Hi! I'm Taryn, a writer, designer and soon-to-be-bride from Atlanta, Georgia. Sit a spell with me and catch up as I plan the wedding of my beer-loving, confetti-throwing dreams to the wonderful Mr. Williford.Goofballs Getting Comfortable in Front of the Camera
To say I was excited about shooting our engagement photos is a bit of an understatement. I was eager to work with our wedding photographer, for one thing. Plus, I knew that I couldn’t wrap up our wedding website or save-the-dates until I had these photos in hand, since I wanted to use them in both places. So together with our wedding photographer, Paige Jones, we set a date for the shoot.
(Side note: I’m glad I started on both the wedsite and save-the-dates before we shot our e-pics, since it gave me some insight into the types of photos we would need. Specifically, I built a spot into our wedsite where we’d put solo photos, so I made sure we shot some individual portraits.)
We chatted a bit with Paige over email to decide on where might be a good spot for photos—something urban and a little gritty—and eventually settled on the Westside Provisions District. It’s a shopping, restaurant and entertainment district in the West Midtown neighborhood of Atlanta, conveniently located less than a mile from our apartment. We’ve been known to walk down here for dinner, drinks or just a bite of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams (SO GOOD), so it seemed like a good spot to shoot our e-pics.
I’d recommend Westside Provisions for any Atlanta-area brides looking for a fun spot to shoot wedding or engagement photos. Paige got a lot of great shots and really liked all of the unique walls and angles for photos. Plus there’s lots of cool architecture around.
I love our pictures, but most of all, I loved the experience. Paige is crazy talented both as an artist and a director (you can check out her post about our session for more shots). She gave us great direction as we posed, and had tricks for getting shots of genuine smiles and laughter. Getting a sense of how a photographer directs a shoot is difficult to do without actually working with them. If you’re meeting with photographers, I would try to ask questions to get a feel for how they would lead you in posing for photos. Our families commented on how “real” these pictures look, which is probably my favorite thing about them.
If this engagement session is any indication, I think we’ll have an incredible time on our wedding day with awesome photos to prove it. Anyone who is on the fence about an e-shoot should definitely go for it, as it’s a great way to get comfortable in front of the camera and to get a feel for how your photographer works. Oh, and you get pretty pictures, too. Icing on the cake, right?
How was your e-shoot experience?
