Jordan + Abbey’s Arvada engagement with Samantha, our talented Colorado associate photographer

I met up with Abbey and Jordan on Memorial Day to shoot their engagement session in Olde Towne Arvada. There is so much that is right about this session that I asked Kevin if I could do something a little different for this blog post and discuss why this session worked out as well as it did and why I’m such a big believer in engagement sessions.

The engagement session is as much about establishing a good working relationship with your photographer as it is about the actual photos that result from it. It gives you a low-pressure opportunity to get a feel for your photographer and for what it’s like to be professionally photographed. As a photographer, I can talk for hours about how much better photos are when the photographer and the clients really connect with each other. The engagement session gives us a chance to make that connection outside of the stress and pressures of the wedding day.

Abbey and Jordan’s engagement session is a stellar example of this. I felt like I really clicked with them, and their engagement session was a ton of fun!

Their photos truly, truly reflect who they are with each other. They went into their session with a pretty firm idea: they wanted their photos to be of them hanging out with each other and enjoying each others’ company. They told me this early in their session while I was directing them into a pose I had in my head. I immediately changed methods and worked on setting them up in good locations and letting them interact with each other, rather than directing them into specific poses.

Asking a photographer to change what they’re doing during a shoot can be uncomfortable. After all, the photographer’s the one for whom the shoot is routine work, who knows how this is supposed to go, and who are you to tell them differently? I know how this feels because I’ve been through this exact flow of thoughts when I’m the one in front of the camera.

But you know what? Your vision for your photos is important to me. You have every right to ask for exactly what you want and to ask me to change how I’m doing something. My primary goal is to make photos of you that you love. When you ask me to change up my workflow for you, I’m nothing but happy to do so.

Never be afraid of asking for what you want.

-Sam