An outdoorsy "engagement" session for an outdoorsy couple, Lu & Adrian | Frontenac Provincial Park
Lu & Adrian with their kids ❤
An “Engagement Session” can be anything you want it to be.
Nowhere is there a rulebook that says what you can and cannot do on your “engagement session”.
Heck, there aren’t even any rules on what you choose to call this session.
“Engagement session” is a weird label, because for most people, it happens way after they’re engaged.
So it’s more like… a “day in the life” session.
And obviously, it can happen before or after you’re married.
The only important thing for me is to figure out what we shall do on said session so that we are making important memories.
That’s the distinction between traditional posed engagement photos, and modern documentary style couple’s photos.
They have different OBJECTIVES:
Traditional engagement photos: find a pretty backdrop and arrange the folks in love so they kiss, smile at each other, smile at the camera. Preserve the likenesses of each face.
Modern documentary couple’s photos: find a meaningful activity (or more!) and let the folks in love engage with that activity and with each other. Preserve the trueness of the moment, their connection.
Let me illustrate what that looks like instead of ranting on and on.
Take Lu and Adrian. They’re a young couple, crazy in love, friends since the age of ten!
So for their engagement session, they wanted to know if we could head out to Frontenac Provincial Park together.
My answer: YES!
It was a no-brainer. The only thing we had to do was arrange a tentative date (tentative because of the constantly shifting restrictions in 2021.) Happily, the date ended up being perfect, and we had beautiful summer skies with just a few hints of cloud here and there.
It was my first time at Frontenac, and I was excited to arrive a bit early and snap a few photos of the place before Lu and Adrian arrived.
It was mid-June, so the mosquitoes were predictably wild. But after the twentieth bite, you don’t really feel them anymore.
Adrian spraying Lu with sunscreen, because middle of June can bring strong sun!
(fun fact: when I was two years old in Bulgaria, my father counted over 80 mosquito bites on my body. We didn’t have bug spray in those days, and you got sorta used to it.)
So, the mosquitoes were a thing at Frontenac. But not really that big a deal.
Oh, and we got a wee bit lost. Maybe multiple times? And we definitely had to backtrack a bit.
But that didn’t really stop us from having a blast.
In fact, I cherished being able to capture all the unfolding and refolding of maps, and Lu and Adrian’s two super cute pups in tow, enjoying the wild trails.
When you’ve got mad love for your fur babies, it’s totally advisable to include them in your photo-session. Of course that’s not always possible, but for Mads and Lu, taking their pups hiking with them was what they always do anyway, so again - nothing out of the ordinary.
And the pups enjoyed the walk tremendously. As you’ll see below:
Mads and Lu and their two pups enjoy a little rest stop for water, after hiking for over an hour at Frontenac Provincial Park for their engagement photo session.
There was a bit of a funny story in there, because one of the pups is unable to go off leash (hint: it’s the little fluff ball you see up there).
Why can’t he be off-leash? Well, he gets way too excited and distracted and is liable to run off.
So what happens when he accidentally set himself free? Well, he ran all through the nearby woods, and made his owner chase him. However, there was never any real danger to him or to anyone else. He got distracted by something (again), which caused him to pause… and Adrian caught him. All was well.
Their other pup (below) is able to enjoy full freedom on the trails, because she has awesome recall and won’t chase the wildlife.
Lu and Adrian’s dog looks back at the couple from the trail ahead.
I have two dogs that used to be able to run free through our forest… but one-too-many run ins with the local porcupines (and cows! my older dog nearly god stomped on by a few angry cows), and now they’re not allowed back there anymore. It was a sad realization, so I’m always thrilled to see when some dogs are able to run leash free through the beautiful foliage, and return to their owners without having to be called, but especially when they’re called. Sigh.
Anyway, back to our engagement session….
On the trails, we stopped fairly frequently to marvel at spiders, dragonflies, frogs, and so much nature.
One of my favourite series of photographs is when Lu and Adrian found a big millipede. These gentle giants are herbivores, and if I’m not scared of them - neither should you. (And I normally fear all things segmented…)
I love that I was able to get up close to this millipede friend, and capture some of its many busy legs.
Admiring wildlife together is something Lu and Adrian do all the time in their lives, so that’s why these photographs are meaningful.
In all, the “engagement session” lasted about a couple of hours, and it was super cathartic for me, as well. Not only did I love the drive there and back, but hiking along the trails with Lu and Adrian and their two dogs was the best way to connect with nature in between so many urban shoots on my roster.
Escaping to nature with your fur babies is good for the soul. Lu and his pup take a break from the trails to enjoy a little sit-down time.
And the best thing about it was that we combined this session with an activity that is super meaningful to the couple.
They love hiking and camping, and all things outdoors. They work in a forest school, and in their spare time, continue to connect with the forest. So they didn’t have to do anything different on that day. Simply to be themselves.
There was very little posing, either. Once or twice we stopped to get a family shot with the dogs. But other than that, it was candid photos all the way.
I hope you enjoyed this story, and the photographs! If you do find yourself longing for some outdoor time with your love(s), shoot me a message so we can book a day in the life session for you :)
Leave me a comment if you loved this blog -> I’ll make sure to post lots more like this in the future, if so!