Engagement Photo Portrait Session

People that aren't into photography take photos at very discrete times in their lives. They take them specifically, when they want to remember something. That makes sense. I am probably into photography because I want to remember everything about my life Having a photograph helps me not only remember, but it helps me remember things more fondly. Now I am a special situation. I am in the situation where the photo I am taking (as a subject) serves as not just a photograph, but as a landmark. I am getting married, and the photos I take during this era will forever be my "wedding photos"

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I'm not saying I felt a lot of pressure. No one needs an engagement portrait. I attached that photo to my engagement party invitation emails, and that definitely was not a requirement to push send.

But still, I didn't want a generic engagement portrait, where I am sitting on his lap in a park bench, or kissing romantically in a rose garden. I am actually not that type of person. I wanted something less emotional, less hellenistic. I'd like to think I like a sanitized aesthetic, but it might be that I am not creative enough to plan out anything messier. I wanted something symbolic and clean. I am one of those people who can't stand reading the saccharine wedding rhetoric about this being the most important day of your life and how you have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars or you will regret it. Life will have better days. And getting emotional about anything is a trap. There were only three things in this photo, Alex, Me, and something that ties us together. Thats what I want the marriage to be about too.

I bought the Ampersand at Dot and Bo on sale. I do not think I paid too much. It is a light source for my living room (although quite an inefficient one), a decoration for my house and for the party (and possibly the wedding as well), and an excellent portrait prop. It also really makes the engagement part of our relationship feel more official. We've been living together for 2 years now, and frankly being engaged has changed absolutely nothing. Having a big new decorative element that proclaims our new relationship status so brightly makes it feel like something changed.

To take this photo I set up the DSLR on a tripod to take 9 consecutive images at 5 second intervals. I put a speedlight with an umbrella located right above the camera on a 9 foot light stand. The fill light is necessary. The light from the ampersand completely blows out the photo if there is no fill. I didn't want one of the other of us to get a majority of the light so I centered it in front of the camera. This is a situation where two speedlights may have been better.

I used a long shutter speed with a small aperture (200 iso) because I didn't want the speedlight to completely eat up the captured light. Using a slower shutter gave the camera time to pick up the light from the ampersand as well.

Here are some photos on the reject pile. Keep in mind these didn't go through as much post processing.

This one was cute, but I thought it looked too sad. This one was a definate runner up but I thought the red dress popped a little more.

I liked the color or my arm in this oen.

The colors of this one are cool. I thought it was too dark, though.

I liked the color of this one as well, but I thought it was a little blurry and the dress was a little bit too cheery for how dead our eyes are. If I was wearing the red dress I would have picked this one for sure.