The One with Engagement Photos

The start of our Thanksgiving break included our very first solo photography gig (my first gig ever was Elise's wedding, remember?). Our good friends, Josh & Amanda, called us a few weeks ago with a request to take their engagement pictures. We were totally honored (not to mention super thrilled) to oblige. The honest truth is we are novices. Kevin has a great natural talent for photo editing, and I like to think I have a creative photographer's perspective that needs to be honed. The two of us discussed our plan for the shoot. I would take the pictures, do the posing. He would pick out backgrounds and photo ops, be an extra set of hands, and help keep our subjects comfortable and at ease.  

We made a great team, I think! Amanda kept saying, "I feel like this is going so great. I'm so excited about the shots you're getting." And Josh went from feeling a bit tense and uncomfortable having his picture taking (like most guys do), to laughing and relaxing and having a great good time. Win-Win. 

Eager to get home to our Photoshop-equipped computers, we jumped at chance to pick through the 300 plus photos and perfect the winners. I can't wait to share a handful of them with you RIGHT NOW.  

{josh & amanda. november 2011}

I learned a lot through this photo shoot experience. 

1) I LOVE photography. I love working with the subjects, posing them, finding the perfect angle. 

2) I needed to up my shutter speed. It's so depressing to find out that some of the most beautifully framed photos are blurry. 

3) Posing subjects is way harder than it looks. Mostly because it takes a whole lot of creativity. 

4) I have a lot to learn about Photoshop.

5) Lighting, shadows, clouds, sunlight, direct sun, and flashes are essential and I need to learn, learn, learn. 

6) I'm thinking I shouldn't feel bad about having so many "duds" in my final collection of photographs. Getting 80 great shots has to be pretty decent (at least for an amateur.) 

5) I really want to continue developing this skill. It has been a dream of mine for many years, and I can see a glimmer of reality in my future.  

Can't wait for more opportunities like this one--friends who trust us to "practice" on them until we're good enough to go pro (ish). :D

ps. I'm linking this post with it's 10 pictures I'm proud of with OhAmanda's Top Ten Tuesday.

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