Expectations. heavy loaded word in my book. There’s expectations you set for yourself, and if you’re anything like me, those expectations are high. There’s social expectations, parental, friends, spouse’s, just about everyone has an expectation about what should or shouldn’t be done. Having expectations and preconceived notions, puts to much pressure on things. They make your head spin with ideas that may or may not even be possible. But never the less we all have them. I’ve been fitting with the notion of an engagement session. The orginial idea behind an engagement session is to have a photo for the paper to announce your engagement. But who does that anymore? Maybe people in the Midwest? So if you don’t need the photo for the paper, what’s the point? Why do them? Or from my perspective how can I make this different, fun, and nothing like what every other photographer does. I just want to me, just like my clients just want to be themselves.
That’s what I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. How to make an engagement session more about the couple and their story and less about what pose I can put them in. I loath posing if anyone hasn’t figured that one out yet. I want a session to flow organically. Let the couple take the rains and lead the way. How does their story diff from other couples I’ve shot? What’s at the core of their being that needs to be told. Heavy questions that require more interaction between the couple and less with me and the camera. I might as well be a fly on the wall.
I had been thinking of changing ‘engagement session’ to just Beloved, but I had a recent client tell me he hated that idea. I love true honesty. So for now renaming is still up in the air. But the notion definitely needs to change, at least for me it does.
More to come on this darling couple, Laura and Will.
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