Fun & candid engagement session ideas🤩 An urban winter engagement session with coffee & art in Ottawa (Laura & Angus)

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Dec 9

If you’re looking for fun & candid engagement session ideas, and you live in or near a big city, then read on! This is especially for couples who consider themselves awkward in front of the camera, and prefer unposed, candid photographs.

When we planned Laura and Angus’s engagement session, we weren’t hoping for -10 degree weather, but that’s what Ottawa dished up that day.

Similar to a recent engagement session in Toronto, we tried to take shelter from the cold in a greenhouse, but this one… was CLOSED!

They were troopers, though, bearing the blustery cold without hats on, all for the sake of a photo. (I don’t recommend this, by the way! Wear what you need to wear to stay warm!! ALL THE CLOTHES!) Love warms your heart, but can it warm your ears? I dunno…

After our greenhouse fiasco, we drove to downtown Ottawa, and that offered more opportunities for warmth, while still giving us lots of cool & quirky places to take photos.

We visited the Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG), and sipped cappuccinos at the bright cafe on the main floor. (If you haven’t visited the OAG, I highly recommend visiting. It’s free & beautiful and modern & inviting.

As Laura and Angus climbed multiple staircases, I saw at once this unique opportunity for a photo at the top of one of those. I asked them to just remain there for a bit, and they chatted and snuggled, while I tried to arrange myself to get the best of the reflections on both sides. That shot took multiple tries. I’m very happy with it, despite the fact that we thought we were going to get told off by a staff member for loitering. (In fact, she just wanted to move a bench that was behind us).

All in all, it was a really wonderful way to spend a morning in Ottawa. I’m so happy I got to meet Laura and Angus. They’re so sweet together, and have a really easy way about them. They even indulged me in taking a parking lot photo, which is a little bit like letting a kid in a candy store have free reign. Yes, parking lots and all other quirky things excite me.

BECAUSE HOW MANY ENGAGEMENT PHOTOS HAVE YOU SEEN IN AN UNDERGROUND PARKING LOT?

I’ll take a guess: zero.

So, thank you Laura & Angus, for being awesome & smoochy, and facing the cold with cheerful smiles, and for loving each other and letting me photograph it all! ❤️ It was a wintery blast!