Photos with your Dog
The idea for this blog post may or may not have come from wanting to blog the first photos I took of Athena. Although I worked in a kennel in college and I’ve had plenty of people bring dogs to their sessions, I don’t have any experience in actual pet photography, so taking pictures of Athena was a new challenge for me. If you want to include your dog in your photos, here are a few tips!
Have realistic expectations. Most of the pictures will either have your dog sitting, standing, or walking. The pictures you saw on Pinterest where the dog is posing with your or holding a sign might not be feasible for a puppy or for an easily excited dog.
These photos were taken when Athena was 8 weeks old and we’d only had her for a few days. She was really excited to be out in an open area, and I was lucky to even have a few pictures of her sitting still.
Bring a helper. There will be photos that don’t include your dog, and there aren’t always places in sight to tie a leash. Your dog might not want to stick around the entire time either, so your helper can take the dog home.
Keep the dog on the leash. This might even be a rule for certain locations. Having your dog on a leash minimizes the chance of running into a dangerous situation or an unpleasant encounter with another human or animal in the area. I know Athena isn’t on a leash in some of these photos—there was absolutely nobody around and we were far away from the woods or the road, so she couldn’t run anywhere unsafe before we could catch her.
Choose a time and place where you would be unlikely to encounter other people or animals. For example, a session at Clemson on a weekday in June would be safer than the Friday before the homecoming game. This ties back into #3: the dog is less likely to be distracted or have an unpleasant interaction with someone. Even if your dog is friendly, whoever your dog approaches might not be.
Bring doggy bags. Nothing ruins the moment like realizing what you just stepped in. It’s something Athena likes to eat right now, which means I have to get it out of her mouth with my hands, and it drives me crazy! As new puppy owners, we’re also learning about how not picking up after your dog can spread all kinds of awful things to other animals. Keep the ground clean for us and for whoever comes through afterward.
Bring water. Athena is really good about drinking water, but if she can’t get to her bowl, she gets squirmy and whiny. Keep your dog comfortable!
Check yourselves and your dog for ticks afterwards. A tip I learned from the kennel is to keep a Dixie cup of rubbing alcohol next to you and drop the ticks into it as you pull them off. Otherwise, they could run away and you risk having them come back to you.
Dogs, as well as any animal who’s close to your heart, are always welcome as long as they’re supervised and they won’t harm anyone or anything. I’ve had one session with a chicken and one with a snake, and I’m up for pretty much anything else! Click here to contact me about setting up a session!
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Clemson Proposal and Engagement | Tracy and Lawrence
Every once in a while, my friend Tracy will ask me about doing a session with her. She was Miss Clemson University, then she graduated from Clemson twice, and we’ve done a few just for fun. This time, it was Lawrence reaching out, telling me he was planning to propose to Tracy and he wanted me to be there.
Tracy and Lawrence had come back to South Carolina for a wedding. Lawrence caught the garter. They headed to Clemson for Sunday brunch and took a walk around campus. They walked through President’s Park, where the superstition says you’ll be together forever if you walk through there holding hands. The two of them walked hand-in-hand down the path until Lawrence stopped and got down on one knee. I wasn’t actually close enough to hear him pop the question, but I saw a long hug and a kiss. After Lawrence told Tracy to turn around to see me in the bushes (not being sketchy at all), I pointed out the tape I had put on the ground for Lawrence to stop. We went inside so they could be in the air conditioning and share the news with their parents.
Lawrence had perfectly coordinated his outfit to complement the dress Tracy had packed, knowing there would be an engagement session that day. Since it’s summer, we had the campus almost to ourselves. We went back to President’s Park so I could take pictures of them actually walking through it, since I was behind a bush until the end of the first walk. We came back through all the places where I’d done Tracy’s pictures for Miss Clemson University and her graduation years before. The fountains were on at the reflection pond, which always makes the pictures there look cooler.
These two made a 95-degree session at 11 AM so worth it! Check out some of my favorites!
3 Tips for Choosing Engagement Session Outfits
While I love all the excitement and details of a wedding day, engagement sessions are unique in their own way. Not only is it intimate, it also gives couples a chance to showcase their personalities and stories through the location and outfits they choose. In this blog, I’m sharing a few tips on what to wear!
I believe that photos that make us happy are mostly because of how we feel at the time the photos were taken. I want everyone to feel their best before they even see me, so I give everyone a portrait guide before each session. Much of that gives some insight to help you decide what to wear. I recommend having two outfits, but some couples choose to wear one, either because they really like it or because they don’t want to take time out of the session to find a place to change. Here are a few tips to help you narrow down your options.
1. Dress comfortably.
You don’t want to remember your engagement session as the day you wore a top that was too tight or an itchy sweater. If it’s 100 degrees, try to wear something that’s won’t make you sweat more. If it’s 25 degrees (like in Katherine and Anthony's session, pictured above), make sure you have layers under your outfit and gloves to put on between photos. A scarf and a peacoat can be just as pretty as a sundress. Check out my Pinterest board for some of my favorite outfits for cold weather sessions!
Wear comfortable shoes! Take it from me: after I finished my graduation session, it was about a half mile walk back to my car. I really didn’t want to make the choice between wearing the shoes that hurt me for the whole session and walking barefoot. If you’re dying to wear a certain pair of shoes for your session, make sure you have a more comfortable pair to change into if you have a lot of walking to do. Here’s a tip that I picked up from my high school color guard days: carefully placed electrical tape on the insides of your shoes can save your feet a lot of pain.
2. Coordinate with each other.
You can coordinate colors without matching, like the “red top, black pants” my cousins and I would wear for our family pictures at Christmas when we were little. You could choose a color scheme, such as wearing different shades of blue or both of you wearing something red and black. You could also complement each other’s outfits. If your favorite dress is purple and your fiancé(e) doesn’t have anything purple, you can choose an accessory in a similar color to something they do have.
Matt’s blue shirt and red tie both complement the flowers in Amethyst’s dress. Her dress also was perfect for this April session and looked beautiful with the colors of Disney’s Polynesian resort! Which brings me to #3…
3. Consider the location.
You can coordinate your outfits with the color scheme of the location. If there are lots of fall leaves at this location, you could wear warmer hues to complement them. If your session is in the snow (which would be amazing), you could wear bolder colors to stand out. Tori and Michael’s first outfits complemented the colors of the desert garden so well, and their second outfits showed off their matching shoes while coordinating with the sunflowers.
If you’re newly engaged, I hope this helps you feel more confident going into your engagement session! Click here to set up your own engagement session or see more of my blog below:
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Caesars Head Engagement Session | Sierra and Remington
I have a lot of pictures to take in the wonderful month of October, and the first were for Sierra and Remington’s engagement session in the mountains!
When I first met Sierra and Remington in July for Sierra’s graduation photos at Clemson, they told me they were about to celebrate their 4th anniversary as a couple. Right before that day came up, Remington told Sierra to make sure her trunk was shut because he got something out of it earlier and he wasn’t sure if it had closed all the way. Thinking he was at work, Sierra opened the trunk to find three boxes with letters and pictures of them together. Remington came from behind the house and proposed! How pretty is the ring he picked out? And yes, I looked all around for red and yellow leaves before Sierra and Remington got there so I could do a fall-looking ring shot, even though it was still a few days before the fall temperature kicked in.
Sierra and Remington told me that they really wanted their pictures to have a pretty view, so I suggested a few places I’d been to in the upstate. They chose Caesar’s Head, which became one of my favorite places in the whole state of South Carolina after I did an engagement session there last fall. Sierra and Remington drove up from Newberry and the sunset did NOT disappoint! There was a small group of people who had come to the overlook to see the sunset, and I heard one kid say, “They look like they’re getting married!”
I’ve found that people in other states tend to forget that there’s more to South Carolina than Charleston, but Charleston doesn’t have a view like this! Check out some of my favorites from this session with an awesome couple in a beautiful place.
Digital Files, Prints, and Albums
Seeing your images for the first time is always such a fun experience, but deciding on what to do with the images can be difficult. You probably value being able to share them on social media or hanging your favorites in your home, but what else is there to consider? Here are some of the benefits of having digital files, prints, and albums.
Digital Files
When I was in middle or high school, a friend mentioned not having any baby pictures. I couldn’t understand why since my family had so many pictures of me from when I was little. His parents did take pictures of him when he was little, but his house had burned down when he was in elementary school, and any pictures that were in that house were gone. This was before digital photography became the norm, so any pictures they had that were taken before the fire were either copied from photos given to friends and family, or from the school’s database of school pictures.
This is the biggest reason why I never think twice about offering digital files. Yes, I would be able to print them off again if you asked, but by that point, you’ve probably gone through the pain of telling so many people about this horrible thing you went through, and it would probably be easier if you didn’t have to go through that again with me. Another reason is that it’s always nice to be able to share your photos with so many friends and family members at once and to have them on your phone whenever you want to show someone, and you can get more prints if you need to years after I’ve given you the files. But only having digital files isn't ideal for every situation.
Prints
When I got engaged, my grandma, who was losing her memory, asked me every time we talked on the phone what my ring looked like. My grandma didn’t have access to a cell phone or a computer, so she couldn't see a digital file unless someone came and showed it to her. My ring was kind of hard to describe, so I texted a picture to my aunt, who I knew visited her often. Still, my grandma would ask me during every conversation what it looked like, insisting that my aunt had never shown her the photo, even though I knew she had several times. I printed off a photo and mailed it to her, along with some photos from our engagement session. That way, they could hang on the fridge she passed every day, and she wouldn’t forget what my ring looked like or whose ring it was.
So why would you want to order prints if you can just print the digital files yourself?
The short answer I give in my portrait guide is that I give you the option to order prints from a professional lab so that they’ll last longer over time and look closer to what you see on your screen. Plus, it’s easier than downloading the photos and re-uploading them to wherever you’re printing them.
As for lasting over time, I always think back to the section of the athletic hallway at my high school with all the photos of teams that won state titles. The color and clarity on some of these photos was pretty typical for the years printed on them—large, pixelated photos with overexposed faces from the 80s and 90s, and then smaller black and white photos from the 70s. Then there was an ivory-colored piece of paper in a frame, where you could see outlines of something if you got really close to it in good lighting. It was on a wall that faced away from the windows, presumably moved away from the sun a few years too late, but it was still there as a reminder that some team had won a state title sometime. I'm not sure that any teachers could tell us what the picture was, but I was sure that the team members would be upset if they came back to visit and the important picture of their winning team was all but gone from the wall.
As someone who took lots of photos of the Clemson football team, color accuracy in photos is important to me. I’ve seen so many pictures where the purple in their uniforms looks blue—I remember watching a “Purple Out” game against Duke on TV and it was so hard to tell whether the fans were wearing blue or purple. I’ve seen lots of photos where the orange in the football uniforms would look like Tennessee orange, Texas orange, or even red. I worked hard in my editing to make sure the colors in my photos looked like what I saw in person. Still, I soon realized that this didn’t always matter if I was printing from the least expensive print source I could get to, because the print could be more yellow or blurry than the file I sent. In college, I'd either pick up smaller prints from a pharmacy in a flimsy envelope, or the larger ones would be mailed to me in a cardboard tube. Not even millimeters separated my prints from whatever could be happening outside. What if a bigger package fell on it? What if I spilled something on the envelope on the drive home? Well, I can assure you that the prints that come from my galleries come from the same lab as the photos that hang on my walls. They came in thick boxes with tons of layers, and you can see that our wedding colors are CLEARLY purple and orange.
Albums
Let’s go back to my grandma: my dad made my grandma an album of family photos he had scanned, dating back to before my grandparents were married. He said that when he showed her the photos, she was suddenly able to recall specific details about the photos. Around that time, I made my sister's wedding album as her wedding gift, and my dad asked me to make another copy for my grandma. I sometimes had to describe my cousins' weddings to her, even though she was at all of them, and we wanted her to remember how happy she was at my sister's wedding. The album had pictures of the extended family, my sister’s accessories, and the sign they got with their names and wedding date on it. She could pick it up from her coffee table and remember what my sister’s new last name was, the date of the wedding, who was there, and what everything looked like. And someday, my sister and her husband won’t remember that day so well, and they’ll have the album to show their kids.
I decided to make my own wedding album because it’s something I like to do. And I did make it…a year after my wedding. It wouldn’t surprise me if other couples planned to make their own and just never did. Unless you’re like me and you’re obsessed with detail shots, you probably won’t have prints of your shoes and rings hanging on your wall, but you would want to have some photos in your album that highlighted some of the important items from your wedding day, like any heirlooms or the lace on your veil that you love so much. You wouldn’t hang pictures that included every guest, but you’d put some of them in an album so you can remember who was there. Plus, looking through my grandparents’ wedding album is so much fun because everything was so different back then, and it’s only when I look at those photos that my family and I see how much I look like my grandma.
My approach to delivering photos has always been to serve you the best I can without making things too complicated for you. Everyone has different photography needs, so hopefully this has helped you get a better idea of what your needs are. Thanks for reading!
Want to talk about your vision for your wedding photos? Let’s set up a time!
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Clemson University Engagement Session with Cacti and Sunflowers: Tori and Michael
Tori and Michael first met at governor’s school and became friends when they became counselors for the governor’s school summer camp program. After they both graduated from Clemson with engineering degrees, Michael proposed to Tori on a cruise to the Caribbean.
Since so much of Tori and Michael’s story took place at Clemson, that’s where we went for their engagement photos. I've done lots of sessions at Clemson and even had my own engagement photos there, but I love how every session I've had there shows a different part of campus that each person wants to look back on. We didn’t just take photos around campus, we went into the botanical gardens and the student organic farm as well. There’s a section of the botanical garden with all desert plants, so until we moved to the grassier areas with palmetto trees, it would be hard to tell we were in South Carolina if you weren’t there to feel the humidity. With a high of 84 degrees that day, it was even hard to remember that it was July. Although their clothes got caught on the cacti a few times before we came up with a new plan for where to stand, I’m happy to say that the only time anyone got pricked was when I set up the shot of Tori’s ring on top of a cactus with a flat top and little tiny spines around it. Luckily, I didn’t really feel them and they came out pretty easily.
I thought the outfits Tori and Michael chose were awesome and looked amazing against some of the plants in the area. Their first outfit complemented the colors of the desert garden so beautifully. They coordinated their second outfit with the sunflower field in mind, using their matching yellow Converses to complement the sunflowers and stand out from their black and white outfits.
Here are some of my favorites from this Arizona/South Carolina/summer-feeling session! I had a lot of fun with these two and I can’t wait to be part of their wedding day!
Disney World Engagement Session: Amethyst and Matt
Matt and Amethyst are not just a couple who likes Disney enough to have their engagement session in Disney World. They are a couple who have such a significant part of their story in Disney World, so of course their engagement session would be at “the happiest place on Earth.”
Amethyst and Matt first met while working at the same Disney World resort. This past February, Matt got all of Amethyst’s friends in on his plan to propose at the top of the Orlando Eye, a giant Ferris wheel. When the ride was delayed due to a fire alarm going off, the group decided to take some pictures in front of the Ferris wheel while they were waiting. When it was Matt and Amethyst’s turn to have their picture taken, Matt popped the question. Fast forward to the day of the engagement session: seeing the Winnie the Pooh characters react to a couple saying they’re engaged is the cutest thing ever.
We started the session on the beaches by some of their favorite resorts. Yes, we had a beach and Cinderella’s Castle in the same shots! That Winnie the Pooh song that says “and the rain rain rain came down down down” is a perfect description of what happened partway through. Amethyst and Matt pulled out their Mickey and Minnie umbrellas, which was not only adorable, they looked especially gorgeous when a little patch of golden hour sun peeked out for a few minutes. To top it off, we saw a rainbow for a minute! Luckily, there were lots of gazebos in the area, so Matt and Amethyst could stay dry while dancing to Disney songs. Keep an eye out for a hidden Mickey in one of the gazebos!
I don’t normally shoot after the sun goes down, but we were in Disney. We headed to Main Street and watched the fireworks and light show at the castle. I asked Matt and Amethyst if they wanted some pictures with it. They said to wait until the grand finale, when there would be the most fireworks. There may have been a ton of people around, but the rush of catching the right moment was incredible.
I knew as soon as Matt and Amethyst told me where they wanted their engagement photos that this would be so much fun. Hope you love looking through these photos from the most magical location!
“People do crazy things when they’re in love.” –Hercules
Clemson University Engagement Session: Diana and Andrew
One day at Clemson, Andrew and Diana walked hand-in-hand through President's Park. Andrew did not know at the time that superstition says that means they'll be together forever. This time, they held hands and danced through the park, knowing their wedding day will be here before they know it.
I've done lots of portrait sessions around Clemson, and I had my proposal, engagement, and wedding pictures at Clemson, but this was my first time shooting an engagement session at Clemson, so this one holds a special place in my heart. It was also my first time doing a session in January; I don't know what colors are the most festive for January, but I'm pretty sure that Diana and Andrew wore them for the session, and Diana’s purple coat is so perfect for a session at Clemson. At such a cold time of year, there were no leaves on the trees to hide some of the buildings on the main part of campus, so Tillman Hall could be in the background of our photo from the steps of Sikes Hall and the photo of Diana’s yellow-gold and sapphire engagement ring. Diana has been on Clemson’s rowing team all four years of college, so we took some pictures down at the lake on the dock with a tiger paw painted on it. With a high of 37 degrees that day, we couldn’t see or hear any people or boats, making it a peaceful time for Diana and Andrew to snuggle up in a blanket on the dock and watch the sun go down over the water.
Here are some of my personal favorite photos from Diana and Andrew's engagement session. After having so much fun with them at their session, I'm even more excited now to be part of their wedding day!
Crozet, Virginia Engagement Session: Katherine and Anthony
I always watch the forecast closely and frequently in the week prior to a session, and Katherine and Anthony's session was no different. Yet somehow, I woke up, saw that the forecast had changed from "cloudy" to "partly cloudy," then looked out the window to see the roads covered in snow! Nobody in the area was expecting this to happen. Luckily, it melted enough to clear the roads so I could meet Katherine and Anthony for the session. This would be the first session I'd ever done in the dead of winter and it would be in Virginia, so I knew this would be my coldest session yet. What I didn't know was exactly how cold it would be. Although the snow all melted before I could get a shot of Katherine's ring in the snow, it was still cold enough for us to take pictures in front of a frozen pond.
After meeting through their friends a few years earlier, Anthony proposed to Katherine in Washington DC on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial, which faces the Washington Monument. They wanted to have their engagement photos in the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains, so in the week between Christmas and New Year's, we met up in Crozet, slightly west of where Katherine and I both grew up. Their outfits were the perfect winter engagement session outfits; the colors were so classically wintery, Katherine's red sweater was a perfect fit for that time between Christmas and New Year's Eve, and Katherine's mom made the scarves that both of them wore to the session. Katherine's yellow-gold ring was covered by her gloves for a good part of the session, but it made for some cute photos of her trying to keep Anthony's hands warm. We ended the session a little earlier than I usually do because the windchill was so brutal (by our Virginia standards), but the golden hour lighting kept us out for just a few more pictures.
I'm so glad we were able to brave the cold at least for a little while and that the snow didn't keep us from driving to these mountain views. Since apparently everyone else in Crozet decided to stay inside that day (not that we can blame them), we had this gorgeous landscape all to ourselves. It's always an honor to be part of putting these sweet moments into pictures, but it's even more special in the wide open with absolutely nobody else in sight. I can't wait to come back to Charlottesville for the next part of Katherine and Anthony's story!
Downtown Greenville Christmas Engagement Session: Noel and Graham
Graham proposed to Noel last December. Between that and having a name like Noel, how could we not have an engagement session in December in front of a Christmas tree?
We didn't know until that day that we had scheduled the session on the day of the Christmas parade, so after spending a while looking around for parking and wondering whether we'd be able to get to the tree, we found a parking garage (where we were given candy canes), and we discovered that the tree wasn't blocked off after all! There was a crowd of people near the tree. When we asked if they were waiting to take pictures there, they said they just wanted to watch, and then they left when we were finished.
We were offered hot chocolate, we heard Christmas music playing, and we saw Christmas lights turning on. Only the weather could have made the day more festive, but we couldn't complain about it being 60 degrees and sunny. As we walked through Falls Park, it started to seem more like a fall engagement session. There were still a few trees with red, orange, and yellow leaves left, which also complemented the outfits they'd picked out to go with the Christmas tree.
Noel and Graham have been together since high school! I heard them say "I love you" so many times during the session. Things like that are what make engagement sessions so much fun!
Caesars Head State Park Engagement Session | Alexis and Skylar
Take 1:
Alexis, Skylar and I decided on Caesars Head State Park for their engagement session. None of us had ever been there, but the pictures looked gorgeous. The forecast said it would be cloudy with a 15% chance of rain. Apparently when the elevation is that high, "cloudy" can mean intense fog, so I had to turn my headlights on and drive slowly, even though it was 3:30 in the afternoon. It's hard to get phone signal around there, so I knew I had to just push through and meet Alexis and Skylar at the top to discuss what to do. It was raining when I finally met them, even though the weather channel still said it wasn't. We looked out onto the overlook...
...and decided to come back another time.
Take 2:
There was a freezing cold wind when we came back, but it was sunny and we could see everything. Here's what we saw from the same overlook this time:
Alexis loves elephants, so Skylar gave her this plastic elephant when he asked her to be his girlfriend.
He stuck with the theme when he asked her to be his wife, only this time, there were real elephants involved. They took a trip to the zoo and he got down on one knee in front of the elephant exhibit. Since he didn't actually give her an elephant this time, they bought this little elephant at the souvenir shop afterwards to commemorate the day.
Of course, Alexis had some other cute elephant figurines to incorporate into their session.
The sun made for some amazing rim light through the trees, something we wouldn't have had if we tried to shoot in the fog.
The sunset was perfect, something else we would have missed out on if we'd tried to shoot on that cloudy/foggy day.
There was so much laughter during this session on both sides of the camera. I had such a fun day with them!
