This is Grace and Otto. They're getting married this summer and Hassan & I will have the pleasure of being with them on their wedding day.We do A LOT of planning and preparation before we shoot a wedding, and one of the most important ways we prepare is to shoot an "engagement session" with the couple.
Since their reception will be held at the Omni Hotel, we decided to use the picturesque River District (which includes Shockoe Slip and the Canal Walk) for our location. This allowed us to show the couple (who don't live in Richmond, thus weren't that familiar with the area) the locations we might use for their wedding portraits.
We started at the fountain infront of the Martin Agency on 13th Street. I love this fountain, but so do the birds...so if you go to make pictures, bring a few paper towels if you want to sit on the edge of the fountai
n itself.We started shooting in the late afternoon, but not close to sunset, because I wanted to be sure to get sunlight on their hair, and hard light in the water droplets from the fountain.
I love Grace's hands. I always love hands showing in portraits, and it's even better when you can incorporate that with a couple. It takes some practice though, getting hands to look pretty and not like bear claws.
One of the drawbacks to shooting in urban settings are cars parked on the street. This was a beautiful Saturday, so the whole world was out. A long lens with shallow depth of field helped blur the parked autos, and keep the focus on the couple.
We lingered here on the fountain and let the two of them just look out at the scene. I always turn away from the couple and give them a few moments to chat and whisper to each other. If I'm lucky, they forget I'm around and do something silly. That's when I get images like this with energy and spontaneity.
