When it comes time to planning for your engagement session, besides the thought of being in front of the camera, one of the most intimidating parts is probably selecting a location for your session.  A lot of my clients ask me how they should even go about choosing a spot for their engagement session.  The first thing I tell them is to think about a place that’s really important to them or that they spend a lot of time at.  For example, my engagement session was done in Fell’s Point because that’s where Morgan proposed to me.  Jeremiah + Abby’s session was actually done at her house because that’s where their romance started… on the swing of her front porch!  If you pick Fell’s Point and your fiancé and you have never spent any time there, it won’t be something that’s super unique and romantic to you two!

Secondly, don’t pick a location based on one particular thing that is there.  The way I shoot an engagement session is solely off of finding good lighting.  It could be Venice, Italy and if the lighting isn’t right then the pictures just won’t be the same quality.  I sometimes joke with my couples as they’re choosing a spot for their engagement session that I could make a dumpster look good as long as there’s good lighting around it… just please don’t do that to me! Haha! So if you’re choosing a particular location based solely off of one thing and that one thing has super harsh and bad lighting, chances are we won’t even really shoot there!

Thirdly, relax!  You don’t have to pick the perfect location or scout out the perfect lighting!  As long as its important to you and your fiancé, and if it is it will show, then the images will come out so genuine and much more memorable.  Also, it’s my job to scout out the light and that’s why I make sure that I get there early to every engagement session to scout out where good lighting is!

If picking a location for your engagement session was something that you were feeling really stressed about, I hope that you’re a little more at ease now!

Of course I had to include one of our engagement photos taken by Katelyn.  I can’t believe that that was already almost two years ago!!