Rhiannon and I have decided to start a new on-going feature on our blog: “My Favorite.” We will regularly post articles about our favorite images, events, sessions, etc. For each article we will do a write-up on the image, what we did to “make it happen” and why we love it so much and we’ll include technical information for our all our photography amigos out there.
Today, for our first “ My Favorite” entry I am sharing my FAVORITE engagement photo!
A little bit about how it all came-together:
We first met Jessie and Nedie at a wedding show we had a booth at and they fell in love with our work. They had seen our work online, prior to the event, but when they met us in person and we talked about our style and how we would approach their wedding they knew we were the photographers for them.
When we told them how we do a complimentary engagement session with all our couples they were excited, but quickly asked, “Where do you do engagement photos?” We said we could do them anywhere, “the beach, the mountains, downtown, Disneyland even!” We told them how we’ve had the idea of doing an engagement shoot there for some time and couldn’t wait for the right couple to take us up on the offer.
Jesse and Nedie booked with us that day and they said that they were sold on the Disneyland idea. They were a fun couple and they wanted a fun place to set the scene for their engagement session. They also got our Guest Book Album (an album that their guests sign in –it features their favorite images) so having such a fun place made their Guest Book Album all the better.
The session:
We chose to do the session on a weekday and during the off-season in late September. It wasn’t too hot and we didn’t have any problems getting through lines or working amongst too many people.
We chose the rides according to what would come out the best photographically and went to work. We shot at Autopia, the Teacups, and Kings Arthur’s Carousel. Everything was turning out awesome but I wanted to something amazing!
The ride:
That’s when we decided to shoot on Big Thunder Mountain. It’s always been one of my favorite rides and I could tell Jessie and Nedie were itching for a rollercoaster. Getting everything “just so” was tricky because I had to get just enough room in front of them, with no one in between us and I needed to sit in the very front so I could get the tail of the train.
Sitting in the very front turned out to be a blessing because the front of the train moves slower than the rear so it made it a little easier to photograph and by a little easier I mean not being shaken as violently all throughout the ride.
How I did it:
It was a bright day so I had to use fill flash and every chance I got I contorted my body so that I was basically riding the ride backwards. I had to time my shots during the most exciting parts of the ride and readjust and recompose during the climbs. Since I was shooting half in shadow and half in bright light quite rapidly, I had to set my camera in Shutter Priority to ensure the flash fired properly. I didn’t want to waste time making adjustments for brighter or darker areas.
I made sure I had my Canon 17-40mm L F4.o with fresh batteries on my Canon Speedlight EX580 and I was ready to go. We twisted and we turned. There were times when I thought I would loose the camera, but I managed to hold on. Image stabilization wasn’t doing any good; I was tossed around the car so violently and because I was nearly riding it backwards, I had no clue what was coming next!
I shot about 50 shots, most were “instant deletes” but I got a few great ones and one amazing one became my absolute favorite! Not only because it was an exhilarating challenging, but because it captured them the way I saw them.
Here’s My Favorite Engagement Image. This is almost exactly how it came right out of the camera –we just did a quick polish in Photoshop. Isn’t it amazing?! I am so glad we got to finally shoot an engagement session at Disneyland and that we got to do it with such an awesome and fun couple. Thanks, Jesse and Nedie.
The image: 
Shot at 17mm @ISO100 at f7.1 1/60 using Shutter Priority and Exposure Compensation of +0.7
To see the original weblog posting from Jesse & Nedie’s engagement session click here. To see images from their wedding day featured on our blog click here.
3 Comments
Alex, I love this photo and I can see why you chose this one as your “My Favorite” Engagement Photo. It ROCKS!!! (Almost as much as you do!) Your skill, your style, your dedication to amazing photography and our couples really show in just this one shot. I hope we get to do another session at Disneyland again (SOON!).
Very unique! And you’re so willing to sacrifice and ride rollercoasters for your work.
Seriously, though… good stuff. Really captures that pure and new joy of engagement.
That picture is just awesome! Simply looking at it already conveys a lot of things. And now that we know how it’s been done, we can fully appreciate the work and talent behind it. Great work!