Dog Wash Engagement Session - Martha and Alec

Engagement sessions, for me, are all about personalization. Its about building a theme for the engagement session that really makes sense to the couple. By doing something that the couple has a passion for, the session immediately becomes more natural, enjoyable and memorable. The photos created at that session are no longer just pretty pictures, but are a reflection of their lives, both as individuals, and as a couple.

When considering themes, we start by ask a few simple questions. What makes you two…you? What types of things do you enjoy doing together on your free time? What are your personal interests? The great thing about this is that every couple answers completely different. For some, its the simple things in life, such as an affinity for coffee, curling up with a good book, or even a picnic together in a field. Others prefer to take a little bit more activity-based approach, such as hiking, fishing, cooking, or even crazy paint sessions that we’ve dreamed up (round 1 and round 2)!

Then, you have couples like Martha and Alec. From day one, they knew that their biggest request for their engagement session was to simply be with family — themselves, and their two beautiful dogs. Being a huge dog lover myself, this was extra exciting for me. It’s always a welcomed challenge for me to try and push engagement sessions to the next level, dreaming up something fun, exciting and unique for every couple.

What’s something fun, entertaining, and can involve the entire family, including the dogs? Duh. Dog wash. 🙂

Of course, as with any “crazy” themed engagement session, it’s always nice to shoot something a bit more “grounded” first. This helps give the couple a chance to warm up to the camera, as well as an opportunity to get a bit of variety from their session. For their first portion of the session, we started out at a beautiful little park in Bolingbrook, Illinois, called Hidden Lakes Park. After doing a little bit of research on this place while writing this blog, I came to find out that Hidden Lakes Park is also a trout farm as well! Pretty cool! Anyways…that’s not why we’re here, is it? On to Martha and Alec!

Hidden Lakes Park is lined with tons of GORGEOUS willow trees, which always make for a beautiful spot to shoot.

And of course, we can’t forget the pups!

Talk about photogenic! 🙂

Hidden Lakes Park is set up pretty unique. There are a variety of peninsulas that jut out from the shore, which I’m guessing were created for fishing accessibility! At the time of shooting, I thought they were custom made specifically for Martha and Alec’s photoshoot. But hey, what do I know.

And without further adieu….bath time!

What bath time is complete without bubbles and rubber duckies?

Oh…and goggles for the kids, too!

Ahhh…that’s the spot, dad…

A little behind-the-scenes setup for all you photographers and strobists out there. Our main light was an Elinchrom Ranger Quadra in a Softligher, on a c-stand. We had two 600EX-RTs as kickers in both back corners. The one camera left was gridded to help control the spill. The one camera right was left bare to help spill onto the fence and was gelled with a CTO to give a warm “sunset” type mood. Eventually, our actual sun decided to set and the background darkened, but I was still feeling the warm vibe, so we kept that rolling with the gelled flash. We then added one more flash behind the fence, pointed up at the trees. This was eventually moved directly behind the couple, behind the fence, to light up the leaves behind them and give them a little bit more separation from the dark backdrop.