“Why didn’t we start with drinks first? This is so much easier now.” That is what Sarah said after we finished lunch at McGregors and we had got started on their Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcala Engagement session. She was completely right, but the drinks were only part of the equation. A big part of the engagement session is feeling comfortable and being your self. It’s hard to do that in front of the camera and in front of someone you barely know. This is usually the case when I first start working with couples. Besides the initial meeting and a few emails and calls back and forth, we don’t really know each other so we try to make that connection as fast as we can during the session so that the photos have a more relaxed feel to them. I think that the drinks do help, but what also helped in this situation was sitting across from each other and talking while sharing some appetizers and getting to know each other more. If you can feel comfortable in front your photographer you can be your self and it will show in the photos.

For Chase and Sarah’s engagement session we started downtown near the Midway Museum next to the Unconditional Surrender statue or also known as “The Kiss” statue. I will admit that starting here wasn’t the easiest thing to do. Bright sun, windy, and lot’s of tourists made it a challenging situation. However no matter how challenging the situation I am trying to not show that to the couple, specially when I am trying to get them to be cute together in front of the camera. We worked with a few different angles to get shots that I thought they might like, as well as getting the standard type of shot you would expect at this location and when I exhausted the good angles we moved on to lunch and drinks.

If we are going to have drinks and hang out, why not do photos of them having drinks as well. I like to make engagement sessions feel like they are out on a date and it’s always fun to add an interactive element like drinks to the photos. After a few photos at the bar we headed down the street to the Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcala for the second part of the engagement session. By now Sarah and Chase began to really play around in front of the camera and let their personalities come out.  We ended the engagement session at a field next to the San Diego River. It was a completely last minute addition to the session at a location I had not scouted out yet. But they were up for the adventure and it was totally worth making that extra effort.

Getting to make some great images during the engagement session is the main objective, however spending time with some awesome people is often the reward. It’s great to spend time and get to know each other, specially if I will be photographing their wedding. By then we will have got to know each other and we can just focus on capturing moments.