Engagement Photos

We gave our photographer, Sarah Der, a big challenge; neither Tiffany nor I like having our picture taken.  “Not like” may be an understatement. Part of our motivation as photographers is that we get to be behind the camera and not in front of it.  I have many shots on my “b rolls” that are of Tiffany either hiding behind objects (including her camera) or making unhappy faces at me.  I am quite confident she has the same of me.  So the idea of going outside in public for several hours and having nothing but our pictures taken has daunting.  But Sarah came through and did a great job!  Which supports my theory that it is the photographer, not the couple, that makes the difference in photography; not that we aren’t cute! wait. damn.

Tiffany was largely in charge of defining our outfits, but she got help from our friends Ashleigh and Jess.  While I was doing other things upstairs, I could hear much giggling downstairs.  Makeup was involved as well.  I made sure that I had pants, so I was all set.

We met up with Sarah at the Wren Building on the William and Mary campus.  We wanted to have pictures both on campus as William and Mary has a special significance to both of us, but also in Colonial Williamsburg as there are many pretty vistas.  For anyone who has not had the experience of having portraits taken of you, it is a very odd experience.  Being directed to stand this way, put your hand here, lean your head this way, no wait, that way can feel a bit strange.  But Sarah did a great job of keeping us at ease. I stink at smiling on command, so Sarah had to crack jokes and Tiffany tickled me.  I was much abused, but between that and being instructed not to smirk, I think we got some good pictures.

We wandered through campus and then after a quick wardrobe change went into Colonial Williamsburg for the final shots.  There is a very cute garden that is hidden behind one of the buildings on DoG street that few people know about.  We had it to ourselves and it worked well.  We didn’t want to have the pictures be obviously “colonial” but there are some of the iconic buildings in the background.  After finishing up, I was exhausted. Who knew walking around could take so much energy out of a person?

This past week Sarah sent us the cutest package!  She included a very sweet note, some prints of her favorite pictures, and most importantly a DVD with all of our images.  One of the reasons that we chose Sarah is that she would provide all of the digital copies for our personal use.

For those of you who would like prints, please buy them through Sarah’s website and support her, she is awesome!  (There is a password, but it should be easy to figure out if you know us).

Click the “Read More” link below to see the gallery!