With this summer being a busy one on the wedding front, I’ve had quite a few engagement sessions to schedule, so here’s a look at three Spring favourites.
First up with Josh and Kelsey – and Riley, of course! You may remember these guys from one of their earlier sessions (check out their maternity and newborn shoots for more on these three), where they rocked it with style, but they really owned it this time around. I scouted out their area and got permission to use a piece of private property (the owner thought I was nuts J ), and couldn’t have been happier with my find. These guys are country people, so this barn/warehouse seemed like a perfect fit, and the colours really worked for them. I loved that we got to play around with the sun bursting through the windows as the session went on.
These guys are so great to work with; Kelsey is just gorgeous and Josh complements her perfectly. As for Riley… it’s impossible for me to not love that little smile! She was in fantastic spirits and was happy to be lifted into the air and show off her baby grins, and she completely won me over. Again. :P
When a pair take direction as well as these two, it makes me so excited to work with them on their big day. Stay tuned this summer!
Here are a few favourites from this fun shoot:
Next up were Tessa and Adam, who brought me to Tessa’s uncle’s cottage for some photos with the two of them and their dogs. I’m a huge fan of BIG dogs, so I burst into excited laughter when I discovered that Adam is the owner of a St Bernard. Owning that type of dog does mean that the dogs don’t get to put in an appearance until everything else is done, though, since Angus comes with an accessory – a drool towel. :P
We arrived at the cottage at the perfect time: the sun was slanting across the island and landing right on a tiny patch of land sticking out of the St Lawrence about 50 feet offshore. Tessa and Adam hopped into a paddleboat to make the short trip over while I went wading in the (very chilly!) river, and we set about showing Adam that engagement photos don’t have to be a painful process – and can, in fact, be fun. :)
We kept this session uber-casual; I wasn’t looking for tons of posing and wanted to keep everything as natural as possible so that Adam could get a feel for how I work on a wedding day, so I sent them for a little walk along the shore before having them come back for some shots with the dogs and a few in front of a beautiful tree that was in full blossom.
To continue the good-luck-with-weather trend, we got back to the cars just as lightning started to flash over the river and the downpour started mere minutes later. When I have a session as awesome as this one, though, I couldn’t care less what the weather does after we’re finished!
Highlights? Yeah, I’ve got a few (dozen):
Last, and definitely not least, in this little series are Mitch and Ashley. These guys live waaaaaaay out in the country on an absolutely gorgeous property (seriously. I’d camp out there if I could.), so it made perfect sense for them to do the session right at home. We came up with a plan to work in some lanterns, some vintage bits and pieces that we all had accumulated, and set about planning a shoot under their apple trees.
There’s a lot to be said about location choices. In the right location, I see couples really come to life and show more of their personality than I see in locations with no personal significance. The reason for this is pretty simple: if you’re already at ease in your surroundings, you’re going to be much more at ease once we start working together. As with Tessa and Adam, this was very evident when it came to this pair, and I commented to my husband after I got home about how….natural… they seemed in front of the camera. It’s not often that I get couple who are really comfortable showing affection on-camera, and I don’t generally place a lot of emphasis on this because no one really wants to look at images of people making out. Ew. BUT…. when a pair are that comfortable with each other, the knock-on effect is that all of their other images also show that level of comfort in far more subtle ways: the shoulder that doesn’t need coaxing to relax; the hand that naturally curls around a neck; the eyes that automatically look at the other person in just the right way…. I was blown away by these guys.
Needless to say, we had fun. A LOT of fun. They were equally excited about the photos, we had a plethora of spots and angles to choose from, and the smiles were so natural for the entire session (even in spite of the mosquitoes!), that it made it hard to call it a day when the time came. When you’ve got a couple who break out the sparkling wine on the front lawn, you know you’re going to be a great match, and when you get to tease the bride-to-be about the fact that she’s giving her future groom her “sexy eyes”, you know that the wedding day is going to be even better.
Favourites? I don’t even know where to start, but here are a few…:
