Another great wedding to show from earlier of this year. It was definitely one of the most colorful events of the summer; filled with rituals, vibrant colors and laughter.

A few wedding day highlights are shown bellow.

Enjoy

Autumn is a very popular season for engagement sessions. The leafs are falling and the colors are vibrant.   I’d like to post one of many engagement sessions I was privileged to photograph this Fall.

This particular session took place hours away from Toronto in a small town

Another great wedding to show you.  Bride and groom pictures were shot in 2 locations.

Reception was held at the National Banquet Hall in Toronto.  I was actually very impressed at the food setups, choices and all the presentation at this venue.

As always, I had a hard time narrowing down my favourites so here’s a slideshow with about 90 images. For those who are too lazy to click, you can view some of them in here too

Before I post a wedding sometime over the next few days,I’d like to announce that 2 of my images won a 1st and 2nd place at WPPI  International Image Competition.It is the most regarded wedding and portrait photo competition in the world!

5 additional images also received Accolades of Excellence.

In the other news, there are still some dates left available for 2011.

Another beautiful wedding from Sudbury, Ontario.

The morning started with the guys going over the speeches, jet skiing and playing tennis in the courtyard. 10 minutes away from the guys, girls were getting ready at the bride’s parents house.

Reception and the dinner took place in an airplane hangar(decorated so beautifully, it looked better than many wedding venues!) by the house and the wedding ceremony was in a field nearby.

It was more of a photojournalistic and natural coverage than usual and I absolutely enjoyed it.

I always have trouble narrowing down pictures for the blog.  I mean, how do you tell a complete story and emotions with just 30-50 pictures?  What do you do with the rest 700 moments?!   Took me half an hour to cut down to 150 images and 2 more hours to cut them down to 60.

Off Topic: Thank you so much to everyone who sends me feedback and notes about my work. I greatly appreciate your support and love. I feel honored and blessed. After so many years I enjoy what I do more and more and it’s an amazing feeling to know my photography touches other people. THANK YOU!!

A lot of people ask me about my age. I think for some reason I look younger.  Just to show you my real age and experience I will showcase a few images from a wedding I photographed right after I turned 28. It was about 500 years ago and times were rough.

Back then there were no white dresses or 3-piece suits.  Brides wore beautiful gowns and grooms wore their victory armor and weapons.  Because of all the “bling”, wedding party often would get attacked by thieves. This wedding was no exception as his highness was attacked by a red knight. After a long heroic battle, groom ended the fight with a straight kick to the…lower part of the body,ending the fight. His magesty was in a good mood and he let the knight go.

**History Lesson**   After the red knight lost,he spent 3 months in a hospital and got a new name “The Black Knight”.

The celebration ended at the beautiful castle of  Pavilion Royale in the magical little village of Toronto, where bride and groom spent all evening and all night with 700 people who lived in that tiny town.

It all happened so long ago it is possible I mixed up a few things(not likely!).  Back in the days I used to have an amazing photographic memory,but now I often forget to put a memory card…

Enjoy

Last month was extremely busy and I am running about 3 days behind my schedule(should fix that by next week). It’s been over a month since my last post and I had to find some time to post.  I’ve also been getting a lot of inquiries for 2010,but it’s been fully booked for quite some time now.  Some 2011 weekends are still available so please get in touch asap to make sure your date is available!

Back to the wedding!!
Here are a few pictures from an amazing wedding that took place in New Liskeard, Ontario.  It was my first time being that far north and apart from the wedding itself, I really enjoyed the atmosphere and people in this small town. Even got a chance to attend a local horse show/tournament!!

The day started at a hotel,where Jason was getting ready with the boys. Cynthia was getting ready at her parent’s farm.    I felt like I could just photograph there forever!  The surrounding area was just beautiful.  It did rain a bit in the morning,but the rest of the day was dry,with  awesome “angry clouds”.

After the church we went to a local park, followed by more shots at the farm and nearby fields.

Enjoy

A few months ago I had a chance to photograph another great wedding in Toronto. With Egyptian background Phoebe and Peter got married at The Virgin Mary and St. Athanasius orthodox church, and their reception took place at The Jewel Banquet Centre.

This couple wanted some edgy pictures  so we went to The Brickworks, which turned out to be a great location.  As I’ve shot their engagement session at The Distillery last year, I knew they would OWN this location too 

It was a great day with lots of laughs and a few happy tears.

A few pictures from that day are shown bellow.

Recently I had a chance to be a part of an amazing wedding in Rome. Stunning architecture definitely puts Italy as one of the top places to get married in.

Bellow are about 50 images from 2 days of shooting. While  the 1st day was more about the wedding and traditions(Chinese tea ceremony,games,family,friends,reception, dances,etc), the second day was all about the couple and the gorgeous city of Rome.

There’s so much more I could write,but because pictures can tell you 1000x more, I will let you all experience a TINY portion of those 2 days.

Yesterday I was happy to find one of my images on the main site of National Geographic as Photo Of The Day.

It’s a photograph of Jen, whose wedding I photographed earlier this year in Varadero, Cuba.  This particular image was taken during the Trash The Dress session, a day after the wedding in the beautiful city of Havana.

Link –>  National Geographic :: Dmitri Markine

Here’s the image

Happy to announce PhotoEd  magazine wrote a 6-page feature about me in their 2010  Spring/Summer issue.

The whole issue of this educational photography magazine is all about wedding photography!

Big thanks to Felix Russo for the opportunity and Lara Wheeler for a lovely article!!

I was going to post this on Thursday,but looked at the date and it was April 1st. I figured some would think it’s a joke and I decided  just wait a day

April-May issue of Photo life and Photo Solution magazines are out and it’s a feature on 5 wedding studios in Canada.  It definitely felt good to represent Ontario and be among 4 other great wedding studios from all parts of Canada.

I am also happy to mention that  one of my images  is on the cover of Photo Solution Magazine.

Thanks to Valérie Racine & Véronica Gill from Photo Life  and all my clients who always inspire me!

Very recently I came back from Cuba where I was documenting a fabulous destination wedding.  This wedding took place at Iberostar Laguna Azul resort in Varadero. This resort is so new that many locals don’t know about its existence yet(including taxi drivers).

It rained  a bit on the day and the ceremony location had to be changed.  However, everyone kept laughing the whole day and enjoying the warm weather.

A day after, we took a taxi to Havana for the TTD session.   Upon return to the resort a few more shots were taken on the beach at sunset and in the water.

My goal for this wedding was to try and capture a part of the history,culture,beautiful landscapes and architecture; to make sure it’s all well incorporated into the images.

Often I was taking an image of just the scenery and then trying to figure out where to put the bride and the groom.  Also, with some luck we were allowed to take pictures in a number of forbidden places where no one is allowed. YaY!

As always, thank you so much for sharing your day with me and allowing me to capture all the great moments.

They will be forever and ever with you in the pictures.

A few images and a 4-minute slideshow are bellow 

Can’t believe it’s been so long since my last post. March was unusually busy. Weddings, engagements, 2 trips, acquisition of a studio and no internet(other than “free” slow wifi from a neighbour).

This couple got married on Valentine’s Day!! Next Valentine’s day weekend will happen in 2015.
Their ceremony and reception were held at the beautiful Atlantis Pavilion Hall. It was a real joy photographing this fun wedding.

Another winter wedding from earlier of this year. It was a cold day, but we were still able to spend some time outside and get a number of great shots. The day finished at the Paradise Banquet Hall in Toronto, which has a very European look.  That really worked great with this couple and their Polish heritage.

It was hard to choose my favorites,but here are a few from that day