I shot some engagement pictures for friends at work recently. I've done engagement pictures before, but I've been getting into off-camera flash, and this was my first real attempt at mixed lighting. I have to say I'm pretty happy with the results.
After one of Katie's and my last Barnes and Noble dates, I ended up with a copy of Advanced Digital Black & White Photography, and I played with some more, well, advanced digital black and white photography.
And whenever I do shoots like this, I always end up with a picture that I didn't even notice when I shot it but it turns out to be one of my favorites. Here's that one:
And now, the part where I opine about photography: Maybe it's just me, but I find 'posing' any more than a few generic suggestions and asking for 'big smiles' just doesn't do it for me. The fun of engagement pictures (and really, wedding pictures too) is in the actual real happiness of two people, not the coordinating-but-not-matching outfits and the pretty locations and the 17 compositional rules you're supposed to follow or not follow or creatively break. That's why I love bringing Katie along when I do these sorts of things. She's so in tune with people that she's able to foster those real connections that make the pictures much more interesting. (Plus, she holds my diffuser for me!)
I got plenty of well-composed, accurately-exposed pictures of Meghan and John smiling at the camera like everyone assumes they're supposed to. But the pictures I always gravitate to—the ones that make me stop and smile as I speed past them in Aperture—are the ones I take right after the couple thinks they're done with a particular 'pose' and they let their 'I'm being photographed' guard down.
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