Day in the Life: A Hike Through Macaulay Mountain Conservation Area with Steph and Trevor
This short blog will show you how magical an hour in the woods can be with your loved one. It’s a couples’ session, but not in your typical way. For anyone who’s awkward in front of the camera or hates posing, this is the way to go!
NOTE: all the photographs you’re about to see are actually pages from the photo album I designed for this couple.
Steph and Trevor are adorable. When Steph approached me to book a little snippet “Day in the Life” session for her and her partner Trevor, I was really excited.
I’d worked with their family before, but last time it was more of an indoor winter-style family session, capturing Trevor’s niblings (that’s a word for nieces and nephews all in one, and I’m still figuring out how I feel about it tbh).
This time, though, it was just going to be the two of them.
We decided we’d go on a hike and the photos would showcase some of that gorgeous Ontario fall colours.
After emailing back and forth a few ideas for places we could meet, we settled on Macaulay Mountain Conservation Area.
I’d never been there, but knowing that it was in the Prince Edward County area, I knew it was going to be super pretty.
When I showed up a little ahead of time, I drove past a few cute birdhouses on tall poles. I didn’t realize that there were more of those - a LOT more!
Before Trevor and Steph arrived, I grabbed a few photographs of the beautiful scenery.
Macaulay Mountain Conservation Area makes the perfect backdrop for candid couple’s photos.
When Steph and Trevor arrived, we headed over the ‘Birdhouse City’, where I was really fascinated by the number of little birdhouses on tall poles. There were some resembling farm houses, barns, grain elevators… It was very cool.
It’s called birdhouse city, and it’s just that - an entire acre or more of different birdhouses on tall poles.
I always have bags of bird-seed in the car, so we brought some with us, but actually no birds came.
Oh well.
After waiting for birds to show up, to no avail, we took about three seconds to take a cutesy photo of the couple, looking at the camera.
We hadn’t intended on doing this, but these photos can be so nice to have. And I’m glad we stopped to do it :)
After that, we headed to the nearby forest trails. I crouched down low for some of the shots, so that I can layer some greenery in the photos. My signature move? Haha. Or just a gimmick? I dunno, I like it, because it fills the frame in a much more dynamic way.
I was immediately fascinated by the beautiful trees. Often I take a few photos of the forest, without people in it. I like to let these photographs of nature take up a bit of space on an album page.
Another thing which fascinated me is how much the light changed from place to place in the forest.
This meant the photographs could look really varied and interesting!
For example, check out the dreamy pastel-y tones of the photo series below, as the couple walked toward me on the wooden bridge.
And then contrast that with the much more vibrant green that came afterwards.
Oh, and I took a photograph of those fallen trees on the right, because there was some kind of poetry to it.
In all, it was a beautiful hike.
We talked about their wedding plans, and plans for more photos. We talked about the trees.
We had a great time, got fresh air, and made candid photographs that will be memories for the couple for a long time, of a time before their baby was born. A time when it was just the two of them.
I strongly recommend booking a day in the life session to any couples in love who are just living life, doing their thing…
Living ‘ordinary’ moments.
Because in the ordinary, there is extraordinary magic.
The thing is, one day - 30 or 40 years from now - all of these ‘ordinary’ moments will seem quite beautiful, quite distant, quite magical.
They will remind you of a time and a place that you can’t ever return to, except when you look at this photo or that one.
What did you think of this day in the life story?
Did you read it to the end? :) Leave me a comment and tell me whether you’d consider doing a ‘day in the life’ session like this with your loved one(s). 👇