies, my two old mutt dogs, dressing up in sparkly dresses, and really good coffee.

If that sounds good, you can get in touch with me by going to my contact page here.

About you:

Weddings and Elopements

You think the most important part of your wedding is that you get to marry the sexiest person in the world, not that the napkins match the flowers.

Eloping at City Hall is your style and you like the idea of a photographer that can help you navigate the process.

Having fun at your wedding hugging friends, toasting your new spouse and dancing your ass off is what you are most excited about, and you are probably more likely to do it in a barn, old New England inn, or converted warehouse in Brooklyn rather than a country club ballroom overlooking a golf course.

You’re getting married somewhere in Central Park with a tiny handful of friends and family.

Photos of beautiful details are important to you, second only to photos of happy faces.

Portraits & Headshots

The idea of family photos in a with a fake studio background makes you cringe.

The idea of schlepping your kids to a department store studio makes you cringe.

You just joined OKCupid, and the only photos of yourself you could find on Facebook to post were poorly lit and unflattering so you need a fun photographer that will make you look good (and, let’s be frank, bangable).

Your child with autism has a hard time sitting still for a photo and you need a photographer who is experienced, loving and patient when working with kids on the spectrum.

Getting naked for a boudoir shoot is intimidating but you really want to take sexy shots anyway.

You write a blog, are a doctor or lawyer, or need a quick-but-good shot for LinkedIn and don’t want to spend a lot of time or money getting one done.

Pregnancy is thrilling you, and you want awesome, non-cheesy maternity photos totally nude in your living room or frolicking with your soon-to-be-coparent/main squeeze on the streets of New York City.

Your toddler is “a handful”, and you need a photographer who can both charm her and keep up.

My Approach and artistic style for Weddings & Elopements

I’m what the blog A Practical Wedding once called a Modern Traditional Photographer. This means that while I employ creative angles and modern editing techniques in my work, I fell in love with wedding photos as a child while poring over my grandmother’s very traditional album. When I was four, I got my hands on my first Polaroid camera, and at age fifteen taught myself photography using my mom’s college text books and ’79 Canon. My early traditional influences, plus my deep affection for portrait photography, will give you relaxed portraits that will thrill your posterity as much as my grandma’s 1951 wedding album thrills me.

At elopements and weddings I take a natural approach, photographing things as they really happen, telling the story of your day without creating stiff scenarios or manipulating your joyful moments into my “perfect photograph”. (For instance, if I take a photo of your sister fixing your veil, it’s because she actually fixed it and I caught the moment, not because I suggested it would make a cute photo.) I have no qualms about tucking back a lock of hair or a righting an askew bow tie for the posed portraits, and put an emphasis on capturing the visual details of your wedding (whether it be centerpieces or a a close up of your bow tie), but I firmly believe that your wedding is not a photo shoot. It’s a happy, imperfect event.

If you are an elopement couple, we’ll create fun photos together of the two of you in the moments just before and after you get hitched in addition to your ceremony, taking advantage of whatever surroundings you are eloping in to tell the story of your day.

Honestly, I think weddings are awesome, and if there’s music you’ll eventually find me on the dance floor, too, towards the end of the night. I discovered that guests respond warmly and are willing to pose for silly dance photos if I’m in with them, and anyway, I can’t stand still if the music is bumping. These shots of your friends and family having an amazing time at your wedding will be your favorites.

Portraits & Headshots

For portrait sessions we’ll get to know one another and I’ll figure out how to pose you (or your group) so that you look amazing. We’ll stop when we need to for fussy babies, fussy toddlers and fussy adults. If you can’t “hold a smile”, I’ll make sure you still look amazing (here’s a secret: I can’t hold one either, so I get it.) If you feel weird in front of the camera, you will probably be more comfortable than usual in front of mine – this is what people tell me all the time.

Fun stuff:

You can “Like” me on Facebook, check out my iPhone photography project at AmberMarlow.tumblr.com, be my friend on Instagram, and follow me on Pinterest to see what I think is pretty.

Here is my contact form. Say hello! Oh, and here is what I look like:

photo by Lydia Royce

P.P.S. In addition to my good reviews on Yelp, I get love notes:

Helen P. -

“She manages to come off as genuinely happy without my wanting to hit her in the face with my shoe. Also, her shots are honest but stunning.”

Christina M. -

Danielle D. -

“I wanted to thank you for all of the amazing pictures! I love so many of them.  They are better than I imagined they would be. I will recommend you to anyone I know that may be looking for a photographer.”

Allison S. -

“Just a quick note to say that the pictures are so fantastic! We looked through them again and again last night; even [our 9 month old] was smiling when he saw each of them. We’re having a hard time figuring out favorites to choose for our Christmas card…”

C. P. -

…we really enjoyed spending time with you! In fact, J. and I both commented on how much it wasn’t like having our photos taken – it was more like a fun day hanging out

R. F. -

We really enjoyed our photo shoot with you — thank you for making it so much fun and not intimidating at all! I felt like we were just goofing around with a friend, and we both just really felt relaxed. And you are a natural with babies!

Karin P. -

We had an absolutely great time with you – and you know, it’s not easy to be so smoochy in front of a complete stranger, especially as a gay person who doesn’t generally make large public displays of affection. For me, a part of the reason why I opted to not hire a professional photographer for our wedding was because so many of the ones available [where we got married] had portfolios that exclusively showcased straight couples in traditional and posed photographs… and we decided it just wasn’t worth the money or risk. Had we seen a portfolio like yours, where someone is clearly talented at capturing those cute-couple moments, regardless of gender, we might’ve decided differently.

Jennifer E. -

I LOVE THE SHOTS YOU TOOK.  Your CD arrived on a day that Matilda was doing poorly and it really cheered me up to know I have her documented so well.  And the shots of Annie are a great start to our life together.

Again – you were a great surprise!  It was wonderful to meet you – hope to work with you again!

Lisa J. -

For two camera-shy humans (and one prima donna cat), she was the perfect photographer: relaxed, creative, and above all, fun! Not gonna say it never felt awkward, but we are talking people who had–until Amber’s intervention–a mere handful of photos of us together in 4 years of dating (while having, of course, 500+ photos of our cat!). She even made our crappy apartment look less crappy.

Laura C. -

Let me tell you Amber is the bees knees and I will never quit singing her praises. My fiance and I were so nervous before the shoot and that immediately went away once we met Amber. She is super down-to-earth and hip and cool without being hipster pretentious. We were immediately joking about completely inappropriate subjects and we had a blast and it shows in our photos.

Meg Keene of A Practical Wedding -

I’m not usually a fan of the boudoir photo session, partially because of the distinctly un-feminist language they are normally cloaked in. … they tend to range from cheese-tastic to whoa-PORN? And meeeeh. Not my thing. BUT, Amber has this way of taking the girls-girl boudoir pictures that are sexy-as-hell, and help you see yourself as you are: HOT. And I think maybe you should take some.