Engagement sessions are valuable for both the couple and the photographer. It provides the photographer with an opportunity to know the couple who have entrusted their big day to him but most importantly, it gives the couple an opportunity to work with their photographer before their big day. One less thing to worry about on the big day!
It breaks the ice, demystifies the big black box of having a professional photographer shoot them and provides the couple with an opportunity to warm up on their couple shots, including practicing a perennial favorite – the ‘dip-shot’ – where the groom dips the bride for a kiss and for the cameras! The dip-shot albeit a favorite- often poses a real struggle for some couples, after all, in real life one seldom kisses like Scarlet O’Hara and Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind!
But above all that, it provides an opportunity to understand expectations, and preference of shots as it pertains to that particular couple without the pressure and constraints of the wedding day. For the photographer, its important to remember that the locale chosen for the engagement shot is perhaps the first opportunity he gets to work his charm on the couple and if that locale takes out the hard work especially in post production and can enhance the first set of pictures that the couple are going to get from him, then he will have a magical set of pictures where the background is an equal star alongside the starring couple. You can’t go wrong with that star cast.
We chose the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ to shoot Caroline and Anthony’s engagement shoot. The forecast predicted light rain but we weren’t letting a few raindrops play spoil-sport! For those of you unfamiliar with the picturesque Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton , NJ, then you don’t know what you have been missing. The gardens have been landscaped in such a way that each section of the huge garden presents a different look and feel and the monotony of the same background is never a problem. And the money shots – the ones that elicit the oohs and the aah’s- there’s plenty of opportunities for that what with the Monet bridge coming to life from Claude Monet’s canvas of a Bridge over a pond of water lilies. Some of the sculptures are from vegetation and pruned trees and so the drama from the greenery around is endless.
Engagement Photography Location: Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ
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