People are sometimes surprised that one studio does weddings and Mitzvahs and live streaming and school work. The clearest way to explain it is to walk through a real Saturday in the spring — five jobs, three towns and the city, one team splitting and re-forming through the day.
6:40am — the gear wall
Everything is staged the night before against call sheets: five kits, each labelled. Two full wedding kits (two bodies, fast primes, a zoom, flashes, backup cards, a spare of everything), a Mitzvah kit, a two-camera streaming rig with a mixer and a cellular bonding unit, and a compact portrait kit for the Sweet 16 session. Batteries charged, cards formatted, contracts and timelines printed. The unglamorous half of the job is logistics.
9:15am — Bar Mitzvah, a temple in Nassau County
The synagogue doesn’t allow photography during the service, so we’re there early for a portrait session at the bimah — the young man alone, then family, then each set of grandparents. We photograph arrivals and the recessional, then hand off: one photographer stays with this family through the luncheon, while the lead heads to the wedding. A second small crew will come back tonight for the party, the hora and the candle lighting.
11:00am — wedding, a Gold Coast estate
The lead joins the second photographer already shooting the couple getting ready. From here it’s the full arc: details, first look, portraits, the ceremony on the lawn, family formals off a written list, the introductions and first dance. We’ve run a light ceremony stream off a single locked camera for the couple’s grandparents in Arizona — unlisted link, feed from the officiant’s mic. A film crew of two is working the same timeline, positions agreed that morning.
2:30pm — a memorial live stream, a funeral home in Suffolk
Booked Thursday. This is a different discipline entirely: one camera, held still, set back and to the side, a single discreet microphone at the lectern, an unlisted link for family who couldn’t travel, and a recording delivered afterward. The operator arrives an hour early, sets up before anyone comes in, and is essentially invisible for the service. Then packs quietly and leaves.
4:30pm — Sweet 16 portrait session, before the party
Forty-five minutes with a sixteen-year-old in her gown on a venue staircase and in the garden, before doors open and before anything gets spilled. Calm, unhurried portraits for the sign-in board and the wall at home — the opposite energy to what the room will be like in three hours. See our Sweet 16 guide for why this session matters.
5:00pm onward — everyone converges on the evening events
The wedding rolls into golden-hour portraits, dinner, toasts and open dancing until the band stops. The Mitzvah night crew is shooting the entrance and the hora across the county. The Sweet 16 becomes a full party after the portrait session. Editors will start culling tomorrow; galleries go out over the following weeks, previews first.
Why one studio does all of it
Because the skills overlap and the coordination is the hard part. A team that can plan camera positions for a photographer, a film crew and a stream operator in one diagram — and that has shot your venue before — gives you fewer vendors, one timeline and one point of contact. Whether you’re planning a wedding, a Mitzvah, a celebration, a graduation or a service that needs streaming, it’s the same studio and the same standards.
Richard Black Studio covers weddings, Bar & Bat Mitzvahs, Sweet 15 & 16 celebrations and special events across Long Island and New York — photography, films and professional live streaming from one team. Tell us what you’re planning and we’ll send availability and a quote.