Miami Engagement Session

[dropcap]I[/dropcap] love a good Miami Engagement Session, especially with the incredible clients that I have managed to attract to my world of photography! But regardless of how much fun the sessions are, or how good the ideas can be, or how inspiring the location is.. one thing remains to be a constant challenge here in Miami, FL and that is dealing with the HEAT and HUMIDITY!

I have spoken before about the challenges of getting the shot when the weather is not the best, and in this case the weather –looked– great, but in reality was far from it… and… I think its time to really start communicating that when the days are in the 95F or above mark.. its just not a good idea to be working outside at all. No exceptions!

Clients often ask me, “When should we do the engagement photos”, and the answer is simple. Do it when the weather is nice, and cool! (or not crazy hot, and humid). So.. in general.. November – May is pretty nice.. and thats about six months out of the year, so thats fair enough. I know, and understand that some people want to use the images for things like “save–the–dates” however, working in months where it is too hot, I would consider (very much request) that your session takes place indoors like at a nice hotel or something like that.

When we are out in the field on a Miami Engagement Session, myself I can wear whatever I want.. LOL. I generally will wear some thin shorts, breathable shoes, and a dry fit custom shirt.. which is all fine and good. YOU however, can’t. Generally the more “dressed up” you are the better the images look and this will mean that your comfort level in heat will be about zero. At this point, there is no point in trying to force taking pictures, where I will need you to be relaxed. It just won’t work!

So, anyway.. LOL.. thats the take away from this blog post beyond the images below. I really wanted to truly communicate this.

Now, on to this Miami Engagement Session.. here we have Katie and Jonathan and I am shooting their wedding this coming March 2017 and this session took place in fact in September (late to getting it to my blog), at The Deering Estate in Miami, FL and[perfectpullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] it was crazy hot and humid. SO MUCH SO, that Kaite dropped down to the ground at one point, and almost FAINTED.[/perfectpullquote]

This is when I knew this can be a serious problem, and I needed to write about it!

Regardless of the close call on this Miami Engagement Session, she was fine and just needed to sit and have some water. It happened towards the end of the session, so we only had a few more shots to do anyway. But, it goes to show that you can’t under estimate whats involved to be outside, and shooting pictures for a few hours in this kinda of heat, and humidity. Clients are ALWAYS surprised at how much work it is in fact to do a session like this. It is not as easy as it looks, and it can be very challenging to some, even those in great physical shape.

We did in fact visit two locations, which is pretty standard, however I am only going to show a few images from the second location, because I have posted many times from the Train Station in Miami, and I do feel that the second location lead to better use of the location, and light and I also loved the more formal attire!

Lastly, I have included an “image talk” video below that speaks to some of the technical aspects of what went into each of the shots that I am showing. Something that I know some of you will appreciate! This video has more content in the beginning, so what I did was embed the starting point right when I start to speak about the images themselves. If you want to hear the whole video, you can just start it from the beginning to hear some other updates I wanted to communicate within my world.

In this image (above), many things all came together as I speak about in the re-cap video up top.. but, I needed a creative way to “cool” Katie, and by picking up part of that dress to allow some air flow on her legs, made all the difference! It also gave an “excuse” for the pose, and this is really nice as it prevents the image from becoming too “static” in nature. This is a good example, on how I used the situation (heat, and humidity) to my advantage (if you want to call it that), and got a nice shot.

Sometimes the best pose, is one that is NOT posed. I try to work through a verity of techniques on every session, and in this case capturing them in motion was a great idea. Be sure to listen to my own self critique in the video above, to understand –how– I do this, and what I look for. Even though I may tell you to “walk towards me” I still have a ton of control on how the shot actually renders in the camera.

I have shot this stair case in the past, and will continue to do so at this property. Its a really nice composition, and in this shot the “mood” is set with the control of the eyes, looking downward, this suggests something romantic to follow and leads you wanting more.

I love this image, mainly from a technical perspective, and I speak to this on the video above. The interesting thing here…is.. in fact that this image was lit using the HARD, SUNLIGHT and not by my fancy lighting gear, as the rest of the images were. That’s important, because photographers (ones that are fluid in their craft) can actually make seamless transitions like this in their work even from what most would avoid, and say is not so good (in terms of lighting). The harsh sun is the LAST thing most photographers would want to deal with, and thats for good reason. However… if you control the direction of the light, and are creative with how you use it.. then you can get nice work like this image.

This was very much “my” vision, and perhaps a little fantasy all at the same time. Wine, laughter, and lots of sexy legs. The tie is un-done, very much “casual” elegance, and in the moment. I have other variations of this same image, where they are looking at each other, and it’s great. I choose this one, because I wanted to showcase Katie, and use Jonathan as a “prop”.

A lot of photographers get very (more so then I) creative with some of the compositions they take images. At times, I see some of the work thats out there, and feel its over the top, where the subject (couple) are super tiny inside of a landscape, or some other crazy idea. Nothing wrong with any of that, expect I challenge how usable an image like that will be years to come. Here, I keep things simple and saw the same color tones in the plant, and wanted to use that as a blurred out of focus element to the foreground. I think it works, and because of that I needed a pose / idea that did NOT require then to look at camera, and here we go.

Well that about wraps up this Miami Engagement Session, and I hope that you enjoyed this image set and had a chance to watch the video above with my commentary. To see more of my videos, including me in action behind the scenes be sure to check out my YouTube channel here.