Lawrence Atienza (818) 233-0370

J+J Southern California Wedding Celebration Part 2 (Chinese Dinner): May 08, 2010

lap — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 04:08:36 +0000

UPDATE: More images are available for viewing at http://proofs.lawrenceatienza.com/ Click on weddings and then click on their gallery. Make sure you request the password from Jennifer or Jason. Also note that both weddings will have the same password. Enjoy!

Yes, I was blessed to capture J+J’s Chinese dinner wedding celebration. Thank you for allowing me once again to capture your special day.

It was surely not the typical Chinese wedding dinner I’ve attended that is for sure. The wedding celebration was held at Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles. The dinner was held in the Catalina Ballroom, which was a good size to hold 200 plus guests.

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As I was taking some detail shots inside the ballroom of the tables, I came across the food card with the dishes to be served for the night. I began to salivate. oh yeah.. i know the card looks strange, I removed their last name for privacy sake.

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But before the Wedding dinner and formal portraits of the night, I captured some getting ready images. The image below is of the bride waiting for the finishing touches of the makeup by Beauty by Grace as the slideshow I’ve created played in the background.

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Their hotel room had an amazing view so I couldn’t resist capturing an image of the beautiful bride next to the window.

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Before the Wedding dinner celebration, I was fortunate enough to have the bride and groom for a few minutes for some creative wedding portraits. The concept of the portraits come from the wedding decorations used at J+J’s wedding celebration on May 1^st held at the Rec Center Studio location in Echo Park.

If you look back at the blog post http://blog.lawrenceatienza.com/2010/05/jj-southern-california-wedding-celebration-part-1-may-01-2010/ you will notice a Chinese takeout box as the centerpiece and fortune cookies hanging from the ends of the chairs along the aisle. So, I wanted to integrate memories from part 1 of their wedding to part 2 of their wedding. I must say, it worked out perfectly since J+J were wearing Chinese attire for the Chinese dinner celebration.

The first image is to set the scene of the conceptual portrait. The bride is luring the groom to the table with a fortune cookie.

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Once the groom arrived at the table, the bride closed in with a fortune cookie in one hand and her lips inches away from the groom. GAME OVER.. the groom is hooked.

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When the bride leaves for the Chinese dinner celebration, the groom indulges in the fortune cookies.

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The groom looks down and finds a good fortune next to the crumbled fortune cookies.

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The groom and bride then head to the dinner and I’ll let the images tell the story of the dinner.

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I hope you enjoyed the images. I couldn’t have done it without my assistant for the night, Raychelle DeVilla. As this was my first wedding with an assistant, I must say that I will never capture another wedding without one.

Thank you for taking the time to check out my work. You may check out more images from my flash portfolio at http://www.LawrenceAtienza.com.

Make sure you also check out the talented makeup/hairstylist Grace of Beauty by Grace whom is responsible for the bride and bride’s mother hair and makeup.

J+J Southern California Wedding Celebration Part 1: May 01, 2010

lap — Sat, 22 May 2010 05:41:28 +0000

It was beautiful Saturday morning on May 01, 2010 in sunny Los Angeles. The day started at the Bride and Grooms home at about 10:30AM for some getting ready and detail shots.

As I entered their front door, I was greeted by smiling faces and a beautiful bride to be. I then moved upstairs to introduce myself to the rest of the 4 bride’s maids and found myself in a room full of amazing people.

After the introductions, I proceeded with setting up in the other room for the details shots of the dress, shoes and ring. Before that, I decided to take some quick shots of the bride’s maids getting their makeup and hair done by the talented Grace of Beauty by Grace.

Since the bride was the last to be worked on, I preceded to complete the detail shots in the next room. I first started with the wedding dress. The white silk wedding dress with red bar with gold accents across the waist hung on the curtain rail. I wanted to capture the fine details of the dress by using a 90mm 2.8 Macro lens. For the majority of the shots, I was able to use the bright southern California sun as fill light for the images.

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After a few variations of the dress were captured, I moved to the ring shots. I wanted the ring shots to have meaning to the couple. So, I looked around the room that might have meaning to them and discovered karate trophies awarded to the groom for his martial arts skills, where the trophy surprisingly worked well with the rings.

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I then needed to look for an object that has importance to the bride and remembered the music note wine stopper from her bridal shower.

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Since, I had a good amount of time left for detail shots, I decided to take another ring shot with some cool candles. The candles had a weave like pattern that to me symbolized the unity of man and wife.

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I liked the patterns on the candles so much, I used them as the background for the “Shoes” Cole Haan shots.

Once the detail shots were in the bag, I moved to the next room to find the bride in the makeup chair and the groom on the bed getting a massage. I’ve never seen this before and thought it would be a great capture to remember what I will surely do when the day come.

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Once the makeup and hair was complete and it was time to put on the dress.

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Now that all of the getting ready and detail shots were captured, we moved to the formals location but not without taking a walking down the street shot of the Groom and Groomsmen.

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We then move towards the Mulholland fountain where the wedding formal bridal party images were captured. With only 30 minutes allocated for the wedding formals, I made sure that I arrived at the location first and setup the lighting.

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With the wedding formals complete, we moved to the Rec Center Studio at Echo Park where the ceremony and reception were held.

It was surely a short but sweet ceremony.

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Shortly after, the party started when the sun went down and the venue lighting took affect.

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You look around the Rec center Studio and find tables with Chinese takeout box centerpiece filled with chocolate dipped fortune cookies. Yumm. I wasn’t able to taste them but I am sure they were delicious.

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You walk down the aisle and find yourself also in fortune cookies heaven.

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An hour or so after dinner was served; dessert followed shortly after with the presence of Coolhaus and served their specialty ice cream.

The night ended with more dancing with the Bride and Groom at the center of the dance area.

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Here is a picture of the three of us. Thanks for a great time capturing your special day. I was happy to capture their Chinese wedding reception dinner. Images will be coming soon on a new blog post.

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Vendors
Hair & Make-up	Grace Ilasco
Florist	Sharlene Choy
DJ	Bryan Davidson
Photographer	Lawrence Atienza
Video	Scott Berger
Dessert	Freya Estreller-Coolhaus
Beverages	Liquid Catering, Dawn
Security	Lock down security services, Boyer Cross
Officiant	Jerry Shen
Photo Booth	Jasmine Cheung
Coordinator	Donaji/Audi of Event Professionals
Venue	Tabitha Erhardt Rec Center

Reunion at San Diego

lap — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 04:01:20 +0000

It was a mid-April weekend at the cool and trendy city of San Diego when I visited my little brother, a cousin from Seattle and a cousin from Arizona along with his fiancé. Good times.

My brother had to work during the day so my cousin from Seattle that now resides in San Diego gave the tour of the city. He took us to a few cool locations that would be great spots for wedding formals and engagement sessions. Check them out below. Now, I need to book some San Diego weddings. As seen in my portfolio, I like to take conceptual portraits that communicate the story of the couple in the images.

Saturday afternoon we went to lunch at La Jolla and then went on a stroll to see the “ seals at La Jolla. As you can see below, it is a pretty cool location. I see a lot of potential for wedding formals and engagement portraits where the couples enjoy seals and rock formations.

My cousin then took us up to Mount Soledad that has such a breathtaking view. I’ve marked this as another location for a creative engagement session at San Diego. It’s rather dangerous, but the view is worth it. Just make sure you don’t get too close to the edge on a windy day.

Thanks again to my cousin Eric for taking us out in San Diego and introducing me to some cool new locations for creative engagement sessions and for fun formal wedding portraits.

Maternity Session for a friend..I’ll almost do anything for a friend

lap — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 19:44:25 +0000

I know I know…those that have known me for years are in shock. But yes, I did photograph a maternity session. But this unexpected photographic deed wasn’t just for anyone. The maternity session was for a friend for almost 10 years. Yes, it took a friend in need for me to even consider a maternity session. At first, similar to wedding photography, i didn’t see much creative freedom. Then when I realized that it wasn’t necessary to conform to the traditional way to photograph a wedding or a maternity session, I was game. Well below is my first attempt at Maternity photography. Let me know what you think.

IMAGE BREAKDOWN: For this maternity session image, I had my friend lean to the camera right of the doorway to the kitchen with her left hand to the side of her head and her right hand pressing to the side of her belly. If this image communicates to you a healthy sexy caring mother anticipating the birth of her child, then I reached my goal in telling the story through this image.

TECHNICAL: 2 lights = Two mono lights:

One mono light with a 7-inch reflector pointing directly to the back of the mother to be to provide a slight edge light to her head, upper body and edge of her belly camera right for separation and illuminate the kitchen to bring attention to the rice cooker.

One mono light with a bare reflector camera left a foot above the mother’s head to use as fill and to provide a catch light in her eyes. Eyes are very important in telling the story and catch lights are great to bring attention to them. With the positioning of the light , I also eliminated any unnecessary shadows and actually use the shadows to outline her hand on the belly.

IMAGE BREAKDOWN: For this maternity session image, I had my friend wear a motorcycle helmet and get on a motorcycle. I asked her to grab onto the handle bar with her right hand as she supported her back with her left hand. I wanted to make sure her left hand was out of the way to avoid too much clutter to the right of the frame. If this image communicates to you a ruff rider mommy, then i did my job.

TECHNICAL: 2 lights = Sun & One mono light :

The Sun was primarily used as an edge light and to create necessary shadows to show dimension.

One mono light with a bare reflector camera right at eye level used as the main and to over power the sun to closely match the background exposure with my subject’s exposure.

My intention of including the image breakdown and technical details below my images is to educate non-photography viewers in how to look at an image and determine if an image is technically correct.

If you think about it, I am looking out for both of our interests. You the photography consumer will be able to tell the difference between a technically good photograph and a technically poor photograph. My hope is that this information will provide you with the knowledge in selecting a photographer that understands the Art and the equipment opposed to a photographer that shoots primarily on automatic and ends up over exposing or under exposing the image.

Exploring the urban landscape and scouting for future e-sessions or formals

lap — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 20:11:46 +0000

If you are in the photography or movie industry, then you are aware that location scouting is a very important part of the production stage. Without the perfect location the concept will not be accurately interpreted to the target audience.

For every shoot, I search for a location that best compliments the message i am trying to communicate. My traveling rock star engagement session concept for a beautiful couple perfectly illustrates the importance of a carefully selected location.

I was recently introduced to a new location which i must say would be perfect engagement session location for an edgy couple in the medical field. Who is interested?

TRADITIONAL WEDDING for an extraordinary engagement

lap — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 18:35:57 +0000

A month ago, I was blessed to capture a special day for a couple with an intense love that lasted a long engagement. The beautiful couple had a traditional catholic wedding. The ceremony was held at Santo Tomas el Apostol (Saint Thomas The Apostle Church) located in Los Angeles California.

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The ceremony was indeed beautiful which lasted about 1 hour. It was surely a typical catholic wedding ceremony as it included a service and then the joining of man and wife. Actually, there was one twist to this ceremony as instead of a “regular” band to play the wedding song , the ceremony music was provided by a mariachi band. Yes, you heard me a mariachi band. If you don’t believe me, check out the image below. Look to the front of the church behind the pastor and below the crucifix.

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The Bride was supported by a Maid of Honor, a Matron of Honor, a Flower girl and four Bridesmaids. The Groom was supported by a Best Man and 5 Groomsman that you can see from the image below.

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Before the wedding, I made sure to talk to the deacon and ask what my restraints were at the wedding ceremony which enabled me to plan out my photography execution. I was fortunate to have free reigns to where I could walk to during the ceremony. I did my best to be a fly on the wall and not interrupt the ceremony, but yet capture some key shots that you will see below.

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After the one hour long ceremony and about 30 minutes outside the church taking the basic family and friends outside the church shots, we proceeded to the formal shoot location. The couple was looking for more traditional form portraits so I had to hold myself back which wasn’t difficult as I matched the formals with the age of the couple. I physically scouted the location one week prior to the wedding day and at the exact time of the formal session so that I can accurately plan out the shoot by knowing the exact lighting conditions. If I may add that it was a very windy location, but I was able to shoot fast enough to capture the images.

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After the formal shoot, we proceeded to the reception location named Ports O’Call Restaurant and Banquet in San Pedro. The reception location was only 3 miles from the formal shoot location. Yes, I did think about the reception location when determining the formal shoot location.

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As a special bonus to the couple, I provided the bride and groom a slide show for their guests displayed on a 60 inch projected screen via my projector and Netbook. The slideshow displayed images from their engagement session and a few images from their past to illustrate their growth through the years. As the slide show played all of the “grown ups” attentively watched the slideshow while the kids played with the giveaways.

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The beautiful wedding day ended with the bride and groom dancing with their friends and family. Thank you for allowing me to capture such a close and intimate wedding day.

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BRIDAL SHOWER for an Ethiopian Beauty

lap — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 08:04:22 +0000

After experiencing the Bridal shower illustrated below, my thoughts of how a bridal shower is celebrated will never be the same. All I’ve known of bridal showers are events held at the bride’s maid’s home with potluck style catering and the bride’s wedding party and a few close friends and family.

Well the Ethiopian Bridal Shower that I captured as a favor to a friend was nothing of that sort as you can see below.

The bridal shower was held at Simon’s Waterfront Banquet Center. Some can say the venue is mainly used for weddings. Though in this case, the venue held 50 ladies to celebrate a beautiful Ethiopian bride to be.

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As I entered the venue, I saw a sign in the hall which directed me to the Bridal shower party designated room upstairs.

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I then entered the banquet room to find a gift table covered with rose pedals. Again, I was shocked to the level of extravagance for a bridal shower.

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After the momentary shock and amazement of the venue for a simple bridal shower, I proceeded with the setup my command center and awaited the future bride to be. A few minutes went by and the future bride arrived to her surprise the bridal shower thrown by her close friends.

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After the initial walk through greeting each guest, the future bride attached her veil and continued to chat with her close friends and family.

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The future bride continued to talk with her guests before the food was served.

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After a few moments, the guests were given the green light to approach the trays filled with a good assortment of dishes that smelled absolutely amazing.

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As each table got up to get food, a few guests approached the future bride’s table to say hello and catch up.

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Once enough of the food was consumed the brides talked for a few more minutes till the music started to pick up in speed. With the Ethiopian music playing in the background, the guests stood up and approached the dance floor to have a good time. In the image below, the future bride to be is dancing with a close friend doing a kind of shoulder shrug move which i picked up on by the end of the event.

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After the dancing, the 50 ladies all formed a circle for a prayer performed by the elders as the bridal shower came to an end.

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At the end of the event, I felt truly blessed to capture the love shared between the friends and family.

After reviewing the images, I was very happy with the outcome and after I shared the images to the ladies and bride, they were impressed. The future bride was impressed to the point where I was offered to be flown to Ethiopia to capture the special day. Unfortunately, I had to respectfully decline as the wedding day already fell on a special day which is my girlfriend’s birthday that i couldn’t miss at any cost.

I was truly flattered with the offer of doing a destination wedding and that someone would actually pay me to fly thousands of miles to capture their wedding. I must say that this experience warranted an increase in my rates to what they are to date. Thank you!

ENGAGEMENT SESSION PHOTOGRAPHY SAMPLE: WE BE CLUBBING

lap — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 07:21:19 +0000

For this creative engagement session, I used my Nikon D200 with the Tamron 17-50mm f2.8.

I absolutely love photography. Especially when I can bring a smile to my subjects.

The engagement session below was extra special to my clients as we were able to shoot at the place where they first met…30 years ago.. Yes, 30 plus years.

So how did I make this happen. It was simple really. As usual once the engagement session is booked, I ask my clients to write up a bio and to include their interests and love story.

After reading their love story, I knew that I had to make their engagement session special. What better way to make it a special shoot then to photograph them at the place where they met. In this case, it is Leonardo’s Night Club on La Brea.

At first, I was afraid that the club was no longer in operation. But after a few seconds with google and following up with a phone call, I confirmed that Leonardo’s Night Club on La Brea is still open for business.

I then contacted the manager of Leonardo’s Night Club on La Brea via email and wrote a masterpiece about my client’s situation and how they met for the first time at their club 30 years ago. The rest was history. I must say it is rather difficult to say no to what i wrote. I know if roles were switched, there is no way i can say no either.

My clients greatly appreciated what I did for them. It was visible to them the extent of what I would do for a concept. Below you will see a series of images that display a current day depiction of what happened 30 years ago.

IMAGE BREAKDOWN: For the 1st image I wanted to tell the story of a mystery man walking into a club filled with beautiful women. To execute this image, I had Armando stand under one of the arches a few feet from the entrance looking at Rosa as she stands along the bar area with a drink in her hand. To create that mystery, I made sure to underexpose Armando so you can barely make out his face and appearance and correctly exposed Rosa and had her in the foreground so that the attention goes to her first and then to the mysterious man midway in the image.

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IMAGE BREAKDOWN: To tell the story of the start of their first meeting, I wanted Rosa to first sit on the bar alone as she looks out into club with smile. To capture this image took a little time to ensure that I set the shutter slow enough to capture the bar lights. I then used my alien bee 1600 mono light with a 30 degree grid which controls the beam of light emitted to only 30 degrees from the light so that only Rosa is exposed and the light doesn’t over power the bar lights.

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IMAGE BREAKDOWN: Now i replicated the same image above of Rosa with Armando. I also used the same lighting setup.

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IMAGE BREAKDOWN: In this image, I had Armando walk towards Rosa and reach out his hand to hold hers. I wanted to bring attention to Rosa’s smile so I made sure to correctly expose her.

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IMAGE BREAKDOWN: The couple after meeting at the bar sat down at a table right next to the dance floor. To capture this image, I set the shutter speed slow enough to capture club lights and aperture at 2.8 to ensure there is enough blur in the background to force more attention to the couple.

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IMAGE BREAKDOWN: Now the ice is broken, I asked the couple to get a little closer and connect. The lighting setup is similar to the image above.

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IMAGE BREAKDOWN: To end the story, I had the couple stand outside the club to discuss plans for future dates. I shot this image with the intention to do HDR. High Dynamic Range to add a little more dimension to the image since the sun wasn’t at the ideal position. So I had to do my best to capture a compelling image with the external factors.

ENGAGEMENT SESSION PHOTOGRAPHY SAMPLE: TRAVELING ROCKSTAR COUPLE

lap — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 04:55:46 +0000

For this creative engagement session, I used my Nikon D200 with the Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 and my newly purchased Nikkor 70-200mm 2.8 VRII lens.

Similar to my past engagement sessions, I request a bio from the future bride and groom. i have a questionnaire that includes questions that reveal the couples personalities, interests and how they met. I then take that information and brainstorm for a concept that communicates the couple and their love story based off the information provided.

As the title suggests, the couple showcased below is into music..watch out American Idol. Therefore, I took their interests along with the story on how they met to custom tailor their engagement session.

I first started location scouting for the perfect location to use as a background to tell the couples love story.

With the help of Google search engine and google earth, I was able to locate the Levitt Pavilion in the heart of Old Pasadena at Memorial Park, right off the Fair Oaks exit from the 210 freeway, and on the corner of Walnut and Raymond.

Now that the location for the engagement shoot has been identified, I can now proceed with the concept stage. First I need to identify the props to be used. Since the couple is very into music, I thought long and hard to identify the use of “garage band” instruments to illustrate their love of music. If you think about it, what better way to express their aspirations on becoming the next American Idol or just the love of music, then to pretend they are rock stars. Other props included a Smart Money magazine as the future bride is a CPA, the kick ball to represent their first attraction moment. This will all make sense as their love story is revealed below.

Once the concept is complete, I visit the location a week before the shoot date at the exact time. This way I will know the lighting situation on the day of the engagement session. I also was able to take some practice shots to gauge the light and settings required for a proper image. When the planning was complete, I proceeded to tell the couple’s love story through the images detailed below.

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ENGAGEMENT SESSION PHOTOGRAPHY SAMPLE: TRAVELING LOVE

lap — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 08:19:24 +0000

For this creative engagement session, I used my Nikon D200 and Tamron 17-50mm f2.8.

The majority of the images were taken at the Los Angeles Union Station. This location is one of my absolute favorites. You just get tha t old time. The chairs and decor provide a lot of character that enhances any image. As you can see from the creative engagement photographs you see below, the decor added a lot of great elements to the images.

Please note that these are just proofs and haven’t been edited in Photoshop, but only adjust pre-post in adobe lightroom.

Again all my engagement session concepts have been tailored to the biographies provided by my clients. Therefore, each client receives a truly unique illustration of their love story captured in my engagement sessions.

For the couple depicted in the images, i initially had a hiking concept of good and evil to match the bios provided. Although, the couple was looking for a less creative engagement session. Which is why, I always have a backup concept that isn’t so over the top as a backup.

The group of images communicate the love that the share through their travels together and their travels to see one another from a distance. When traveling is so much apart of their love story, you cannot day the significance of a travel theme to capture their love story.

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