Puremotif » engagement

jessica & brian are engaged

Rachel — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:08:23 +0000

Jessica, Brian and I had a fantastic shoot! It was almost raining the whole time, and we almost got arrested, and almost hit by a train. But I think it was so worth it! Their wedding is September of 2010 and I’m excited to work with them again.

Picture 1: The almost kiss pose by Neckers Photographery Picture 2: The Puremotif version when the couple can’t stop laughing because they are so close to each other.

I can’t remember where I saw this pose but I had to try it.

Those random weeds are just perfect for romantic pictures!

We had to walk about four miles around a stopped train to get to the tracks. Ok so it was more like 1/5th of a mile. But anyway it was an adventure!

I had to include these as a series because the first is when we attempted the pose, and the second picture is when Brian realized that a train was coming, and coming FAST and that we were in mortal peril! We ran off those tracks so fast! And then we saw a cop in the parking lot, but luckily he let us go on our way despite our trespassing!

Final picture, safely out of the way of the speeding train.

nicole & matt’s engagement

Rachel — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:11:40 +0000

Nicole is a good friend of my sister Amy’s, and that’s how we got hooked up. I’m shooting their wedding in September and they wanted an engagement session. I loved how much color there was in these pictures and had a hard time turning any of them black & white Nicole and Matt are a funny, beautiful and cool couple and I’m honored to be shooting their wedding! Thanks guys! More here.

The funny thing about engagement sessions is that I think couples get more “action” on them then in the normal stretch of a month (ok, so that was a quote from Nicole)

This one is one of my favorites from the whole day – I don’t know what it is about it – just that perfect moment right before a kiss!

cherry blossoms… i still miss them, (pt. 2)

Rachel — Fri, 29 May 2009 20:53:32 +0000

Brooke & Freeland are newlywed friends of my good friends Christie & Bill, and I was looking for a model to try the Ryan Brenizier technique before the cherry blossoms were gone, and they so graciously volunteered! We had an awesome time and they turned out so gorgeous! Thanks again, guys.

haha – i love that one

ashley & jeremy’s engagement session in DC & VA

Rachel — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:08:46 +0000

So it’s only taken me almost a month to get these finished, but I think it was worth the wait. When Ashley found me on my blog and on facebook, she said wistfully – I love your work, but we’re getting married in St. Lucia so we already have ap hotographer plus I”m in DC. I said, “well, my husband’s family lives near their, and I have a friend in Alexandria, so I bet we could work something out.” So after a few months – all of a sudden, there I was and it all came together!

It was thrilling for me to be able to photograph somewhere other than Erie (although don’t get me wrong there is a lot of beautiful stuff here) Anyway the day was perfect, and we just had such a great time. Ashley & Jeremy you are such a sweet couple and I wish you the best blessings and love as you embark on your new life together in August! Thanks for trusting a photographer from Erie to come out and do this for you!

Ashley is a Starbucks-coffee-aholic, so we made a pit stop (i think her 2nd or 3rd of the day) before we headed to DC. And they were troopers, Jeremy didn’t freak out once even though the traffic was horrendous and it took us about an hour to get into DC!

Ok…now it gets good. We found a beautiful spot chock full of Cherry trees in the Tidal Basin by the Jefferson Memorial and I basically died and went to heaven with the beauty and natural lushness, pinkness, and romance!

I’m going to go ahead and say this is my favorite of the day. Ashley!!!!

Ok, second favorite, below.

And you have to play in the grass

Some individual portraits:

I hope you enjoyed

some new fun photos

Rachel — Tue, 12 May 2009 01:37:17 +0000

My friend Ron turned me onto the amazing photoraphy of Ryan Brenizer. He has a method that he’s sort of made a bit famous and is amazing at, called the Brenizer Panorama Bokeh Method — which involves shooting multiple images at a very shallow depth of field in order to create a “panorama” that would be unachievable otherwise. You can read his blog posts about it to explain it, I am not a technical genius by any sense of the words so can’t even try.

Anyway, I tried this one with my willing newly-married subjects, Brooke & Freeland and it was soooo fun – they are adorable and the cherry trees were to die for. They look like little 3-d models popping off the background. Almost fake. But I’m still learning, and they were really there!!

I also tried a more simple plain old panorama with Amy & Josh at Presque Isle, Beach 9 where I have a wedding on Friday. It was so fun, they are like rock stars! I was also experimenting with my off-camera lighting, so I had a flash set up on full power to the left of them, and on my camera at 1/2 power. It was about 10 images that I blended together using Photoshop’s Photomerge functionality. I can just imagine this image blown up on a canvas, mounted on a simple wall in a modern home! I would encourage you to click on it and check it out larger! I’m really happy with it!!!!!

More tomorrow, of Ashley & Jeremy’s engagement in DC. I HOPE.

I find I’m really doing bad at time management and getting so consumed with work, I always want to be doing stuff at the computer and my house is suffering!!

priscilla & joe’s engagement

Rachel — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:16:01 +0000

About a month ago, I went out with the awesome Priscilla & Joe to shoot a picture for their invitations. While doing it, we also got some really fun, romantic shots of the two of them. It was a blast, and they were troopers — although it was sunny, it was very cold!! The wedding is June 13 and I’m honored to be shooting it!

Yay!

matt & jen’s engagement photos

Rachel — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:20:02 +0000

Matt & Jen are getting married New Year’s Eve, and I have the absolute honor of being chosen to photograph their wedding! We also did an engagement session with them, and I’ll tell you, having creative and excited minds working with you makes for a photo session that is hard to end! We went all over town, one of the things they wanted was some real Erie landmarks in the photographs since the wedding is at night in December so we won’t be outside too much

Enjoy! You can also click here for more.

When we first got the art museum, there was actually another photographer doing another engagement shoot there! I have to admit it was a bit disconcerting, but it’s a popular, beautiful setting. So we turned around and went somewhere else first then came back here later.

They have a particular fondness for the Erie Art Museum protector, so we had to get a portrait with him in it.

I just love this little door of the Cashier’s house by the Erie Art museum. So romantic.

Of course, a beautiful classic spot in the courtyards near the Marketplace grill, and the apartments there.

Feet!!

Jen works for GE, so of course we had to get some railroad pictures.

The grass outside of Gannon’s old main was sooooo perfect. Had to capture that.

Matt’s idea

And come on, is this not awesome!?

Thanks for reading guys