I just love this time of year! It’s absolutely perfect out and what a great night we had for Christie and Tony’s engagement pictures!! The session took place out at Ballard Nature Center, and it always amazes me just how quickly the vegetation out there grows. Seems like I was just out there and fields were ankle high, during this session, we walk out into those same fields and they are shoulder height! This messed with me a bit because I had intentions of doing pictures in some areas a certain way, but because of the brush growth, we could not. As the saying goes, “when life throws you a lemon…” well this wasn’t like it was anything upsetting, it looked amazing, so we definitely turned the “lemon” into lemonade with a dash of sweet tea (for any of my arnold palmer drinkers out there). With the exception of a crazy amount of mosquitos, the entire session was perfect. The lighting could not be any better either! The sun was below the tree line and because of the incredible growth out there, it was fully shaded with little hints of sun rays here and there. Over the past few weeks I’ve been pushing myself to do something more with every session I do. Whether it’s looking at the people I’m photographing from a different angle (regardless if it may be a little crazy), or lighting them up in a way I’ve not done before, or whatever. I never want to stop evolving as a photographer and sometimes it means trying angles or lighting that may not jive with folks or maybe not even look good at all, but through those “failures” you’ll learn something new about yourself or your skillset and that’s what I’m aiming for.
Christie and Tony were a great couple to work with. Because many of our spots at Ballard were a small walk away, we had some time to talk about how they met, wedding planning, etc. I love this time with couples where we can build a relationship. Doing photography has allowed me to meet so many amazing people and hearing their stories is so much fun. This also allows me a chance as a photographer to get to know their personalities and try and incorporate that into their pictures. Both Tony and Christie play softball, and we incorporated some jerseys with their wedding date as the numbers, with this we also did some poses that maybe aren’t so much “engagement” poses, but a little more of the athletic pose, which I felt was pretty cool.
