Engagement Photo Session with a How To Train Your Dragon Theme

Last fall I received an email from Dorothy.  She and her not-yet fiance Matthew had found me on the Offbeat Bride website, and liked my work.  She was interested in arranging for some “couple’s photos” to be taken the following spring and wanted to see about reserving a date with me for a session.  They had a really cool idea in mind for their shoot; they were BIG fans of the How To Train Your Dragon movies, and wanted to create a session with the feel of some of the scenes from the first movie, where Hiccup and Astrid are in the woods with Toothless.  And if you don’t understand the reference to those characters you have clearly not seen the movie, and need to do so ASAP because it is one of the best series of animated movies ever.  Yes, it’s true, I am also a very big fan of these movies.

After discussing the upcoming HTTYD #3 movie that was due to be released slightly before the planned photo session, we agreed to set aside the date with the understanding that if the weather did not cooperate (a fairly likely occurrence in Seattle) we would reschedule until we did get good conditions.

About a month later I heard from Dorothy again.  She and Matthew were no longer “maybe getting married someday”, they were now officially engaged and actively planning their wedding.  And they wanted me to be their photographer.  After going over the wedding plans (which won’t take place until December 2019) we talked a bit more about what was now a real engagement photo session, and some of the ideas that she and Matthew had for the photos.  They really liked the idea of having me somehow incorporate some dragons into the photos, specifically some of the dragons that appear in the HTTYD movies.  I thought it sounded like a great but was not sure where I might be able to locate usable photos of the correct dragons.  This was not a problem as Dorothy had already located some good possibilities and was actively searching for more.

The Photo Session in the Forest

It seemed like forever, but the day for the photo shoot finally arrived.  I had been somewhat nervously watching the weather forecast for the week before the scheduled date; less than a week out it was looking like we’d be in the middle of a rainstorm the day of the session!  But as the date got closer the forecast began to change, and when the day arrived it was actually quite nice; warm temps for late March and even a bit of sunshine.

We met at the parking lot at McCollum Pioneer Park in Everett and got ready for our “photo hike” through the forest.  Matthew had managed to find/create a vest that looked a lot like one worn by Hiccup in one of the movies, and Dorothy had a very cool black dress with a kind of cape/veil that almost looked liked wings when she extended her arms.  The long awaited HTTYD #3 had come out a couple weeks earlier and Matthew and Dorothy had already seen it (though I hadn’t yet), and we talked a bit about the movie.  But not too much since I didn’t want them to spoil it for me.

The park was beautiful!  Dorothy and Matthew had explored it pretty carefully and had lots of ideas for place they wanted to take photos.  I love it when I get input like that!  We made our way on a loop trail through the park, and I’m afraid that I got a bit carried away and we spent almost twice as long as planned.  But that’s OK, because we got a lot of great photos!

Now you can scroll down and see the session.  At the very end I have a few of the photos I created using the dragon renders that Dorothy found.  I hope that you like the photos!