Hello everybody! I know, long time, no post. I’ve been a busy gal. I’m getting ready for a late April 2014 return trip to Big Bend National Park. I’ve also been putting together my packing list for my August Alaska 2014 trip, and I just purchased a plane ticket for an October visit to Hawaii where I have a reservation for 4 days at Volcano House in Volcanoes National Park. On top of that, I am trying to get into better (waaaayyyy better) shape in order to do the hikes I want for all of these trips. And, I admit, it’s been a little “dry”, photographically, since my last post.
A week ago, however, I traveled north and west of Houston to a lovely home for some engagement photos with Kyle and Adrienne. I’d been hired to photograph their June wedding and Adrienne told me her mother wanted an engagement photo session.
The day dawned overcast with a few sprinkles; the photos were supposed to be taken in Adrienne’s parents’ backyard garden. We’d scheduled a time of 11:30AM, so I knew the light would be flat, but I figured we’d still get some great shots and I’d bring along some fun umbrellas as props to keep the couple dry if it rained. As soon as I parked my car in front of their home, the sun came out; an auspicious omen.
I used my Canon 5D Mk III and Canon 1DX. I placed the Canon 85mm f1.2L lens on the Mk III and the Canon 24-70mm L II lens on the 1DX. I brought along my flash, too, which was good since several of the settings were interior shots. For those of you who have been following my posts for awhile, you know that I generally eschew flash because I simply don’t like it. I did use it for a couple of shots, but I also used just the ambient lighting and increased the ISO to compensate for the low light.
Below are some sample images from the morning’s session.
I’m starting to get the hang of this multiple-shots-in-one-image thing and thought it would be a fun trick for a couple of images.
The pink azaleas perfectly matched Adrienne’s sundress.
Among the many images taken, I also made sure to get some poses that might make for a nice photo to put into the engagement section of the newspaper.
This image was taken using a high ISO and the ambient light. I chose to keep it the golden color of the interior lighting. That beautiful charcoal drawing in the background was done by Adrienne’s mother.
This image was captured using a flash. I processed the image in Photoshop then applied some presets from OnOne’s Perfect Effects to soften and create a bit of a glow to the scene.
Once again, I used only the ambient light and a high ISO to capture this image. Then, I added a very little bit of vignetting to focus the eye more on the subjects.
I used a flash for this image, then cropped it a little more tightly around the couple.
All-in-all, it was a fun morning and I’m glad I was able to meet the couple prior to their wedding. By the end of my hour with Kyle and Adrienne, we were all feeling more relaxed in each other’s company. Engagement photos are a fun way to introduce the photographer to the prospective bride and groom, discuss what kind of images they have in mind, and get everybody comfortable with each other.
If you would like to see more images taken on this day, click on this link.
Where The Trails Take You Photography 