A natural, relaxed wedding engagement photography session at Washington DC’s iconic tidal basin…
When Carly & David contacted me about capturing their engagement and wedding photography in DC, Carly had already been following my blog for quite some time.
She and David loved the way I captured a couple’s relationship and personalities in such a natural way, as well as the beautiful scenery and architecture that surrounds them.
The photo above shows off the architecture of the WWI Memorial and the photo below gives you a small peek into their relationship…
They confessed that they don’t enjoy having photos taken and have very few nice photos of the two of them together.
Carly totally leveled with me, “If we even get one or two photos of us out of this, I’m totally happy!” I hope this blog post makes you smile :).
While DC plays an important role in their backstory (they both lived in Washington after finishing school), they currently reside in Madison, Wisconsin where they both practice law.
They arrived at the photo session all dressed up with suitcases in tow– they had a flight to catch that evening as soon as we finished the engagement session. I was super impressed by their dedication!
While they wanted to capture Washington DC in their engagement photos, they chose the World War One memorial because it was “off the beaten path.” It was a hidden gem that they found while exploring DC together. It was surrounded by woods, quiet, secluded and incredibly beautiful…
While their DC engagement session began and ended at the World War One Memorial, it was so close to the other monuments that we did capture glimpses of them as well as we strolled along the tidal basin.
This has to be one of my favorite images from their session! I love the way the trees and blue sky and water perfectly surround Carly & David as well as the Washington Monument!
You can almost feel what a perfect match they are and how they fit together– I love Carly’s joyful expression, too!
David particularly likes the Jefferson Memorial and Carly is a fan of my more creative photography techniques, so hopefully this is a photograph that they will both enjoy as it includes both.
I used a creative approach to choosing my exposure for this image. For any of you that are interested in photography I’ll explain the different techniques that I used in this image. 😉
Carly and David were covered by the shade of the cherry trees that surround the tidal basin. I exposed for their silhouettes while using a more traditional exposure for the Jefferson Memorial in order to draw attention to one of David’s favorite buildings in the distance.
I used the harsh mid-day sun to my advantage and manually set a very narrow aperture to allow both the couple and the monument to be in focus simultaneously. I used a 200mm lens to make the monument appear larger-than-life, as it was all the way across the basin from where we stood :).
I converted the photo into black and white to further show the contrast between the couple and the monument. Voila!
Enough about me, let’s talk more about David and Carly!!!
David shared one of the most concise, eloquent statements that I have ever heard from one of my grooms. “Carly is a woman of endless talents. She is startlingly intelligent, doggedly determined and incredibly kind. She’s the perfect match for me in every way imaginable.”
For me this image really conveys David’s appreciation of Carly and how they compliment each other so well:
Their engagement story is sweet and involves brunch in DC, which if you have never experienced, must be added to your bucket list– NOW! 😉
It was Carly’s last month in DC before moving out to join Dave in Madison and she was going to make the most of it. This of course included a hearty brunch (including Tabard Inn donuts) and the latest Amy Schumer movie with her dear friend, Allison.
Little did Carly know, Allison was in on the marriage proposal plan, and not coming to brunch. Dave had flown in to DC for the day with a ring in his backpack and a song in his heart. Wowza– take a look at that ring…
Dave surprised her by joining her for brunch and seemed to be more fidgety and harried than usual. This was partially do to the pre-proposal jitters but mostly because he was sitting on a large, pointy ring box! They walked to the fountain at Dupont Circle where Dave asked Carly to marry him. 🙂
During the proposal Carly yelled, “What’s happening?!?!?,” hugged Dave and commented on his backpack. Dave paused and said “You haven’t actually said yes yet.” Dave, always the pragmatist, haha.
This next photo might mess with your mind a little, similar to the way that being proposed to may do. The image is of their shadows upside-down. You can see their actual feet at the bottom…
Carly shared that Dave is one of the most organized people she knows. He has used those skills to help both of them accomplish their goals and get settled into their new life in Wisconsin.
She also loves his amazing sense of humor and the way he laughs with her at silly little things that she finds funny. He always finds ways to brighten-up her tough weeks, like surprising her with a mini terrarium for her office or taking her to the city zoo to watch the marmosets play.
I liked the contrast of shadow and light, dark and bright– for me it shows the yin and yang of their relationship and almost illustrates the way that David can brighten up Carly’s dark weeks, by meeting her where she is and loving on her, haha.
The light was filtering through the trees at just the right spot to create orbs of light that were clearly visible against David’s dark sweater. I think it adds even more emotional impact to this sweet photograph:
We circled back to the WWI memorial again and captured this final photo. It captured the full scale of the monument.
It reminds me of a music box with a tiny twirling couple in the center. It almost doesn’t look real…
Carly & David, it was such a pleasure to work with you on your engagement session. I know we had lots of wind to deal with but I loved how you guys were totally up for anything and gave me 100% of your trust with the session.
I still can’t get over you two lugging suitcases around the monuments because you had a cross-country flight to catch that evening! Carly, David mentioned you are doggedly determined and I think that I definitely got to see a bit of that in your determination to make sure the engagement session would happen. 😉
I hope that these photos add to the handful of photos that you both like. I cannot wait to hear what you think and now I am even more excited for your wedding day!!!