Engagement Shoot Weekends!

The past two weekends I've done fun engagement portrait shoots, and it's been great because the weather has been all rainy and drizzly the day BEFORE our shoot (but sunny and lovely the day of the shoot both times), and it is so fun getting to know both couples a little better.

I've known Suzie since 7th grade but hadn't seen her since high school. Then we started emailing when she was planning our 10th (gulp!) high school reunion last year (I had a wedding and couldn't make it), and turns out, she needed a wedding photographer!



She and Corey are getting married this August in our hometown, very close to this gorgeous regional park, so I suggested we do the shoot there. It's a beautiful place to hike or ride horses, but I forgot just how steep the hill there is... Luckily, they were great sports (and were even going hiking afterwards!), and didn't make fun of me as I tried to catch my breath and tried not to fall down.




It's awesome to get to know Suzie more and more, and interesting how she looks the same as in high school but maybe more comfortable in who she is, and, as a result, even more lovely. It's great to see how happy she is with Corey (who was sweet, smart, kind and cute), and I know I'm going to cry at their wedding!




Here's their slideshow.


You can also see a few more shots here, from the film scans I was too impatient to wait for! : )




The weekend before, I had gone out to Bodega Bay with Stephanie and Sean for their portraits. They were GREAT sports to come all the way up from Oakland (especially because my suggestion was, "let's go to Bodega Bay, you know, like in Hitchcock's "the Birds"!"), and I love that they took the opportunity to go to their favorite crab shack.



These two warned me they didn't like posing for photos much, so I planned to just ease them into it and let them play a bit... Wow! I didn't even need to tell them to play, they are so in love and LOVE teasing each other, I had lots to work with. And I couldn't stop laughing. These two have only been together 3 years but have a dynamic that makes me think they've been best friends their whole lives, and it is sweet, amazing, and hilarious to watch.



Plus Sean has that kind of softie-tough guy East Coast thing, so it was really neat getting to know him and see how much he and Stephanie bring out the best (and silliest) in each other. We all got to talk about music and they were also great sports as the wind tried to toss them off cliffs and I made them smile and hold still in the freezing cold.

Anyway, here is their slideshow.





I just realized that both locations were places I spent a lot of time at in high school and during my growing up years. So I've been getting a bit nostalgiac for those times (of course, who would REALLY want to go back to high school?! yuck!), mostly because during some of those days I had nothing I had to do but hang around with my friends. Or, actually, I had lots to do (work - AP classes - college applications - music lessons - play rehearsals - etc) but my friends always came first.

I need more days like that. Of course, I spent both weekends editing photos because I was so excited about them, and that's nobody's fault by my own!