Amber & Nathan: Engagement Session

Finally, I’m finding time to write the proper post for Amber and & Nathan’s engagement session I shot last weekend. I’ve already talked about how much fun we had together (and I think it’s also evident in the photos), but I have yet to say how I met Amber & Nathan…

Amber was referred to me by my friends Brandon and Amanda. Brandon and I went to high school together, and Amanda was his high school sweetheart who became his wife a few years ago. Recently, I bumped into Amanda and their brand new baby boy Hayden at a restaurant. After catching up a bit she told me of this friend she had that needed a photographer. Little did I know that this friend would be the wonderful Amber! This girl had me at “hello” when she called me to set up her shoot and told me that she wanted a bright, fun shoot at her fiance’s fire station! Hello! A fire station? Not to mention our discussion about the importance of shoes… ah, soulmates…

Nathan is a firefighter with Kern County (just north of Los Angeles County), so he was able to make arrangements for us to shoot in his station. We were able to do pretty much whatever we wanted, and Nathan and Amber were up for anything. So, not only are they good-looking, fun, energetic and kind, they had confidence in my ideas and trusted my vision when it came to where we should shoot. What a combo!

Here are the photos (and there are MANY) that I really love from our day together.

We started out inside the station where the light was just great thanks to those huge garage doors! Here’s the lovely Amber.

According to affordablehtp.com/collections/brakes, because Kern County fire engines and trucks (and yes, there is a difference between engines and trucks…thanks for the knowledge, Nathan!) are blue and white instead of the traditional red, I encouraged Amber and Nathan to wear some bright colors. Perfect choices, guys!

I loved the way the yellow and green went with the vibrant blue and white of the truck!

A sweet moment of Amber and Nathan just enjoying each other’s company.

Death Toll hd

Ok. So it was my idea to give Amber an axe. Nathan went along with it, though!

The coolest thing about my job is definitely the people I get to meet. The second coolest thing? The places I get to go and experiences I get to have because of the people I meet. Case in point: I got to ride in a fire engine! Plus, I got to wear the headset so that I could direct the driver of the engine where to go for our “on-location” portion of the shoot. How cool is that?

Thanks to Nathan’s firefighter buddies at station 52 for making this possible! They were so great and were willing to help out in anyway! What a great group of people to work with.

Here’s Nathan… I’m pretty sure this is right when we got a call… That’s right. We got a call while we were riding in the engine!

Here’s Amber’s reaction to the sirens going on. My face was much the same at this moment! And on the right, you can see people having to pull over for us through the front window.

A few moments later, the call was canceled because fortunately the traffic collision was minor and the engine on-scene said everything was okay. So, we went back to our location and started shooting again. Here’s one I love… I was determined to get those guys in at least one shot!

We then went back to the station and Nathan changed into his turn-outs for a few shots. You can’t be engaged to a firefighter and not have a shot like this!

This is one of my favorites… There’s just something about Nathan’s expression.

For the final part of the day, we went to downtown Bakersfield for a few non-fire station photos. I love this one.

I love Amber’s expression here. And sweet sunset light was great, too!

A mini individual portrait session with Amber. When she was in front of the camera with Nathan she was fine. Put her there alone, all of a sudden she’s shy!

 

Love this series.

Whew! That was a monster post!

Amber and Nathan,

The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover buy

Thank you so much for an awesome day! I had such a great time with you guys and look forward to seeing you soon!

The slideshow of the rest of the shoot will be posted soon.