Today, I’d like to share a little bit behind the scenes how I photographed a recent engagement session. I believe, a big part of my service for my portrait clients is to creating images that are both meaningful and pretty… in addition to facilitating an experience that is also fun.

For Alan and Jenny’s session, they wanted to include their two dogs Millie and Honey. They are both huge animal lovers and Veterinarians! They enjoy spending time together hiking and exploring. Our first thought was a portrait session at the beach, but after timing it out on a weekday for sunset, it didn’t make much sense being in traffic 4-5 hours. Then, I thought about a recent meetup I attended in Orange County with some fellow photographers. It turns out, Carbon Canyon wasn’t too far from where they live! I really love lots of things about Carbon Canyon including pretty views with rolling mountains, lots of plants, a big lake, and good light.

With our location figured out, next on the planning agenda was wardrobe styling. Jenny initially sent me a picture of a dress she wanted to wear. From the dress, I created a style board including some options for Alan and the dogs.

Here’s what the session ended up looking like:

Above is a shot I did with one off camera flash a little to the right of camera. Below, you can see the same pose but with natural lighting. Notice how much detail we can see in the background from version 1 and version 2? Which do you prefer?

Above and below is another great sample of natural lighting vs flash.

Alan and Jenny have been to the park before hiking with their dogs. A couple weeks before the session, they found the mustard fields bursting with color!

We did a couple options with natural light with one facing toward the sun and the second set was backlit for a softer glow. <3

For our third location we went over to the lake at sunset for a couple more romantic shots. We were lucky to catch the last little kiss of sunlight before it set over the mountains.