Grouping Family Photos

I will help you create a set of photos for your wall that will make you smile every time you see it!

Autumn is such a great season to have family portraits made of your family–and it’s something I love to do! The beauty of nature, the golden light, and Fall’s own special palette of colors all contribute to great photographs that you’ll want to display proudly in your home.

I specialize in capturing the spirit, beauty and joy of your family during our photo session. I also offer a Photo Decor Planning Service free of charge to my clients. Together, we’ll figure out where in your home would work best for a photo grouping, what clothes would work best with the colors on that wall, and plan an outing at a place that you love, that will be fun and yield images that your family will cherish.

I can help you transform a plain wall into a work of art

From simple groupings of same-size photos to more elaborate designs with multiple sizes, I’ll design and send you accurate previews of how your chosen set of photos will appear on the wall you’ve chosen. It’s a fantastic way to see just how beautiful and harmonious a particular combination of photographs can be. When I design exhibitions of my own work, I find that the art of choosing the images and sizes that work best together is like creating a whole new piece of art that is more powerful than the individual pieces.

Once we have created a group of images that you love, I will have the photos printed to the exact size–on canvas, metal, or traditionally framed–and will deliver and install the photos as well! Let’s get together soon to plan a set of images that will show your family’s love and enliven your walls. A one-hour planning session is free of charge through the end of October. To secure an appointment, call 518-329-6239 or email me at bd@bdocktor.com.

To see more of the natural, on-location portraits I love to make, click here.

I also provide this service for offices and businesses using stunning photographs of the landscape, nature, and animals. Click here to see some of these spaces. Imagine what you’d love to see on your walls–at home or at work–and let’s create it!

Preserve your memories of your family togetherness with

my Summer Portrait Special–for humans and pets alike!

• One-hour professional pet or portrait session at the location of your choice, within 20 minutes from Ancram*

• Sixteen selected photos preserved in a beautiful 5×7″ flush-mount album with rigid, lay-flat pages

• Six of these images printed on a 4×4″ cube–a great summer souvenir and gift!

• Low-resolution versions of the chosen album photos so you can share them easily on Facebook and other social media

• Access to online viewing and purchasing from the full set of of session photos–in your choice of sizes and formats–for up to two weeks after they are posted**

• You approve my album and cube designs before they are manufactured.

• The 4-inch photo cube is fabulous, but if you’re not interested in it, you can purchase my Summer Portrait Package without the cube for $499.

Summer Special: $599

Call now to book your summer session: 518-329-6239.

Offer expires August 19, 2016

* Travel fee is $.50 per minute each way, beyond 20 minutes from Ancram

 **Regular print prices apply for items other than 5×7 album and 4×4 cube. See pricelist here.

WHY HIRE A PRO PHOTOGRAPHER

when you can make pictures with your phone?

Here are some answers, in photos and captions:

Capturing the essential moment of kids in action!

It’s not easy for you to capture all of the action and humor and fun with your pets!

Posing, lighting, everybody looking happy and fabulous!

Book now! 518-329-6239

Award-winning photographer B. Docktor specializes in capturing the spirit, beauty and joy of your family and pets. Photos full of love and life–for the time of your life in pictures–call B at 518-329-6239. Working on location in the Hudson Valley, Berkshires, NYC, North Jersey.

SUMMER PORTRAIT SPECIAL

Having the time of your life? Preserve your memories of your family togetherness with my portrait package–for humans and pets alike! 

• One-hour professional pet or portrait session at the location of your choice, within 20 minutes from Ancram*

• Seventeen selected photos preserved in a beautiful 5×7″ flush-mount album with rigid, lay-flat pages

• Six of these images printed on a 4×4″ cube–a great summer souvenir and gift!

• Low-resolution versions of the chosen album photos so you can share them easily on Facebook and other social media

• Access to online viewing and purchasing from the full set of of session photos–in your choice of sizes and formats–for up to two weeks after they are posted**

You approve my album and cube design before it is printed.

Summer Special: $599

Call now to book your summer session: 518-329-6239.

Offer expires August 19, 2016

* Travel fee is $.50 per minute each way, beyond 20 minutes from Ancram    

**Regular print prices apply for items other than 5×7 album and 4×4 cube. See pricelist here.

WHY HIRE A PRO PHOTOGRAPHER

when you can make pictures with your phone?

Here are some answers, in photos and captions:

Figuring out what will make for a beautiful image and being able to capture it!

The essence of so many of our pets is in their movement–so tough to capture, especially if they’re black!

Getting YOU into the photo! You’re so focused on photographing your kids so you can remember what they looked like at this stage. But how about them remembering what you looked like? And more importantly, seeing how happy you were to be with them!!

Finding the essential moment of togetherness, great action and beauty!

Again, having YOU in the photo. Even if you were lucky enough to get everyone together in this beautiful light, the phone isn’t going to cut it when the dock is surrounded by water and the only place to stand is the next dock 100 feet away.

Capturing action that’s happening at a distance away and moves super-fast

Book now! 518-329-6239

Award-winning photographer B. Docktor specializes in capturing the spirit, beauty and joy of your family and pets. Photos full of love and life–for the time of your life in pictures–call B at 518-329-6239. Working on location in the Hudson Valley, Berkshires, NYC, North Jersey.

As I do on-location portrait and pet photography  in the Hudson Valley and Berkshires, it’s no wonder that autumn is everyone’s favorite time for outdoor sessions. We only have a few prime days for doing this, so please call now to book: 518-329-6239.

What an incredibly beautiful summer we’ve had! I had a blast photographing some fabulous parties and weddings and family gatherings. I would absolutely love the opportunity to photograph what’s meaningful to you. Your family, your pet, the parties you give, weddings, birthdays, anniversaries. Whatever it is that lights you up–that’s what I want to photograph for you in a way that makes you feel happy every time you see that image.

TO SEE MORE OF MY PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY, CLICK ANY PHOTO

Family Photography Dutchess County, Harlem Valley: 

Is this little guy cute enough? This is the kind of family photography session that I absolutely love to do. To begin with, we had the perfect spot for on-location lifestyle portraits,

here in the Hudson Valley–southern Columbia County, NY. 

Then the ingredient that makes for natural portraits: getting people moving and doing what they love to do together. My passion is to make photos that show emotion, joy, love–

the real moments of your family’s life–essential moments.

Photos that have staying power . . . that will be cherished for generations. 

Amy said “I couldn’t be more thrilled with the portraits you made of our family.

We had so much fun, and we LOVE these photos!”

Making photos full of love and life–that gives meaning to my life. Thanks Amy, Reed, and Rob.

I had a ball too! 

TO SEE MORE OF MY PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY, CLICK ANY PHOTO

Saturday September 6, 2014 at 6pm with photo exhibit

Essential Moments at the Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center

300 Wall Street, Kingston NY

I’m honored to have the opportunity to present a range of work on subjects that captivate me: the importance of family pictures, the beauty of the people, animals, and landscape of our region. Of course any time I exhibit photographs, the choice of work is limited by the space, so it’s great fun to have a chance to show lots of images that don’t usually get seen. The Virginia Apuzzo Hall at The Center is a great big space, so I am lucky to be able to show a wide range of work–from Hudson Valley farm animals to landscapes of our region, to a set of dog portraits, to a set of photos of gay folks that I’ve never exhibited. When I put that last set together, I felt like I was making a present to my younger self, as a group of images like that would have been unimaginable in the 1960s.

The slideshow will include some images of from my childhood to show where my love of family photography started. My father was an illustrator/artist who used photography, and we had a darkroom in our house. There will be a range of photos of people, nature, animals, and pets. It will be a big dose of beauty–I hope you can come out!  Here are a few images that’ll be in the slideshow. Click on any photo to see more on my website.

The Center has a big screen and projector and it’ll be a wonderful chance to get together, to talk and ask questions, to connect in enjoyment of beauty.

The exhibit Essential Moments will be at the Center through September 30. The Center’s business hours are 9:30 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday, and during the Uptown Kingston Farmer’s Market from 10 am – 2 pm most Saturdays. 845-331-5300

Essential Moments: Photographs by B. Docktor

at the Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center in Kingston, NY

Opening reception July 12, 2014 from 4-6pm. All are welcome.

The show will run through September 30, 2014.

Virginia Apuzzo Hall in the Center’s lovely old building at the corner of Wall and John Streets is a large room that allows me to show a broad range of work. Here’s what I’ll be showing: animals from Columbia and Dutchess County farms are seen up close in a way that we rarely get to view them–alpacas, goats, cows, and sheep with personality!

Also showing uplifting images of flowers, water, and landscapes. Every exhibit that I do gives me the chance to see how these images work in different spaces, in different configurations. I love this design process; figuring out how to piece together the puzzle to make it look like the work was created just for this space. Aside from the joy of making the images, I really get into combining them to make something more powerful than one image alone, and seeing how they change the feel of a space.

I was encouraged by Marcuse Pfeifer, the former NYC gallerist and manager of the Center’s exhibitions, to show photos that I don’t usually exhibit. One of these sets is of dogs and features the kind of spontaneous, unposed movement that I love to capture.

The other set is a group of images of gay people, which I want to show simply because I have them, they are rarely seen, and in general we hardly every get to see images of lesbians and gays. I don’t think I’ve ever seeing a group like this exhibited–some are of gay weddings and couples I’ve photographed in the last few years; some are friends, some are well known lesbian performers.

I grew up in the 50s and 60s knowing I was gay and never seeing images of gay people. I remember the first time I ever saw an out person in print. It was author Merle Miller on the cover of the New York Times Magazine in 1971, with his piece “What It Means To Be A Homosexual.” That photo and his article affected me so deeply because at that time, we never saw anything like that in the mainstream press. We were starved for information about each other. Thank goodness for change, for having an LGBTQ Center, and for the lovely folks who opened up to me and my camera.

Apuzzo Hall is named for Ginny Apuzzo, the Founding President of the Hudson Valley LGBTQ Center, and one of our nation’s great gay and lesbian rights activists. The Center is at 300 Wall Street and is open 9:30-5:00 Monday-Friday and 10-2 most Saturdays. The show will run through September 30, 2014.

The photography of B. Docktor will be featured at the Roe Jan Library September 4-October 6, 2013. The opening reception is September 6 from 5:30-7:30 and the library is at 9091  Rt. 22 in Hillsdale NY, about a mile south of the Rt. 22/23 intersection.

Versatile Ancram photographer, B. Docktor photographs everything from families to animals, landscapes and nature, to weddings, performances and events. Whether the subject is people or nature, her work always brings the comment: “Wow, that’s stunningly gorgeous!” She has a knack for capturing the most essential moments that convey the spirit and beauty of what she sees. 

To help the Roe Jan Library celebrate its 100th anniversary, Docktor donated many hours to making a community portrait of the people who make up the library community. She photographed staff, reading groups, performances, workshops, donors, artists, writers, individuals using the library, and many groups who volunteer in various ways to serve the library. “I wanted to create a portrait of this very giving, diverse, and extremely talented community who use and serve the library.” 

“For the library exhibit, I am putting up photographs that feature the beauty of our area, as well as selections from the RJCL Community Portrait. I love where I live, and I so enjoy making images that show off our landscape, nature and animals. We’ll also have a slideshow of the RJCL Community Portrait playing during the opening reception which I hope will foster conversation and connection between people who may recognize each other, but don’t really know each other,” said Docktor. 

The show is called “Essential Moments,” and runs from the opening reception 5-7pm on September 6 to October 4.

The owner of the P.J. Clarke’s restaurants, Phil Scotti, told me that P.J. Clarke’s has the best bartenders in Manhattan. He wanted me to use my ability to capture real moments, to show people at their best, and to convey what really goes on in photographs for the P.J. Clarke’s website. What a fun job! I spent a few days going from their legendary original location at 915 Third Avenue, to the vibrant 44 West 63rd restaurant across from Lincoln Center, to the P.J. Clarke’s on the Hudson at 4 World Financial Center. At each place, I could see why people love to go there–everyone is welcoming, the food is great, and the bartenders are so friendly! I really enjoyed watching them interact with the folks at the bar. Not that I have spent much time hanging out at bars–but I never before had seen bartenders saying hello and shaking hands. I also love the classic look–all in white shirt and black tie. There is a timeless feel about these bars–especially the uptown locations. I love making photographs that stand the test of time, and I think these photos will do that. I never get tired of looking at a photo that makes me smile, and these images do that for me–it’s hard to tell what year it is, and there’s sense of joy and connection that comes through these bartenders’ faces. Have any great stories about hanging out at P.J. Clarke’s?