A rare glimpse into my engagement sessions, and why I believe they are so important.

If you have ever seen my blog posts, or Facebook postings, you know that I am pretty tried and true in my message. I specialize in, and have a passion for the documentary approach to everything that I shoot. Whether it be a wedding, family session, or a birth I strongly believe in just letting life take over without any influence from me on what is happening. I decided a while ago to really push hard and devote myself to the moment. But there is a time and place for great artistic portraits. For me engagement sessions fit the bill perfectly.

So, today we are sharing with you some of our more recent engagement shots from our 2014 clients and give you a chance to see the other side of what I do. We have a wonderful set of clients that really get our documentary approach, and believe in our message, but they also want a really nice image of themselves, not in wedding garb but rather as they are normally together.

I have two main goals when doing these sessions. One of my goals in these shoots is to make a piece of artwork that the couple would want to hang in their homes. Reminding them of that day and the fun that they had being together, being real with just a bit of direction from me to get the shot that I think they will love. Ultimately I want to make an image that captures this time in their lives.

Aside from making a cool piece of artwork, my other main goal from these sessions is something only my client can give me. What I ask for from all my clients, what I need, is trust on the wedding day.  To catch the fleeting moments that go on all day long I need my clients to trust me enough to relax, forget that I am there and know that I am getting great images of them. To do this they need to be comfortable with me and used to the camera. The engagement session helps people learn to do just that. There are very few clients that come into a session totally confident and comfortable and it takes us a while to get into a groove with each other.  When I show up on the wedding day me and the camera are like old friends.

Ultimately I try my best to make images of them that are packed with as much meaning as possible. For the next two couples  we made images around places of meaning to them. The first is on the University of Kansas where they met and fell in love. Then the other couple took some great shots around her families amazing neighborhood.  There does not need to be a special location for every shoot, in the end our desire is to capture their personalities and make a great image.

Even though I am a believer to a  documentary approach to weddings, you see that I do dabble in the portraits on occasion. It might shock you even more to know that I enjoy them too. Hope you enjoyed my little peek behind the curtain.