All The Feels: Tips For Epic Engagement Photos
Congratulations! Finally!! its happened!! After 10 years of dating
[[or perhaps just 10 weeks]]
the question was finally dropped on ya! Whether you were alone on a mountain top, or broadcast onto a jumbotron at a baseball game one thing is for sure: you said “Yes!!”
annnnnd here we are.
skimming websites.
daydreaming about all the glory your big day will be!
Annnnnnd one excited click after another landed you to this page to find one of the most important parts of your dream team you are assembling!! a kick-ass destination wedding photographer!
Wedding Photography is important to ya, if not you would’ve stopped your search long ago and gone with some generic photographer from the wedding venues vendor list already, right!?!
Ahhhh but that was the guy your coworker went with wasn’t it? you will be damn sure you don’t make that mistake and your pics turn out better than hers did 😉 lol
Good news! somehow the universe connected us and today and I am going to toss ya a few gems I’ve held on to from 10+ years of shooting so that you get the most kick-ass engagement photos possible and avoid mistakes that others before you have made.
It’s simple really.
it all starts with the good ol phrase: “location, location, location” :
Don’t get carried away!
First thing is first and let me get this out of the way right off the bat… It REALLY doesn’t matter where your engagement pictures are taken. I KNOW. sounds crazy, right?! It’s kinda the truth, I’ll tell ya why. You could be in the back alleyway next to a dumpster or smack dab in the middle of the desert with absolutely nothing around you and the photos will come out glorious!
How? It’s all about approach.
Do you remember those early dates you would go on with your love? You’d go crazy just thinking about them, drive long hours to see ’em, late nights just to not have to leave ’em. It didn’t matter where you were, you were having the best time just being together.
Yeah… You were totally crazy about em.
Well.. we are going to roll back to those moments cause let’s be honest, newly engaged is a pretty sexy place to be at. So radiate LOVE, bring your playful selves from those early dates and we’ll have the best date day out cruising ANY location you come up with.
Young in love and having fun,
like its the 3rd date…
and we never want the day to end.
Choosing your location:
OK, so I know I basically just got done saying location doesn’t matter just a few lines back… but I may have presented it in a way to prove one point. But now I need you to consider another one. The location you choose is everything. How’s that for contradiction?! Location determines the day – the vibe and the overall glorious-ness that the day will depend on it.
Dream a little… do you like the outdoors?
Think: mountain hike engagement shoot with your favorite beer to end the day
OR perhaps go for a rock climbing engagement session in Joshua Tree.
Better make it good, Like EMINEM said “this opportunity comes once in a lifetime” so YOU should pick the location of your engagement session:
-
because its either a place that is meaningful to you, place you were proposed to, first date spot, favorite place to chill, a comfy place you feel at peace
-
or the total opposite and its a place you feel alive at yet you’ve never been. The thought of it excites you cause it is a place you’ve always wanted to go to and it’d be the perfect time + excuse to go!
Timing is everything:
In all honesty you probably want to avoid any public place on a weekend IF you can… unless in your engagement session, the look you are going for includes a lot of other people 😉 then, by all means, hit the beach on 4th of July weekend!!
Shoot for mid-week.
Take the day off work if you can, or at talk the boss into letting ya have a half day. Then you will have run of the most epic public place without the oblivious bystanders in the way. Unless you are going to Disneyland, taking engagement pics just before sundown on a Wednesday should be a million times better than trying to bust it on Saturday.
If it must shoot on a weekend then take into consideration times that may be considered peak and avoid any and all major holiday weekends. Of course, a skilled photographer will always make sure there arent tons of creepers in your pics [unless he happens to have an amazing physique] lol
Depth of field and choice angles with help of photoshop trickery can eliminate most any unwanted bystander… and but even still there’s nothing more stressful than trying to find parking and a place to shoot without a zillion people around at the beach on memorial day weekend 😉
I’m too sexy for this shirt, so sexy it hurts –
Like the shirtless guy 2 pics above, let’s talk wardrobe for a minute. Outfits. Colors. Are you a model by profession?
[] YES
[] NO
If yes then skip this question and move on to the next.
For the rest, I simply say one thing when asked about what to wear and that is this: Wear something you really like at the time of the shoot and feel good in. Do you have a new fav? a current power outfit. Something that fits just right that you rock the shit out of when you walk into a room??
Wear that.
If YOU feel good in it it will show and translate through in the pics.
Confident. Radiant. Yeah sure, perhaps one day you’ll look back on the pics and think “why the hell did I wear that!?” but it sure beats both of ya showin up wearing blue jeans and white shirts OR even some awkward business casual dress up you quickly bought right before the shoot that’s not even you to begin with…
Try rocking a shoot in that!? It’ll come out stiff, forced.
You are silently nodding your head to yourself right now, you know what I’m talking about. Rockin an outfit thats not you to begin with is hard to pull off! That’s why there are people in this world whose full-time job is to do just that… but you checked the “no” box above and kept reading so you aren’t one of them.
For authentic photos you’ve got to be authentically you. Bring one outfit change at the most. This isn’t a fashion shoot. There’s no need to bring more than that. Kills me whenever the sun is going down and I’m watching the best light of the day by myself for 30 minutes cause my couple still hasn’t come out of the bathroom due to some wardrobe issue 🙁
Have a drink on me!
Famous words by AC/DC and something many other wedding photographers may not tell ya… but we are real talkin right now and the damn truth is you aren’t a model and the thought of getting in front of a camera has you feeling vulnerable.
Toss in being on display with a little PDA in front of a buncha people you don’t know in some public place and now you are getting a little nervous! annnnd on day of totally anxious.
Don’t worry, relax. show up an hour early and we’ll have a drink [two tops] so that you are your calm cool confident self. We are new friends hangin out having a seriously good time as I [low key] have a camera in my hands and tag along for the day out.
Laughs and ear to ear grins with a little bit of guide here we’ll get beautifully natural fun pics…
by the end of the shoot, you are saying “Thank god we hired you, I cant wait for the wedding day… now, let’s go get a bite to eat and have another drink”
** Treat this advice is like a magic formula if you could. Know that the recipe has to be followed exactly and correctly for it to work as intended. The above should never be mistaken as an invitation to get s**t faced. You don’t want one-eyed slurry lookin pics [we all know those] so stop at 1 drink… 2 tops. Save drink number 3 for after the shoot when you’ve truly earned it.
Pinterest – Friend or Foe
Pinterest has both helped and destroyed wedding photography… and every genre of photography for that matter! But THAT is an entirely different blog post. That cute little pinboard you’ve been working on. It’s great, it really is… a Pinboard can organize thoughts and elements of creatively planning your big day.
It can even help show your photographer where your head is at…
on the day of the shoot, just leave the pinboard at home.
I mean, you’ve picked your photographer cause you liked their style anyway… so working from a pinboard inst necessary and bringing in a bunch of props and replicating poses is going to kill the authenticity and flow of the shoot anyhow. I’m reminded of a saying from a book I read to my kids years ago before bed. “Simple pictures are best.”
They really are.
subtle props can add to a shoot. The keyword is subtle.
Unless you are doing a themed / concept shoot
[which aren’t wildly popular but have been some of the most fun ones we’ve done]
Think about things that might be uniquely you that you could incorporate into your engagement photos. Badass chopper or roadster? We can definitely use that. Surf, skate, play guitar? Shred it. Maybe you’ve got a pilot’s license and a plane? let’s fly. Really this can be anything you want it to be and I’m down for whatever.
Ironically, the most important info in this post has nothing to do with the engagement shoot
This last bit has less to do with the Engagement photos and more about the Engaged mindset. There will be a lot going on in the months leading up to the big day. I hope you are good at juggling. Looking back it will seem like a blur, unless, you remember this thought:
Life is full of repetition.
Repetition is broken up periodically by moments where you experience something for the first time.
THIS is one of those rare “first times” and not only that, THIS is a big one.
This is a great time in your life. Hang onto the moments like those early first dates you never wanted to end.
Enjoy this time.
All the feels.
Don’t rush through it.. you got plenty of time to be married [which, BTW is going to awesome too, I know. Im 11 years in]
KNOW that you are at the beginning of many more exciting wonderful firsts yet to come and that is an amazing thing.
**the rant above you just read are opinions from an Asheville Wedding Photographer which are based upon 10+ years of photographing destination weddings across the United States.