pics from my first engagement shoot

Recently I was asked if I would consider photographing the wedding of our pastor's daughter, Elsa, and her sweetie, Sonny. At first, the possibility of doing an awful job made me seriously doubt my abilities and, frankly, made me feel a little nauseous. But they were convincing and Peter was encouraging, so I agreed to do it as our gift to them.

Last week we went out to take some engagement pictures and here are a few of my favorite pictures from MY FIRST EVER ENGAGEMENT SHOOT.

Sonny and Elsa. How cute are they? Sonny, can I call you cute?
I know (now) that I should've had them facing the light. It
was definitely a learning experience for me. A good one.

They play a lot of chess together, ergo the king and queen game pieces.

I love that she only has a hold on one of his fingers.

I have more to go through, but so far I'm quite happy with them. More importantly, Sonny and Elsa are happy with them. I was nervous as all get out, especially trying to give direction in my broken french (I managed. Badly.) and trying to remember all my ideas (I didn't) and then trying to get those ideas to translate through the camera (some did). It was definitely a lot of fun though.

If you'd like to see the rest of the shots, here's the link to the flickr set.

If this photography thing goes anywhere, I'll have to start another blog/site for it -other than my sadly neglected photo blog linked above. If you have any comments/advice/criticism I'd love to hear it. Seriously. Like I said, this was my first time. I'm still learning and want to improve.

Related: How much do you love the name Elsa?? It makes me swoon. LOVE. IT. So pretty.