A Burgess Falls/TN Tech Engagement Session

Last Thursday I posted Zak & Kayla’s engagement session, mentioning that the following Monday you’d meet Kayla’s sister, Hannah and her fiancé James. Well, I looked at my blog calendar wrong because obviously, I didn’t blog James & Hannah’s post yesterday. Sorry for those who were looking for it :/

But today is James & Hannah’s day here on the blog and I am so thrilled! Hannah and Kayla both got engaged within a month of each other and came to me together, saying they wanted little ole me to photograph their weddings! Nothing would make me happier, plus keeping things in the family is similar to shopping at small business as opposed to chains. Well, it is to me anyway! I love shopping at local places, helping our community, etc! Anyway… and even thought their weddings are months apart, we scheduled their engagement sessions during the same weekend so that I only have to make one trip down to Cookeville TN, a 3 hour drive. Friday afternoon I left Paducah and made it to Tennessee Tech University for Zak & Kayla’s session, which ended at a local park. That night James put me up in the hotel at which he works so that I would already be in town for James & Hannah’s session the following afternoon. I spent the time in-between sessions by myself which was a nice break from the real world. Ah, who am I kidding?? I did the same thing I would have done at home, ate various (yummy) foods and worked! Had I thought about it I might have gone to see a movie or something, since that’s something I never do but love. But I digress…

Saturday afternoon I met James and Hannah at their apartment and followed them to Burgess Falls, a local park that boasts THREE full fledged waterfalls! They were amazing! Unfortunately, though, we could only get so close to said waterfalls. The first few minutes of our time together was spent reminiscing about how the two of them met. James claims he has no memory of this but according to Hannah, they met a year before they formally met. We joked that Hannah was stalking James in between those two incidents 😉 When they officially met, Hannah saw him from afar and when she recognize him (from their prior meeting) she eagerly waved to him and shouted his name. James looked up and saw this beautiful woman, who he didn’t know but obviously knew him. He figured, so what if I don’t know her, she beautiful! It only took a few minutes with her to know she so much more than just a beautiful woman!

Our second location, TN Tech, was a little rushed… we were losing light fast!… but we definitely made it work and James and Hanna rocked it out! Can’t wait to spend more time with them come their wedding in May!

I’ve been shooting a lot of sessions with dogs lately! Some photographers might argue that they’re not dog whisperers and I am definitely not but I say, bring ’em on! I love love LOVE dogs!!! This is Prissy and she is the sweetest!

Hannah’s ring is so beautiful and unique! You just don’t see rings like hers anymore. Love me some vintage!

Don’t let the following images fool you. It was DARK y’all! Just like with Zak & Kayla’s last few shots, the sun had set and only a tad bit of light was lingering in the sky. Keep in mind two things here: I pay top dollar for my equipment so I knew my camera could handle the low light situation but I also know how to push my camera to the limit yet still get very useable images. *steps off soapbox*

Feel free to totally steal this idea because I’m pretty proud of it! lol Initially we were going to go inside the library and they were going to get all snuggly and read the comic together. Then we got to library only to find out it had closed 10 minutes before! Bummer! However, I LOVED the idea too much to scrap it… so thankful I had my iPad with me! Not only did I use the light from the iPad to illuminate their faces (the focal point) in the dark outside (I positioned them on the steps of the library) but it also leads the imagination to believe that the story in the comic is coming to life! Haha!