My first engagement shoot

My daughter approached me a few months ago to ask if I would consider doing an engagement shoot for her best friend Amy as a gift.  I’ve known Amy for ever and was delighted to have the opportunity to do something nice for her and her fiancé Jacob, so of course, I said “yes!”

Now, event photography is something that I have a lot of experience with and if I ever have a second life, that may occupy most of my time. I enjoy capturing celebrations and special moments in people’s lives, whether grand or modest, and sharing the results with them.  So an engagement shoot for these young old friends was a no-brainer.

Until I realized: I not only had  never shot for an engagement, I’d never really even SEEN and engagement portfolio!  At least not knowingly.  So I knew I had some work to do.

Preparation

Google became my best friend as I looked at countless engagement portfolios, and learned from the professionals that shoots range from casual to formal, in every setting imaginable, with themes and props, and a lot of creativity.  So I needed to learn what was important to the future bride and groom, and then set about planning a shoot that would meet their expectations.

I invited them to my home so we could talk about what they would like to accomplish, and also showed them some of my wedding, graduation, anniversary and other event photos to give them some ideas and to let them know that I was very interested in making the session as perfect for them as possible.

We discussed a venue, date and time, what props they’d like to have and a few poses that were important to them, (such as a picnic setting on the lawn), and we were set.

The next thing was the gear. I planned to use primarily a Nikon 35mm f/1.8 prime to get a narrow depth of field and soft background, a flash and diffuser and a 32” dual sided (white and gold) reflector.  I’d have other lenses with me just in case, but I ended up shooting with the 35mm the whole time.  And I made sure I brought the most important accessory of all, an able-bodied photo assistant, namely my willing daughter, Claire.

I was familiar with the park they had selected so I started to envision some shots with certain features: winding paths through the park and forest, footbridges, ponds, the picnic, etc.   We planned for a mid to late afternoon shoot in July to capitalize on the warm afternoon light, although that didn’t go exactly as planned.

The shoot

If you’ve ever been the subject of a long photo shoot, where you’re expected to act naturally, look like your having fun, while knowing that these photos will likely be seen by many people, you might be just a little nervous.  In fact, that’s very common.  So we met at the gate of the park as planned, and spent a few minutes talking about their wedding plans, their jobs, the Red Sox, the weather and so on, to make sure everyone was at ease.  Jacob had brought flowers and we had a few other props, so we headed in.

For a good portion of the afternoon, the sky was a white veil of clouds high up, which on the one had was great as I didn’t have to worry about dark shadows caused by strong sunlight. On the other hand, as pro photographer Rick Sammon likes to say, “Light illuminates, shadows define”, and I wish we had a little more light to provide better definition.  The reflector helped in those situations.

Amy and Jacob were wonderful to work with.  It was immediately apparent that their love for each other is genuine and deep.  They quickly got into their groove, whether walking arm in arm, or posing sweetly or mugging it up, they needed little coaching from me, and when I suggested a turn of the head or that this would be a good time for a kiss, they happily obliged.

Post-processing

The most frequent edit was to crop but I also selectively sharpened, made minor exposure adjustments and some BW and sepia conversions using Corel PSP4, Nik Color Efex Pro and Topaz BW Effects.

All in all, we had fun and I think Amy and Jacob were pleased.  And I expect to have more opportunities to further refine my skills with a daughter and several nieces!  We’ll keep you posted…

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