Sammy & Alejandro are planning a destination wedding and asked me to capture their engagement session. Sammy had been following on Instagram, and I love the joy of meeting people in real life from that crazy little app!
Discovery Park is one of my favorite spots for engagement photos in Seattle because it’s so beautiful all year round, it’s one of the only spots I know if that has a vast grassy field overlooking water, and it’s a good walk from the parking lot to the area I like to shoot, which means we get plenty of time to get to know each other. I try to never start shooting until I feel like there’s a solid baseline of trust between me and my couple. I want to be able to pick up on their energy, read their cues and really tell their true story, never just run them through a bunch of poses I use with everyone.
After the park, we ran over to the downtown area of Magnolia to switch up the vibe. We grabbed a coffee and wandered. Without a specific plan, we just followed the light and looked for spots that felt right. To me, it’s so much better than pre-scouting a spot and then having the light change, and nothing is the way I thought it would be. This way, it’s a bit of a hunt we go on together, and feels like an adventure. There’s always good light to be found in Seattle.
Updated to include film scans from this day! Shooting film is becoming a passion of mine quickly. It’s a way to offer a totally fresh and different perspective to a digital set of images. I love the texture and the of-the-moment sense.
