As photographers with a guided documentary approach, our engagement sessions are movement and interaction based. But the engagement session experience starts before we even meet up to take pictures.
Engagement Session Prep
Before you book your engagement session with Simply Finn, we’ll send you some pricing information via email. After that, the next step is to get on a video chat or meet up for drinks (The Norbert is a local favorite of ours!). It’s a dual-purpose chat: firstly, it’s to get to know each other as people. What are you two like? Do you like us and think we are the right fit for you? Secondly, this conversation is a great time for us to answer any questions you may have about the process. If the vibes are good and you want to book, we’ll work together to find a date that works and make it official with a contract and payment.
One of the best parts of engagement sessions, in our eyes? The designing. Your engagement session doesn’t have to be (and shouldn’t be) an uncomfortable, awkward experience where you pose for an hour straight and then go home feeling exhausted. This time in your lives is truly special – so let’s treat it as such. We’ll work with you to plan an entire experience for your engagement session, making it feel like a real date that you’ll never want to forget. From wardrobe to location to activities, we’ll help you plan it all.
The Photoshoot
Then, we do the thing. When we get to meet up for your engagement shoot, we’ll spend the first few minutes catching up with each other – with our cameras down. You’ll hear us say it time and time again: building meaningful connections is at the core of everything we do – and us knowing you means your photos are going to feel like you.
Before we start taking pictures, we’ll give you a crash course in posing. It’s nothing important, and nothing you have to remember for the duration of your session. We’ll always be there to guide you. But we find having some basic tips helps couples feel more confident in front of the camera. All you really have to do is be comfortable being you! (And if you’re not there, don’t worry. We’ll help you get there.)
Now, the cameras come up. But, at first, we’re not doing anything formal. We may grab some photos of you as you walk to our first location, but no posing is necessary yet. When we do get to posing, the first few will be heavily based in interactions and movement, helping you feel comfortable and confident in front of the camera. You’ll find yourselves spending a lot of time goofing off and getting silly with each other, or even nuzzling up and telling each other your favorite memories as we guide you through your session. Interaction is key! We honestly hope you forget we’re taking photos.
As we progress, we’ll start to get into some moody, dramatic engagement pictures. This involves a lot of staring off into the distance (for, you know, dramatic effect). And while we love these types of moody photos, we have an alternate agenda when we’re posing you: we’re waiting for those in-between moments. After we’re “done” with a pose, we’re not going to put our cameras all the way down. The seconds when you’re coming out of a pose are when genuine, relaxed interaction occurs. These few seconds? They’re pure goldmines.
Our Approach to Engagement Sessions
Your entire session, even when it might not seem like it, is based in interactions and movement. As we work with you, we’re observing the specific way you two interact with each other – what seems to make you feel more comfortable, whether you’re playful or serious with each other – and tailoring the session specifically to you. We want you to feel good – and feel like yourselves in your engagement photos.
We’re also paying attention to the details when we’re taking pictures. We care about the little things like if your ring is straight or if your hair is in the right place, but genuine emotion comes before everything. We’ll never interrupt a great candid moment just to make a minor adjustment. We will, however, help you out before the next pose. As we see it, this is way more than just an engagement session: it’s you two making memories. And who are we to disrupt those interactions? Nobody.
That’s the last thing: who are “we,” anyway? Well, it’s the two of us. You really do get both Joe and Miranda as your engagement photographers. The whole team. We do this for a couple of reasons. For starters, if you have us booked for your wedding, we’re all going to be spending a lot of time together. It’s important that we get to know each other!
But the other thing is, two photographers means more variety in your photographs. It seems so small and unimportant, but as a recently engaged couple ourselves, we could always tell whether our perspective photographers were working individually or in a team of two. In a two-person team, one person can be shooting tight, while the other person is getting the shot from farther away. We’ve found that even when Joe is on video and Miranda is on photo, the extra brain-power we have from working side-by-side for so long has made us amazingly efficient. We’re each other’s other half, and we love that it means you get more variety in your images. Those close-up detail shots of the hands, the smiles, the feet intertwined – those photographs can convey so much emotion.
Engagement session season is upon us. If this is what you’re looking for, let’s chat.
