One of the many perks to being a wedding photographer is being able to do engagement sessions.  I highly recommend doing one (not like I’m biased or anything) for a number of reasons.  First of all, it is a great way for clients to get used to a photographer and their style.  I’m talking more about their personality than I am picture-style.  People tend to pick up on my (interesting) personality fairly quickly and find that I’m pretty friendly and that my jokes are really lame.  I feel that the reason there is so much LIFE in my pictures is because it is my goal to do so.  I am more concerned with genuine expression than I am composition and focus.

Now that I’m off my soapbox, let me introduce you to Mike and Terina.  Mike met Terina in Montana where they both went to college.  Terina knew me from a long time ago back when I played soccer with Dale Stacks in my younger years.  Dale has seen my photography on Facebook and once his sister needed a wedding photographer… BOOM it all began.  I suggested that Terina, Mike, and I meet at Lewisville Park in the Battle Ground area because I knew there would be a wide range of photos to take and there would also be tons of orange leaves.  Fall engagement sessions ROCK because there is so much color all over the place.  I absolutely love it.  In addition to doing photos for Mike and Terina, I’ve been slowly moving towards a cinematic approach to engagement sessions.  Granted, this is my first attempt at this presentation of an engagement session but I want to make videos like this in addition to the photos I take.  In the future, I plan to have more of a story-line to these cinematic experiences and plan to adapt and enhance the style of Mind Castle Studios, a video studio up in Seattle that I am quickly becoming a huge fan of.  Well, enough talk – take a look at what I’ve done with Mike and Terina:

 

To see/order pictures, go to: http://onephotonerd.zenfolio.com/p609271175

Talitha and Spencer wanted to have a vintage-feel to their photos.  We got ahold of an old bicycle with a basket on it, found some swingsets and some cool old trails and had at it.  The best part about it is we were practically in her backyard the whole time.  Halfway through the shoot they invited me to have steak dinner!  I was pleased to say the least.  Here is a preview of some of my picks:

Talitha & Spencer

This bike actually had a flat tire!

Talitha & Spencer

Talitha & Spencer

Talitha & Spencer

Talitha & Spencer

Talitha & Spencer Horizontal

Talitha & Spencer

Talitha & Spencer

Talitha & Spencer

Talitha & Spencer

Talitha & Spencer

Talitha & Spencer

Talitha & Spencer

Talitha & Spencer

Talitha & Spencer

Talitha & Spencer

Talitha & Spencer

Talitha & Spencer

Talitha & Spencer

I had a great time meeting up with Martha and Skylar for the engagement pictures. Since their wedding was going to be in the city, the three of us though it would be best to photograph the engagement pictures in a country/outdoor setting. I’ve been wanting to shoot in this field for some time now. I drive by it every day from work and think to myself… “I need to shoot in this field” And yes, those are the exact words.

Take a look at the slideshow I made for Martha and Skylar:

And here are the images:

Before Amanda and Don showed up I arrived at the Academy 10 minutes early to scout out some new locations.  I had shot at the Academy (owned by the Hidden Brothers of the Hidden Brick Co.) plenty of times before but wanted some new locations.  Luckily, I found that there were plenty to be had.  So many cool spots around there.  I think I could shoot 20 different shoots there and get a wide variety of shots throughout all of them!

As I noticed Amanda and Don getting out of their car I jokingly pulled out my iPhone and said, “okay… here’s the cool idea: I’m going to shoot the whole session with my phone.  It’s NEVER been done before!” After a few seconds of awkwardness I admitted that I was kidding.  After that point, the three of us were off to a great start.  The session was filled with milkshakes, PG-13 poses (not shown), and some great laughs.

Without delay, I present to you my favorites:

We stopped by Burgerville USA and I picked Amanda and Don up some delicious milkshakes!

This is one of Amanda’s favorite shots!

These two were a playful bunch… almost like they were engaged or something

ahh… young and in love.  I love my job!

Go for it Don!

“The Pose”  I am doing THIS pose for every session because I like it a lot.  I plan to do a collage of this pose with many different people eventually. Care to be in it?

Kudos to Don for the idea on this shot.  I love it when couples get ideas.  When we are all three creatively flowing you get great  pictures!

Oh no… where did their heads go?

I originally saw my friend JP Lumonsoc do a shot similar to this one and really wanted to copy do one myself.

Dang… could those eyes be any more beaming?!

I love doing engagement photos.  It’s great to try different poses and techniques with cool people like Tyler and Courtney.  They swung by the studio around 3:00 and we shot on into 7:30pm! We had a blast the whole time.  We just parked near Esther Short park in downtown Vancouver and went for a really long walk.  Great pictures happen when everyone feels natural.  I find the best thing that I can do is to walk and talk with couples and ask questions and tell jokes.

After Tyler and Courtney read about my previous engagement session where we were threatened with the police, we decided it was best to only shoot in legal place.  Here is a brief snapshot of our day, click on each photo for more pictures.

Oh yeah, this world is in color…

I love this shot right by The Academy near officer’s row and El Presidentes