Summerlin and Ashley's North Georgia Mountains Engagement Session

Little did I know that Summerlin and Ashley’s engagement session at Vogel State Park would become a botany lesson. But, I’m glad it did.

And I’m also glad that my wife Sharon was there to take it all in.

Summerlin happily answered questions about mountain laurel, wild azelias and the rocks behind the spillway waterfall.

Ashley smiled the whole time. She loves it when Summerlin teaches her about plants.

Nic Proposes ... Leia says "YES!"

Nic contacted me a month or so ago to let me know he’d like me to take photos of him proposing to his girlfriend, Leia. He told me that Leia knew he wanted to marry her, but that she had no clue when or how he would propose.

My job was to be there to catch her reaction when he actually popped the question.

In preparation for the big event, Nic lit candles in the hall coming from the family’s garage and then scattered rose petals on the floor.

Needless to say, Leia was surprised and delighted.

I left Nic and Leia after taking the proposal photos and a few more traditional engagement photos. But then I realized I had left my purse and had to return to the home.

Much to my delight I found Leia’s family had come to celebrate with the newly engaged couple.

Trevor and Anne's Backyard Engagement

Yesterday Anne invited me to visit her parents’ backyard where her wedding will take place in June. While there I suggested we do a short engagement shoot.

Here are a few favorites from the session.

Can’t wait to photographer your wedding, Anne and Trevor.

Kelly and Frank's Colorful Atlanta Botanical Gardens "Engagement Session"

Kelly and Frank tied the knot in a micro wedding in August of 2022. And, they’ve planned a larger wedding to take place at the Dekalb History Center for November of 2023.

In the meantime, they decided they’d like to take “engagement photos,” really married couple’s photos, partly so they’ll have photos for their save-the-dates.

They chose the Atlanta Botanical Gardens for obvious reasons … it’s just so gorgeous.

Here are a couple of sneak peek photos.

Stone Mountain Park Engagement Session

Christine pulls Michael to an imaginary Theater event.

Christine and Michael’s first date was delayed by two days because a packet of fake blood exploded the wrong direction (right into Christine’s eyes) while she was onstage. Instead of going on a date, Christine spent the evening in the Emergency room.

Despite the episode of the fake blood, which sounded a bit suspicious at the time, Michael agreed to meet two days later for their first date. And, as they say, the rest is history.

Both Michael and Christine perform on stage … Christine for a living as a theater director and performer and Michael part-time as an improv comedian.

So, it’s not surprising that laughter and emotions show up in their engagement photos.

Christine enjoys the illusion of being taller than Michael.

I’m looking forward to their wedding at the State Botanical Gardens in Athens in January.

If you’re looking for a wedding or engagement photographer, give me a call or shoot me an email.

Pine Lake is one of my favorite places for an engagement session

If you’ve followed my blogposts or looked through a few pages of them, you’ll notice how many of them feature Pine Lake, my home town.

This photo from a Pine Lake engagement session recently won a WPJA Diamond Award.

Redfin contacted me recently asking me if I knew of any great places to take photos in the Atlanta area.

My response?

You guessed it. I sang the praises of Pine Lake. My comments about Pine Lake appear in The Unique Angles of Atlanta: Explore Your City One Photo Op at a Time on the Redfin site.

Under the trees in Pine Lake.

Atlanta engagement photography

I've Changed My Mind About Engagement Photography

Early on in my wedding photography career I thought of engagement sessions as mainly a time to get to know my clients before their wedding. Sure, I took photographs that my clients almost always loved, but I found the process to be much the same from session to session. A lot of my photos looked like the one below.

My main goal was to capture fun photos of a couple, like Lauren and Peter, connecting with each. Usually I achieved this goal by finding a way to make the couple laugh together.

Sometimes I was able to capture a photograph of a kiss where you could see the physical connection between the two people in the photo.

You’ll find more of my Diamond Award winning photos on the WPJA site.

Atlanta Engagement Photographer

Vogel State Park Engagement Photos

It’s taken me awhile to post photos from a favorite engagement session that took place in the fall at Vogel State Park. If you’ve never been there, you should go now. Or wait until the fall if you love foliage.

Be warned though, if you go in the fall the park might be full to the brim. If that happens you’ll have to wait until someone leaves. So it’s best to go during the week, if you decide to go during peak leaf season.

If you do go on a weekend, it’s best to wait until late in the day. That’s what Lauren and Delaney and Sharon and I did.

When I asked Lauren and Delaney what they would like to see in their engagement photos, this was their reply.

“We want to see how much we like each other. We love each other too, of course, and that’s great. But we have fun together! We’re always happy to see each other. We want our engagement photos to show that we are grateful for this sweet, loving, comfy relationship we have built.”

See more engagement photography.