Had an AWESOME time photographing and spending time with a great couple down in Miami a couple of weeks ago.  I thought I’d start the set with a silly “look at us play supermodel” because this couple was so much fun and had such great chemistry that I figured I’d start with something silly … obviously decided to complement the over the top expressions with some very in  your face over the top processing

The engagement shoot started at Virginia Key Beach.  I’d never been there before and it was quite the treat to see all the great photo opportunities hidden there.  Where do we start…  ok let’s see:

Gorgeous people amongst the vegetation:

more gorgeous people, vegetation… and FLARE!

peek-a-boo… I see you

orange, orange, everywhere! …. and you know I like my orange right?

a change of outfit and a quick stop back in the “jungle” part of the beach…

and then off to the beach itself…

Back into the previous outfits and off to another location for some sunset photos….

and dancing with the moon

a quick change into eveningwear and the engagement photography session moved to Lincoln Road in South Beach.

We saw this cool elevator with a glass back and decided to take some playful shots with that…

after shooting from the front of the elevator we moved to the back where we shot quite a few “caught while otherwise distracted” shots   Here’s one we turned into a panoramic sequence

and here’s one that was super-steamy…

Now the thing was that due to the speed of the elevator and how dark it was I had to prefocus the camera and basically wait for them to appear out of nowhere and take the shots…. of course we had a few surprises… for instance this one time they were supposed to go by while wrapped around each other like pythons in love (if you found this page while searching for information about the reproductive habits of leg-less reptiles don’t blame me, blame google) but instead they showed up with a family:

and of course they played their own jokes on me as well… behold… SuperGeorge and WonderJosie!

Once we were done with the elevator we headed off onto Lincoln Road where we found a few nice spots to shoot in…

Josie and George,

Thank you so much for being the awesome people you are… I am so glad Joe put us in touch (Joe you rock man!)  I can’t wait to shoot your wedding in May… Josie, you’re going to be a spectacular bride and George… well you’re already on heck of a lucky guy so I guess you’ll be a lucky guy in a tux

You can see the rest of the photos on the proofs site

I close the set with one of my favorite photos ever:

How to even begin to contain my enthusiasm?  A great guy, a gorgeous lady with a sense of humor and enough “in on the guy geekyness” to let her play with the boys, a fantastic photographer hired to help make this a smashing success and three stunning locations.  And that’s not even considering that this was our very first “live” engagement!

Thank you Jim, for entrusting us with this most special of moments.  I sincerely hope to have exceeded your (but more importantly Krystin’s) expectations

The opening shot above was taken from an undisclosed location in one of the most dangerous areas of Miami (yes really) which however has the benefit of showcasing Biscayne bay’s fantastic’s Skyline.

The photos below were shot at Vizcaya

My favorite photo of the day (of mine):

Photo by Tony Schreiber:

And here is me taking the shot above (photo by Tony Schreiber)

Just a little context…

These other shots were taken at the very tip of South Beach in Miami.

Krystin showing off her Mortal Kombat moves!!!  Jim … totally paralyzed by fear

My second favorite shot of the day (of mine):

Tony in action at Vizcaya

A bit unusual for a couples’ session but we lead this one with a solo portrait of a car.  Jessie, as her owner named her

We cruised around Fort Lauderdale Beach hoping for some respite from the weather, but no go.  We were only able to get a few clicks in before the rain forced us to move to Downtown Fort Lauderdale.

Of course sometime what looks like a bad thing is a blessing in disguise.  As we parked our cars the sun started peeking out of the clouds and I was able to capture this:

We closed the night with this:

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Last night we were privileged to photograph two wonderful out-of-towners, Jaelin and David.  They’re from Colorado and stopped by on their way to a Bahamas getaway.

Jaelin is stunningly beautiful, and David is a good looking guy himself.  He even knew what a 5D2 was when I mentioned it in passing and had a good idea of the sticker price.  Props to Dave on that one.   We had a ton of setbacks that threatened this shoot from technical issues with the flash triggers to a bad weather forecast and a later than expected start to the session which put most of the shots in the dark

So… how’d it turn out?  Well, if the proof is in the pudding, then I’m very happy with the pudding we got.

Early in the shoot we had a constant intruder in all of our shots:  Jaelin’s purse kept managing to get into the frame no matter where she put it.  After moving it a few times I finally decided to give up … drop down into the dirt and let the purse take center stage:

The purse behaved much better after her photo-op

Well, back to developing the images of this fantastic couple.  Jaelin, I hope you end up loving the photos, enjoy your vacation in paradise!

This one below was directly inspired by a fellow photographer’s shot on FM… I’m sorry I don’t remember who you are, but I just thought I’d give a shout-out anyway

Thanks to the Broward County Parks employee who said I didn’t need to pay for the sprinkler I broke last night and thanked me for reporting the damage … she said it’s the first time she gets a call from someone who damaged property and was willing to pay for it

Special thanks to Brenda, Laura and Greg, who took care of our little ones while we were out shooting. We love you guys!

You can see the full set here

We shot Ahyde and Denis’ Engagement session at TY Park in Hollywood Florida.  Their Wedding is in two days at the Yankee Clipper in Fort Lauderdale.  We had a fantastic time shooting this session as we made it a family affair, including Ahyde’s daughter as an assistant.

This one down here is one of our favorite shots from the day…

And here is a view of all the assistants hard at work to make that shot happen!

A portrait of the stunning bride-to-be looking at her groom

Airborne!

You can see the whole set here.