What is an Engagement Photo Shoot and do you need one?

For all those who want to know, an Engagement Photo Shoot is the process of capturing a loving moment between a couple before they get married.

Because the main purpose of the shoot is to capture a loving moment (or several) the location of the shoot is not as important as the couple themselves.

If you and your fiance are truly in love it wouldn't matter if y'all are at the dump getting the shoot done or in the park. The love will show thru!

A good Engagement Shoot is going to have a few different elements:

1. A setting that the couple feel comfortable in.

2. The couple is in a good mood (your photographer should be able to help there. Some of my best imagery has come when the subject started off feeling a little put off by the need for images at that particular moment in time. Still, try not to fight right before the shoot!!!).

3. Good natural lighting (it's not mandatory to be outside but it fits what your trying to accomplish a little better).

4. An understanding that the purpose of the shoot is to capture the emotional bond between you and your beloved

5. A photog who will let you be you, allowing you to show that emotion off most of the shoot without too much interference.

Now, before we get to the meat of the article I have a little story.

Like most men, when the planning stage for the wedding was going on I honestly couldn't have cared less about certain details, one of which was the photography (I've always hated being in front of the lens and this was before I became a professional photog).

Just tell me when, where and what to have on, I'll be there.

That being said, one of the only regrets that I have about the months leading up to our wedding day is the fact that we never had any Engagement Photos taken. I really didn't regret this fact until our kids where grilling us about the early portion of our relationship (how we met, our first date, first kiss (why?!?), did we have fights, did we live together before the wedding...you get the idea). They wanted to see what we looked like. Not apart but together, and we couldn't show them! Sure we had several images of Mom, but almost nothing with Daddy...

Some couples out there love to pose for the camera together, no matter where they are or what they are doing. They have images from college, the park, a school or their local bar, showing affection for one another(or the camera, sometimes it's tough to tell). However, our deal was I took the images and she posed (she's beautiful!) for them. So I felt like a complete failure because we couldn't produce a loving moment captured on film of how we were leading up to the wedding. Most people can feel love from an image if that love is there to be captured and that is what my kids were probably looking for from their photographer father. Being created the way we are it's always easier to remember an event with some sort of visual landmark to conjure up latent emotions from a time in the distant past. How many times has a grandparent (or parent) gone off on some hour long diatribe because they drove past some place important to their youth? So this feeling was made worst because I don't have anything concrete to anchor the memories from that time leading up to one of the biggest days of my life.

A regret? You don't know the half!

Do You Need One?

From my point of view the Engagement Shoot is more important than the Bridal Portraits (that's right, I said it photographers!!!). It seems like such a simple thing but that adds to the emotional impact of the shoot. Both right after and then 15 to 20 years down the road when your talking to your teenage daughter about how she should be treated when in love. Your son has a visual idea as to how he should act with that special someone. You can rekindle that feeling with your spouse on that anniversary when the photo album comes out and the two of you look those images over.

To state the obvious I'm talking about the emotional value of this particular shoot. Believe it or not I can very easily see these images have more of an impact than the actual wedding photos because of the intent of the imagery. These images are supposed to document a feeling, an emotion, at the height of it's intensity. The wedding photos are really for documenting an event. A big one but an event none the less. The only time I can honestly say that a couple may want to skip the Engagement Shoot is when one or both of you are not outwardly passionate people. Than it will be much tougher to pull off the intent of the shoot. An emotional highlight of your life, expressing that emotion for all to see.

Several couples that I have had an Engagement Shoot with have gotten frustrated in the beginning of the shoot because I didn't give them any direction as to what I wanted to shoot. When this has happened the conversation follows this track here:

"You have to understand that I'm not in your private life. I don't know what you two like to do or how the you are when your together. The point of this shoot is for the two of you to simply be yourselves. Enjoying each other."

"But, what does that mean?!"

"It means pretend I'm not here! Hopefully, then the two of you will just enjoy being with each other! No posing, no direction, just you two having fun...! If you need it, I can start you off..."

I give them a couple of poses, then their ideas start to flow (it hasn't failed yet!), before they know it their having fun with each other and it usually shows thru in the images. It's just how we work. If you can find one that's part of a package or you find a studio that offers it a-la-carte jump on it!

Do you need an Engagement Shoot?! How could you do without one?

Well, obviously you can...but, you just may regret the decision...