Fast forward to a few weeks before our scheduled engagement session, we get a call from Binkan asking if they could go ahead and swap the engagement out in favor of rehearsal coverage. Now this was surprising, because I knew how excited they were so something specific had to be worrying them. When asked why, the reason given was ‘We’ve thought a lot about this lately, and we really don’t want to just go to some location and dress up and pose – it seems weird, just going somewhere for the sake of pretty pictures…’ Ironically enough, MT and I had been talking for months about doing a more meaningful type of engagement session, something that feels more ‘real’ for the exact same reason expressed by Binkan.

So we presented an alternative. ‘Tell you what… Let’s do the shoot in your house. No posing. No stressful wardrobe decisions. We’ll capture you doing what you normally do as you work from home, hang out, play with your dog… Then we’ll go grab lunch together. Absolute worst case scenario, you don’t have to do anything with the photos and we get to hang out and eat lunch together.’

They LOVED the idea. I mean they raved about it to friends and family… and this was before they even saw the results. There was literally no posing and virtually no direction given whatsoever for this shoot (they’re really that lovey-dovey, believe me).

This is one of the sweetest couples I’ve had the pleasure to work with, and I consider myself lucky to call them my friends. Thank you Ashlee & Binkan for helping to push us outside of the norm and for trusting us to fulfill our vision. Easily one of my favorite sessions to date.

P.S. This is their first home – and it is stylin’! Tip from Binkan: GILT app for iPad.

Now, Caroline and Shaun live just a few minutes from the ranch, so it’s a big part of their life together. In fact, their first date involved a trip to the ranch and Shaun taught Caroline how to shoot (with too large caliber a rifle, she reminds him – *kick*). When she out-shot him on her first attempt, I guess he knew she was the one. Ever since, they’ve spent most weekends at the ranch relaxing by the lake, fishing, hunting, eating, drinking and just, you know, doing Texas’y stuff.

Over the years, there have been a number of weddings out at the ranch. With Shaun’s brother set to be married there just a few months before their own wedding, they decided to have their wedding at Becker Vineyards instead. They didn’t want to completely leave the ranch out of the equation, so we shot the engagement session at Prison Canyon Ranch over the course of two days.

I just got word that my engagement session with Jaime & Mark was featured over at The Wedding Lady Blog today. Some other great photographers featured on there as well, including my very talented friend, Amy DeYoung.

Congratulations Jaime & Mark – you two are ‘so hot right now’!

When was the last time you snuggled on a bridge at sunrise?

Taking a little stroll.

And now… AIRPLANE! Since Mark is a pilot they really wanted to integrate his passion for aviation in their engagement session. The plane we shot with below has extra-special meaning – Mark’s grandfather flew this same type of aircraft in WW2.

The establishing shot:

The image on the left is the actual save-the-date magnet sent out to all their family and friends. [Save-the-date by Paper Bouquet.]

His name is Mark… but you can call him… Maverick.

Since they were coming such a long way and we were all so excited, we did an extended (4 hours instead of 2) engagement session in historic Gruene, TX – we even had lunch together at the Gristmill (mmmm….).  We took a stroll through the town, stopping at any place that piqued our interest, and just had a nice time together. It was like a casual date with us along for the ride – just how I like it!

Straight from the camera. Looks pretty blah straight from the camera, doesn’t it? Not the beautiful sunrise we’d hoped for, but I exposed this to retain detail in the highlights of the image, and you’ll see that clearly in the final edit. As for the composition, I shot a lot of close-ups during the shoot but I needed to capture some great, wide, landscape shots. After all, when you’re shooting an engagement session in Oahu, Hawaii (or doing wedding photography in Hawaii, for that matter) you’ve GOT to show the environment. Otherwise what was the point of going somewhere exotic, right?

Quick edit for blog. In hindsight, I made this edit appear a bit too ‘cool’ (that’s blue in photographer-speak). When doing the initial passes on images, it just doesn’t make sense to spend an insane amount of time on an image as it may not make the cut to begin with, so here you have it.

After 2-3 hours of editing this one image. I’ve gotten pretty much exactly what I saw in my mind when I captured that plain looking thing you saw straight from the camera. So what do you think? Worth all the extra effort? (I think so!)

This engagement session was shot on the beautiful island of Oahu, Hawaii. The night before, we went on a scouting mission and discovered this amazing view off the highway – it was the first and only place we bothered to stop at – it was absolutely amazing. The sun was going down and weather was starting to pick up, and we were just captivated by the stormy water rushing in and out of this giant inlet. It started to rain, but we didn’t care.

The next morning, we got up first thing so we could be there when the sun was rising for the best light during our shoot. It ended up being overcast, so we couldn’t really see the sunrise much anyways, but that didn’t stop us from making some amazing images. Enjoy, and as always, don’t be shy about commenting!