engagement photography

Josh and Samantha have been waiting to be engaged for a while now… and on October 18th they finally made it official! Samantha is also a photographer so I feel extra special that she asked me to take their pictures. We went down to the Columbia Riverfront Park, and then went over to Memorial Park. The sunset was amazing, and we were able to get some awesome photos in front of the beautiful sky.

Here are some of my favorites from the session… I put my favorite ones at the end, so make sure you scroll all the way to the end of the post.

(Ashley took this picture by the way… shes getting better!)

In the top right corner you can see a lady walking away. She was pushing two little dogs in a baby stroller and Samantha found this very interesting. This was her face when she was walking by.

Josh knows praying mantis kung fu. The female praying mantis usually eats her mate, but Josh seems to be reversing this role in their relationship ;).

Thomas needed to borrow a phone to call his mom. He is trying to get things straightened out so he can go home. He had some great advise for Josh and Samantha about their new marriage.

God really is awesome… and the best artist ever. I’m glad I get to record some of His work.

Romans 1:20
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

Caroline and Geoff are getting married next year, and they decided to get some engagement photos taken. We went out to the river walk, and through the vista to find some spots for photos. The skies were beautiful and the weather was great. Here are some of my favorites from the session.

When I was first engaged, I was not into photography, and I didn’t even know what engagement photography was all about. When my fiance told me she wanted to get engagement pictures, I was like… why should we do that? I hadn’t even heard about engagement pictures before. I am guessing there are other guys out there like me who need some convincing… so here are the top seven reasons I think you should have your engagement photos taken.

7. Because your fiance wants to. Guys, if your fiance wants engagement pictures… you should listen to her ;). The easiest way to keep her calm during the wedding planning is to just do what she says.

6. To celebrate your engagement. A photo session is a great way to get away from the stresses of planning a wedding and just be excited about being engaged.

5. To have fun! Everyone who I take pictures of has an awesome time during their photo session. These aren’t the boring photography sessions you had when you were a kid. You get to spend quality time together and most of the time find some cool places to hang out. My goal is to get couples to interact with each other and find ways to make each other laugh. When you are having fun, I can get the best pictures of you.

4. To show off how good you look. Your engagement is one of the times when you will look your best. You will be excited and in love, which makes you look better than ever in photos. Why not get photos to show your family and friends how great you look.

3. To have a romantic date. When you are in the process of making each other laugh, you realize how much you love each other. Your job on an engagement shoot is to have fun and be in love. Try to think about all the reasons you love each other and how excited you are about getting married. I like to take couples to a place that is special to them for their engagement session. Maybe the place where you had your first kiss, or your first date. The more romantic the session can be, the better the photos will turn out.

2. To announce your wedding. There are several creative ways to announce your engagement with your photos. One common way to use your photos is to send out save the date cards. We can make custom save the date cards and even incorporate your photos into custom wedding invitations. I can also set up a wedding website for you with your engagement photos so you can tell your whole family to check out your website to keep up with your wedding plans.

1. To preserve the memories of being engaged. Your engagement is a VERY special time in your life. These photos will be something you can always look back at to remember this time. When you’ve been married for a while, you’ll start to forget about what it was like to be engaged. If you have a set of photos to look back on, you’ll never forget those special moments. Do you really want to forget the way you looked at each other while you were engaged?

So, this was the first time I’ve actually taken pictures of a REAL engaged couple! I’ve taken pictures of married couples and seriously dating couples, but this is the first set of real engagement photos! Patrick and Ginnie are getting married on December 13th at First Pres Downtown. Ashley and I had lots of fun taking their pictures, and hopefully we’ll be hanging out alot. I cant wait till their wedding.

These last two were just an experiment with light I had wanted to try… they weren’t exactly right, but I still like them.

Scott is my cousin and I’ve been wanting to take pictures of him and his girlfriend Bryn for a long time now. They have been dating for about 3 years and they are a really cute couple. We had alot of fun with taking pictures … I love how they both just bust out laughing randomly about 50 times. We took the pictures at riverfront park.

They were supposed to let go at the same time… but that obviously didn’t work out lol.

Bryn made Scott break the law like 4 times.

Ben and Lauren Landers never had an engagement session before they were married, but they really wished they had. They decided that even though they were already married, it wasn’t too late to have an engagement session. I had lots of fun taking their pictures on the river walk, and downtown Columbia in some parking garages.

These pictures were taken with my Rebel, because I took these pictures before I had my new camera. I also knew very little about photography at this time, except that I loved it. I was shooting all JPEG, and the low quality lenses don’t do well in the low lighting. Anyway, I still liked some of the images, and I hope one day I’ll be able to do another session with Ben and Lauren.

Me and Ashley went out with Joseph and Hannah and took some pictures.  They are a cute couple and we had alot of fun hanging out with them.  Hannah is one of the most photogenic people I have ever seen… I’m not sure if she could have a bad picture taken.

They aren’t really engaged (yet)… so this is Josh and Kali’s pre-engagement session. I really enjoyed taking pictures of them because they were so willing to do whatever I asked. They are really in love… and it shows. Hopefully one day I’ll be photographing their wedding