Having fun with Amanda and Joe with their Engagement Photos

First off I have to make a confession – I should have gotten this post up over a month ago, but my summer schedule is so nuts that I’m afraid it managed to escape me until now.  My first priority is always to get my clients’ photos edited and back to them as quickly as possible, and blogging has to take a lower position.  Still, this should have been done sooner.

Amanda and Joe are getting married in November, and we wanted to find a good time for their engagement session while we had nice weather.  But as you know if you are a Seattleite, this summer turned out to be almost TOO nice at times, with very hot days.  And the smoke and haze from forest fires didn’t help either.  So Amanda and I set a couple of dates for photos that we then changed due to weather considerations, but we finally lucked out with a great day.  She and Joe wanted to take photos at Pike Place Market, which is a wonderful location for an engagement session.  And another great thing about the Market is that it is a short walk from there to the Seattle Waterfront, which offers even more great photo possibilities.

We met at the Market at my favorite meeting spot, the big bronze pig right in front of the fish market.  While I had met Amanda when she and her mom came to see my about booking me for the wedding, I had not yet met Joe.  I quickly saw how well he and Amanda interacted together and could tell we were going to have a fun photo session.  Amanda’s mom Sandra had also come along to watch the session.  We talked for a bit to go over what kind of photos they wanted during the session and then off we went!

First stop was Post Alley, just down the stairs near the pig, where there are all kinds of cool posters on the walls and there is usually a wonderful soft light that photographs beautifully.  This is also where you will find the notorious Gum Wall.  I could give you a long diatribe about this tourist “attraction” but I’ll give you the short version, which is that it has pretty much ruined much of the Alley.  🙁

We moved from the Alley into the second level of the Market.  Both Joe and Amanda are very familiar with the Market and wanted to get some shots in front of some of their favorite spots.  We explored several levels and a lot of different shops and had fun with the photos.  I was especially happy when they turned out to be Star Wars geeks (of which I am one as well!) and requested photos with the life-sized “Stand Ees” figures.

Then it was back to the Alley to start working our way to the waterfront.  There are several spots along this route that can be great photo locations when the lighting is right, and we lucked out at most of them.  While walking down one long stairway I noticed that alongside us was an area with pretty good groundcover.  While I suspected that it might be frowned upon for us to take photos in the greenery, when I pointed it out to Joe and Amanda they were both excited to get some photos there, some of which you’ll see below.

We continued to the waterfront, stopping at several spots along the way for more photos.  The more I worked with Amanda and Joe the more I enjoyed them.  They were ready for pretty much anything I came up with, and also had some good ideas of their own.  They had brought some Starbucks cups with messages they had written on each, which also led to some good shots.

When we made it to the water I took them straight to the fountain in front of the Aquarium.  I have a thing about fountains, and whenever I see a good one I will happily spend time looking for ways to get fun photos.  This fountain is a lot of fun because the way it works it is usually possible to take photos of people through the falling water.  Of course, there are always potential photo-bombers on the scene but we still managed to get a nice series of photos with the moving water.

We wrapped up with photos using the Great Wheel ferris wheel as our backdrop.  Joe and Amanda had brought some cards that had the web address of their wedding website, which we made sure were prominently featured in some of the photos.

It was a great session, and I am looking forward to the wedding which is now less than a month away!