The Camera Loves You! ...No, I'm Sorry, The Camera Just Wants To Be Friends With You.

Engagement Photos! Wait, engagement photos? Aren't you supposed to do that right after you get engaged, not three years later? Actually, when are you supposed to get engagement photos done? I've never been one to sit around and think about my future wedding, and I've never been intimately involved in helping anyone else plan their wedding, so I'm a little shaky on all of the "supposed to" dates. Additionally, our wedding will probably violate numerous "supposed to" rules, so yeah, not too concerned about that kind of stuff. Essentially, we're doing the photos for two reasons:

1. It's part of the photo package.
2. Neither of us like having our picture taken, so we figured this would be good practice. 

So, after some e-mail tag with our photographer, Sharon Simpson, we settled on a date (and a rain date), some locations (yes, she actually scouted out locations), and then tried not to think too much about it until the few days leading up to the session, at which point we occupied ourselves with cleaning our kitchen, and planning a dish to prepare. The first portion of the session would be in our own kitchen.

How's that for stretching the comfort zone? Not only would we be posing for the camera, but we'd be doing it in our own kitchen. Seems like it should be safe, but it's just another variable. Are the counters clean enough? Will they see inside our cabinets and see how messy they are? Will they see the various bottles of bourbon and think we're lushes? Will I shave and forget to finish cleaning, leaving the hairs all over the sink that the photographer's assistant will use later?* Yeah, so, lots of extra things to worry about. A quick sample of bourbon (ok, really, we're not lushes), and a couple of silly moments was really all it took to relax us, and we were rolling. Or snapping, I guess.

Either way, the kitchen session went well. We started a favorite recipe of ours, rolled out some pasta, made a floury mess, shared some kisses (only one was a 'peck' and that was not representative of my kissing, no matter what the assistant said the rest of the day!) and hopefully made for some cute photos.

The next worry, as we changed and scurried off to the Currier was the rain. We'd been hearing thunderstorm warnings all day, and heard what might have been thunder (or a Harley) as we changed. The skies darkened, and a column of rain and thundercloud hovered not far off. As we drove into the city, the rain and clouds intensified, and we really thought the rest of the shoot would be called off. No big deal, we had a rain date for this very reason, but we'd gotten into a groove, and just wanted to get it all out of the way.

By the time we got to the Currier, the rain had lessened. By the time Sharon arrived, a couple minutes after us, it was letting up even more. Then it stopped completely, and the sky cleared above us. It turned out to be perfect weather for our outdoor photos at the Currier, and then down by the river. All in all it was a good session. We learned that neither of us really mind having our pictures taken (though Sarah minds it a little more than I do), what bothers us is seeing the photos afterwards. That said, we are both cautiously excited to see how these came out.

*To answer these questions: No, but we fixed them. I don't think so. Probably not. Yes, and we wouldn't even realize it until well after the session was over (I am only slightly extremely embarrassed by this).

W-74