The engagement session that almost wasn’t…

Courtney and Peter live in the LA area, and have been making trips up here as they can to get things ready for their upcoming wedding at Nestldown. Things were getting a little hectic for them, so they decided to skip the engagement session. We were bummed, as I really wanted to photograph them! When I met with Them a couple of months ago, I could instantly tell they would be fantastic on camera. At the last minute, they decided to make time for the session, and I’m so glad they did! They have so much natural chemistry between them, it made their session super easy. See for yourself…

This is probably my favorite shot. Today it’s my favorite. Next week, the one below will probably be my favorite. I can’t help it!

This one is similar to my very favorite picture, the one Kelvin took of Geoff & I in Turks and Caicos. I got the idea to try this shot because Peter has such intense eyes. See how they are brown in the middle, but rimmed with dark edges? It gives those brown eyes such a nice contrast.

And then just for fun, we thought we’d try the opposite. I love how her hair is coming across her face a bit. Notice Courtney’s gorgeous green eyes also have a dark edge to the rim. Can’t you just imagine her saying something along the lines of…”don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.” Those of us that are 35+ years old will remember that line from a pantene shampoo commercial with the woman from the movie Weird Science.

I always appreciate it when couples bring their own ideas to the session. It really creates an atmosphere of creativity for us as artists. So we were strolling about and Peter noticed these two guys sitting on the Dali ledge there, and thought that might be an interesting spot for an image. Yeah, I had to ask these poor guys just sitting there minding their own business to get up out of their spot for our photo session. But they were happy to oblige us, and look how it turned out! We did a number of versions of this, but for some reason I like the one with the parking meter the best. I feel like it anchors the image and gives it more of an urban feel (which is exactly what Courtney and Peter wanted).

This is another image that was an idea Courtney had, along the lines of them walking along and she is sort of pulling him along. I added the idea of the composition of the image being from Peter’s perspective, what he sees. Creative collaboration!