No Kissy Faces!

Earlier this fall, FI and I were down in NoVA for a friend's wedding. While there, we also had an engagement photo shoot with L2 of Girls with Big Cameras. Since L2's other photographer partners were busy, she recruited another friend from college, Corey, to help with the shoot.

FI was a little apprehensive when I first proposed an engagement photo session. But I really wanted to get them done. Not only do you have more time than wedding photos, but you also get to be a lot more comfortable, since you're not in full formal wedding wear.

It was also more comfortable because we were working with L2 and Corey, who are both good friends of mine. FI agreed afterwards that it was a lot easier to be relaxed and natural around friends who were taking photos than a "real" photographer who we weren't familiar with.

L2 and I discussed where we wanted to take pictures. I wanted to do some shots near water and near some cool architecture. But I didn't necessarily want the usual D.C. monument shots. So I asked L2 what she thought of Old Town Alexandria, the historical area of Alexandria, VA that's also on the waterfront. L2 thought that would be perfect since she's shot there before and knows the area. Plus she also recommended shooting at the Old Torpedo Factory, an old weapons factory that's now an art gallery and artist studio space since I wanted to shoot some cool formal shots.

FI and I also discussed what we wanted to do to make these shots our own. We always talk about the things we owned in common, so we included them in our photo shoot.

We started out inside the Old Torpedo Factory and then moved outside onto the waterfront and then back around town. Basically L2 (and sometimes Corey) would tell us where to stand or try a pose. Then she'd let us relax, talk to each other, make each other laugh, etc. as they took pictures.

After a month, we finally got our photo CD in the mail! FI kept laughing at me every day as I checked our mail box for the photos.

So... yay... a sneak peek!

Here we are in our "formal" wear inside the factory. I loved the fun artsy things that L2 did with some of the photos, like brightening the images or changing the color contrast.


Then we went outside and took some shots along the buildings on the waterfront. This one is along the Chart House restaurant. There's actually a corner in the wall, right about where we were holding hands. So we couldn't even see each other, but L2 just told us where to look and pretend we were smiling at each other.


Then we walked along the docks and took some strolling pictures. I like this one because of FI's smile. :)


We then went back to the Old Torpedo Factory to change into our "casual" outfits. Here's where we pulled out the "props" we had. We both have Nintendo DS Lites and we love playing games against each other (Big Brain Academy, Tetris, Mario Kart, Boggle, etc.) so we wanted to get some shots of us playing them.

We're not pretending here either. I think we were in a heated battle of Tetris. This was L2's interpretation of the Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant scene in "Notting Hill".


Notice the matching his-and-her flip-flops from J. Crew. We bought those together last year at an outlet mall in CT. We brought them especially so we could wear them for the shoot.

Then we did some hand-holding in cool architectural spots.


L2 loves jumping shots, so she and Corey got a bunch of us jumping off the steps. We tried to make silly faces at each other. Which wasn't hard when you're jumping in the air.


Then we walked over to the fountains and pulled out our sunglasses, again some of our matching items. Our glasses are both Von Zippers. FI had his first and when I needed new glasses, he recommended the VZs.


Finally we went and got some ice cream. We noticed all these ice cream stores when we were walking to the Torpedo Factory and we decided we should get ice cream at the end and then take some photos with the ice cream.


The end of a long afternoon!


Taking engagement photos was a great experience. L2 and Corey were super easy to work with and they did such a gorgeous job with the pictures. We love them! And we can't wait to use them for our wedding.