Joel and Moriah – Engagment Shoot #1

Earlier this week I had the privilege of working with Joel and Moriah to capture some engagement photos. We had great plans of spending a couple of hours shooting in three different outdoor locations, but the weather forced us to change our plans. We began our shoot at a nice outdoor location, it was a little chilly and dark clouds in the sky created a more difficult lighting situation that I had hoped, but none the less I think we were able to capture a few nice images before the rain started to fall

If anyone asks Moriah what really attracted her to Joel, do you think her answer will be “his bulging biceps”?  I am not going to draw any conclusions either way, but the question had to be asked!

At this point there began to be a few rain drops falling and in the distance we could see that it was about to pour.  We decided that we were going to have to reschedule the rest of our outdoor shoot until a later date.  But, since we together I thought we might as well go and see if we could find somewhere with a little bit of shelter and see if we could get a few more shots.  So we headed off into town and found a couple of spots on the streets of downtown Sandpoint where we could hang out under the awnings to stay dry.

Take another look at the above photo, do you see the rain falling?  I was using a slow enough shutter speed that I was able to capture the streaks of rain as they came crashing to the ground,  I think it adds a fun effect to the image.

After a short while the cold started to catch up with us, so we ducked inside of a local store.   Thanks to Coldwater Creek for graciously allowing us to use a couple of locations in their store to shoot some shots!

This image presented a few challenges.  The overhead light was great on Moriah but Joel was in the shadows.  It seemed everywhere that my assistant Shea held the light we would get a reflection in the window.  Finally we found the right spot and I was able to get some nice light to capture this shot.

These are the stairs that ascend to the Coldwater Creek Wine Bar.  At first I tried to light Joel and Moriah directly, but the stairway ended up being this dark void behind them.  So instead, I had Shea go hide out behind the top flight of stairs and direct a flash into the back corner of the stairway to open it up a bit.  I really like how it created a nice contrast of color in the image.  You have the warm tones on Joel and Moriah, then the cool tone of the light from the flash, and then the warm tones again of the upper room.

Our time was coming to an end, but I had to get just one more series of shots.  It was now dark outside and I wanted to capture some of the lights displayed along the sidewalk.

Well, that is all for this time.  I am glad we were able to shift gears and get some fun images when the weather did not agree with our plans and I am looking forward to our re-scheduled shoot!