Shooting style: David beautifully and skillfully uses lighting and camera technique, going for natural lighting as much as possible. He has perfected the craft of making available light work its magic, using secondary lighting where needed in an unobtrusive way to create stunning portraiture. His experience in fashion photography infuses his images, ensuring that his photographs deliver both technically and artistically.

Personality: Direct, creative, purposeful, disciplined, polite, sophisticated, courteous

How David describes his work: My goal is to get the shots that tell the story of the event in an artistic way. I feel my job is to make beautiful images regardless of whether it’s easy or not. I think years of experience help make it possible to always find a creative spin on things. Sometimes people tell me in effect that “the photo looks even better than I remember it.” That is probably the highest compliment because it is really my mission. Or someone will say… “My God how did you get that?! I didn’t even know that happened!” These types of comments keep the passion of photography alive for me.

What he loves about shooting weddings and mitzvahs: Capturing unexpected moments that are packed with emotion and make the viewer feel something powerful. A wedding or Bar Mitzvah is a once-in- a-lifetime occurrence that should be captured by an artist, so when you go back and look at the photographs years from now the memories are as well recorded and craftily preserved in photographic form as you remember them in your mind’s eye.

Portrait philosophy: I have to switch gears mentally and in a sense become another photographer during the portrait session. It’s the one time in the day where I’m called upon to be in control and direct the action. Portraits are “required by law” and I love shooting them when I have a couple that enjoys working with me creatively. That’s when we can really make magical images.

Other creative outlets: I pretty much knocked down my house two years ago and re-built it just the way my wife and I wanted it. This has been very rewarding on many levels. And it puts in perspective for me how physical labor can be a very creative endeavor.

How he got started: I went to film school and while there I studied photography as a second major because filmmaking and photography are so related and I had an interest in both areas. Once I arrived in New York I found it difficult to get anything done in film and began to focus on being a photographer, which became my career. I do feel that my photos have a cinematic feel because of my background working in filmmaking.

If he wasn’t a photographer, he would be…. An architect and builder

Fun fact: I shot something called “film” back in the day, and I developed my own prints in the ‘dark-room,’ a cave-like environment where photos had to be made in pitch black! It was a very scary experience.