Engagements
Weddings
Portraits
Stills
Musicians
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It’s not every day that I book a wedding without ever meeting the couple.
But these things happen. Especially when the couple in question live in Texas.
The tricky thing about couples that don’t live around here is that they don’t live around here. So how do you work out an engagement session? It’s pretty simple when the couple are football fans.
Megan and Charles flew into town to catch a Husker game and squeeze in a little photography. No sleeping in for us as we arrive at UNL campus first thing in the morning to catch a few shots before a billion and 10 red and white fanatics invade the land.
And then we’re off to wander downtown. All the while, Megan and Charles question my sanity as I ask them to do increasingly strange things, promising them that the photos will be amazing.
Oh, and while Megan and Charles were off changing outfits, I got into a fight.
Before we get to the pics, a shout out to Elayne Woods for tagging along and lending a hand.
Mud?
Photos?
We can totes play in the mud. Fo’ sho!
But first, Will and Jessica. The stars of the show.
I first met Jessica when she worked as a barista at my home away from home. To this day, she remains one of the few and the proud who knows how to make my caramel and irish cream latte properly (hint: it should taste more like coffee than sugar).
Will works at an organic grocery store that my girlfriend and I have been known to haunt.
Both are tall. I mean really tall. At 6′ 1″ I feel like I’m barely keeping up with these two.
At first, they weren’t sure they wanted an engagement session. Even though it was included in the package, they flip-flopped a bit about maybe crediting the session to products or other services.
In the end, they decided on the session.
Then they asked if we could shoot it at a farm their friend owns.
Who am I to say no to that?
There’s only one problem when you want to shoot on a farm in Nebraska in June. There’s still a good chance you’re getting a lot of rain. We hadn’t just gotten a lot of rain. We had been getting rain like someone turned on the spigot and then left for vacation.
We got to the farm and it didn’t seem like it was going to be too bad. A little humid, to be sure. Mosquitoes the size of attack helicopters. You know, typical Nebraska stuff. Manageable.
Then we decided to walk across the field to get some shots on top of a hill.
Ever detasseled? Then you knows the recipe: a well-watered field, a lot of rain. Let’s just say, if your shoes aren’t stapled and duct taped to your feet, there’s a good chance you’re losing them.
Jessica did the smart thing and took hers off. She only sank half way up her shins in the mud. Will had sandals that didn’t seem like they were going anywhere. I hoped the lacing job I did on my Merrills was up to the task.
In the end, we slogged through the mud, braved the heat and humidity, did battle with a few ticks, annoyed some chickens, survived an impromptu thumb war, and got some great, fun shots.
It was a pretty awesome day. Playing in the mud. And no shoes were lost.
Engagement sessions have an amazing dichotomy of always being a little bit the same and a
little bit different.
You always begin with a couple a whole lot in love and a little bit camera shy. The camera shy part is understandable. I’d be a bit nervous in their shoes, too. And I know what to expect. It’s ok, though. Couples always loosen up and have fun. (And you will, too. Trust me).
But that’s usually where the similarities end. Sometimes you get couples willing to play dress-up. Sometimes you get lost in the woods.
And then sometimes you wind up going a little bit of everywhere.
When Ryan and Ann joined me for their engagement session, I don’t think any of us really expected to hit almost every photogenic spot in Lincoln. It just kind of happened. And it was a ton of fun. From the Sunken Gardens, to the Capitol Building, to Downtown and the Haymarket, and finally Pioneers Park, I think we got this city covered.
Oh sure. There are a couple of places we didn’t hit. Maybe we’ll save those for the formals.
Photo 4: Marcia and Jeremy – E-session
Taken on March 6, 2010
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In my mind, photography and experimentation are synonymous.
Whether it’s trying something completely new, or just new to me, it’s the ability to experiment that keeps me passionate.
Even better is when I have some people willing to let me experiment on them. Marcia and Jeremy were just such people, game for some “different” photos for their engagement session.
It turned out to be a good arrangement.
Marcia was pretty excited, but Jeremy had trepidations about this whole photography nonsense. Rather, I think it was a bit of reluctance to be all mushy in front of a camera. Understandable.
So, after the obligatory “mushy” shots, we went to the Capitol Building in Lincoln, Nebraska. As in an indoor location, it can’t be beat. Gothic. Dramatic. Elegant. All in one building.
I talked Marcia up on to the ledge, assuring her that a fall wouldn’t kill her. Probably. Lights placed. Jeremy in position. Wait for tourists to pass. Then snap away.
Photo geeks will recognize this as an “impossible” shot. There’s no way the foreground and background can be in focus. I admit to some post production trickery. Two exposures combined.
For an engagement shot, this isn’t the most romantic photo I’ve ever taken. That’s OK. The purpose was served. I got to play, and Jeremy got some cool, manly, dramatic shots.
It all started as a normal engagement session.
I met Julie and Don in the early afternoon at the Meadowlark coffee shop. We fueled up with caffeine and then embarked on a photographic journey on a nearly perfect October day. The sky was clear, but the early fall day kept the sun from being directly overheard and harsh.
The first stop of the day was Nine Mile Prairie, a 230 acre tallgrass conservatory. Julie had suggested this as a possible location and since I had never photographed a session out there before, I was game. We wandered around for awhile, but due to the lateness of the season, we were having trouble finding really pretty, green locations. Undeterred, we grabbed a few shots while discussing the ferocity of wild badgers.*
Having safely escaped the prairie, we decided to venture far south to Wilderness Park in hopes of better scenery. We made a brief, but uneventful stop for a few more photos at a small lake in Air Park along the way.
It was in Wilderness Park where, as they say, the story turns.
The three of us vanished into the trail system with nary a worry of the fate that awaited us. We got a few more shots right away and then decided to venture farther in. If this were a movie, this is where the ominous music would begin to play and the audience would be shifting in their seats as they tried to figure out which of us would be picked off first.
Our plan seemed simple enough.
There’s a big, cool bridge deeper in the park and our thought was to get some photos on it. The problem with this plan was a hitch that we were, at the time, oblivious to: The bridge is closed.
In fairness, we discovered later that there was a sign posted. The sign just didn’t happen to be posted on the trail we elected to take.
The thing about Wilderness Park is that, well, it’s kind of wilderness-like. Trails crisscross every which way and some of them merely loop around. I won’t come right out and say that the people who mapped out those trails were drunk at the time, but I think that possibility should be considered. If you’re just out for an afternoon of hiking, this is no big deal. If you’re lugging around 20 pounds of camera gear and you’re on a bit of a tight schedule for shooting photos, this is slightly more of a concern.
Upon finally reaching the bridge and finding giant chain link gates blocking it off, we decided to cut our losses and take a short cut back to the bike trail. Unfortunately, thanks to the previously mentioned crisscrossing and winding trails, there is no such thing as a “short cut” unless you have the ability to fly.
The trail we were on, if stretched to a straight line, seems like it would have taken us 3/4 of the way to Canada. Not wanting to risk actually winding up in Canada, we decided to forge our own path. After all, we knew where the bike trail was supposed to be.
In the end, we bushwhacked a path that makes me glad we weren’t on an episode of Mantracker, because he would have had no trouble following it even if you blindfolded him, tied both hands behind his back, and smashed him over the head with a 2×4. However, our efforts paid off and within about 5 minutes we were back on the bike trail.
Finally back at my truck and surprisingly hot and tired for a 62 degree day, we decided to go downtown, where sensible people go for photography.
All I can say is, if their wedding day is as weird and fun as the engagement session, we’re going to have a blast taking photos.
*I should note that, to my knowledge, there have never been ferocious wild badgers in Nine Mile Prairie. However, we did find a location that, were I a ferocious wild badger, I’d probably hang out and wait for unsuspecting photographers.
