Nell Avery, wedding photographer in Kingston, New York

I grew up in Saugerties, learned to photograph weddings as a second shooter in Rhinebeck, and have run my own business from a studio in the Rondout since 2016.

Nell Avery crouches in tall grass photographing a couple at a wedding

Working a wedding in Accord, July 2025

How I started, and how I work now

I started in 2014, assisting a wedding photographer in Rhinebeck on weekends while I worked at a camera shop in Kingston during the week. I photographed my first wedding on my own in 2015, for a friend from school, and went full-time a year later.

Since then I’ve photographed 238 weddings. Most were within two hours of Kingston: barns in Columbia County, orchards in the Rondout Valley, lodges in the Catskills and city halls in Manhattan and Brooklyn. A few were further away, including Maine, Vermont and one in Portugal.

I take no more than 24 weddings a year, plus 8 to 10 elopements. That keeps editing to six weeks and means I arrive at every wedding rested. I edit every gallery myself, in the same studio where I meet couples.

Nell

How I work

Four things couples notice on the day

Little posing

I direct family photos and about twenty minutes of portraits. Everything else I photograph as it happens.

Two photographers

Sam and I split up for getting ready and the ceremony, so both sides of the day are covered.

Film alongside digital

One roll of Portra 400 on a Contax T2 at every wedding, developed and scanned by a lab in Brooklyn and added to your gallery.

Natural light first

No flash during ceremonies or dinner. After dark I bounce a small flash off the ceiling for the dancing, and that’s all.

Second photographer

Sam Okafor

Sam has photographed weddings with me since 2019. He lives in Poughkeepsie, makes his own portrait work during the week, and is usually the one who gets your grandmother laughing at the toasts. He comes to every Wedding Day and Weekend booking.

What we bring

Two Canon EOS R6 Mark II bodies with silent shutters

35mm f/1.4 and 85mm f/1.2 lenses

A Contax T2 loaded with Kodak Portra 400

One small flash, used only for the dancing

Memory cards recording to two slots, and every wedding kept on two drives for ten years

The studio

41 Abeel Street, Kingston

The studio is on the second floor of an 1870s brick building in the Rondout, a five-minute walk from the waterfront. It’s where I edit, meet couples and keep sample albums. Visits are by appointment, Tuesday to Friday, and there’s street parking on Abeel and Broadway.