Summer Engagement photos are pretty popular for obvious reasons. Summer in DC is glorious. But honestly, it’s better in Colorado! For this summer engagement session we knew the the bride Leigh is a huge fan of light and airy pastel colors. So we picked this area of Georgetown DC for the cute townhouses. The colors would match the pastel wardrobe they planned on picking. Of course summer is only second to Spring as our favorite season. 

When planning any engagement session, timing is key. Why? Because we want to make sure that we can get some of that yummy, glowy backlit sun in some of the portraits. In a densely urban spot like Georgetown, that light can be elusive. Although it was a warm day, the sunshine is worth braving the heat.

Planning Details

The colors of this engagement session blew me away, especially on film photography. We met at my Georgetown studio to get changed and walked around the canals of Georgetown and along the Potomac to get a variety of shots. Although this sounds and looks easy, a lot of planning went into the planning of the shoot. As it always does. From picking the season, to date, to outfit and details of hair and makeup – everything is planned. The process starts with an engagement session guide that I send to every single couple that books with us. After that we have a few phone calls to narrow down the details.

Before the shoot, I spoke on the phone with the bride about hair, makeup and wardrobe. This ensured that we were all on the same page about what to expect. I love offering input on anything that helps make the photoshoot successful. To me the key to this shoot were two things. A drybar blowout, and that white shirt/teal polo combination. Along the backdrop of some colorful row houses, this is cohesion. What more could I ask for?

Washingtonian Bride & Groom Magazine is the top regional magazine. Being in it has been a goal for a long time. So being on the cover was extremely exciting. Of course, I’m not surprised. This photo was the epitome of a DC wedding. We are all so proud of being DC residents and love showing off the city.

It was pretty exciting around here last week when we heard the news! You may recognize the bride from some of our past posts, like their engagement shoot here.

One may ask, how do you get on the cover of a magazine? Well, the process was a surprise to me also. We routinely submit real weddings to be featured in the magazine. To my surprise, they published the wedding online, but only featured this image on the cover. I can’t say that I’m complaining!
Given the decline of print media around the world it’s a huge accomplishment to be printed in general. As it continues to be a huge effort to keep submitting our lovely weddings to get the recognition they all deserve.

As mentioned, this lovely wedding from last fall with Cate & Paul is on the Fall cover of Washingtonian Bride & Groom! This was such a wonderful wedding at the St. Regis in downtown Washington, DC with the amazing wedding planner A. Dominick Events.  I knew this wedding would be spectacular after their engagement session was published on Style Me Pretty .

The rest of the vendors are:

Makeup: Amie Decker http://amiedeckerbeauty.com/

Hair: Remona Soleimani http://www.bridalhairbyremona.com/

Florals: http://amaryllisdesigns.com/

J & L’s Fall Wedding in DC from last year was certainly one of my favorites. I could wear these Chloe flats every day!

A Fall wedding in DC is so popular, and I know exactly why. The weather is absolutely perfect in DC for an outdoor wedding, and the colors of fall are so deep and rich that they complement a black tie wedding perfectly. This wedding was supposed to be at the Carnegie library in DC but had to change plans with only ONE MONTH of notice! Fortunately the wedding found a new venue and was at the AIA building (so funny how I ended up back at that building after my past career as an architect). We took advantage of the new location of the wedding by doing portraits around this part of town that included the Corcoran building, the DAR and even the Red Cross building. So much great architecture in DC for a classic black tie wedding which makes us wedding photographers happy happy!

PS – how great are these colors on film? Seriously, I can’t get enough of these skin tones and berry colors on medium format. Also, while this was a church wedding at Gonzaga, the church was so bright that I was even able to shoot a good amount of Kodak Portra 800!

This classic wedding is certainly nothing underwhelming. For starters, I was obsessed with this bride’s Oscar DeLaRenta dress from the moment I saw it! What amazing clean and simple lines while being dramatic at the same time. That’s how you could describe this entire classic wedding at the St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Downtown Annapolis, Maryland. Before the ceremony we took the bride’s father’s vintage green Mercedes for a ride down to the US Naval Academy and took a few portraits in front of the building where the bride’s father teaches. The architecture on the campus was a perfect backdrop. The groom and groomsmen took a walk from the pier, through the docks and up to the church for some photos.

Speaking of photos, you may recognize this couple from their gorgeous Philadelphia destination engagement photo shoot.

The ceremony was a traditional Catholic Ceremony at St. Marys, complete with communion. The couple surprised the crowd by being escorted by a bagpiper at the end of the ceremony.

Later in the night, the guests enjoyed cocktails inside the US Naval Academy Alumni Hall, formerly known as Ogle Hall. Reason being was that the group waited for the April shower to taper off. The dinner plan is to eat outdoors and under the stars. Along with the table centerpieces that were lush white and green florals in blue ginger jars. It was all so elegant and classic, my favorite type of wedding.

Photography Mentoring & Portfolio Reviews. I’ve done them all, and quite frankly I love them all. As a self-taught photographer, it has been extremely helpful for me to have access to all these wonderful resources. Especially when trying to build my wedding photography business. Not every other profession has the amount of easily accessible, high-quality education as the photography industry. My short opinion about a few of the courses I’ve done:

Photography Workshops:

Workshops are wonderful for a number of reasons beyond learning. You meet a group of your peers, make friends for life, get inspired, and generally get a LOT to think about. I’ve done one local workshop and one large international workshop and I value them both for different reasons. The local one was great for meeting local photographers and having resources in my own market. I was just starting out. Meaning I had no other wedding photography friends or even acquaintances. I met awesome people. Many of whom I am still friends with! Also, I now have a number of local resources that helped me immeasurably.

The international one, well… all I can say is that I’m still reeling from it. I like to think that I jumped into the deep end with that one. The vendors were absolutely world-class creatives.  Moreover, the other attendees were super talented. I’m proud to have made some amazing friends from that workshop. Ultimately I call it my “Masters degree in Wedding Photography”. The best way to describe what I got out of that high-level workshop is a new pair of eyes. I scrutinize every photo, every detail, every timeline, email, shoot, and blog post that I put out there to make sure that it is the absolute best quality possible. Often, I will delete or edit these things after posting because, nah, it’s not good enough. The local workshop I did was with Rebekah Murray and is now available in video format and the international workshop I did was the once-in-a-lifetime, pinch-me-I’m-dreaming Jose Villa Mexico Workshop.

(From the Jose Villa Mexico Workshop)

Photography Mentoring:

I’ve done too many one-on-one mentoring sessions to name! Whenever I’m feeling stuck, or uninspired or like I need an outside perspective I tend to hop on a call or Skype session with someone awesome. These sessions have always been amazing because of the personalized feedback I get. I usually come prepared with a list of pretty specific questions and objectives. Super importantly, always with a portfolio for review. These mentoring sessions are usually a great checkpoint for me to make sure I’m going in an intentional direction. Often just to set this direction. The personalized feedback that I’ve received from mentoring sessions have made a huge impact. There is a lot to cover, and it can’t be done in just 1 hour, so think of these sessions as tweaking. And all those little tweaks add up.

Portfolio Reviews:

Often a part of the two above-mentioned sessions, a portfolio review can be terrifying but also incredibly productive. During a portfolio review, be prepared to put your ego aside and listen to the feedback given to you. It’s also important that you have sought out the best person to give you this review. Are you familiar with their work? Is it the style you are going for? What do you like about their work? Don’t ask a fine art photographer for critique on your studio sessions, it’s really just a waste of time. If you like street photography, find the best living street photographer out there and try to get into their mind. You don’t need to copy their work but understand their position. I have reluctantly done portfolio reviews (Wasn’t sure my ego could take it) but almost every time I come out of the session a little closer to finding my own distinct style.