Ryan + Jess
North Carolina Engagement Shoot
It’s Christmas 2021 and after the Covid-19 travel chaos we are finally on our way to North Carolina to celebrate Christmas with my fiancée and her parents who live in Charlotte. This was the first time we we are seeing them as an engaged couple after Daisy said yes to me in December 2019, thanks a lot Covid.
We had so much to do in two weeks, celebrate Christmas, go to the NBA, eat until we could not breathe and catch up with family who we hadn’t seen in so long. This is where Jess and Ryan come in! Ryan is my Fiancée Daisy’s cousin and they just got engaged themselves also! So, we celebrated in the only way a photographer knows how to and took some pictures. This wintery shoot was awesome and the weather played the main character as we had it all! Sun, rain, hail… you name it!
We began shooting in uptown Charlotte against the magnificent skyline of high-rise buildings and skyscrapers. Dressed in cosy and casual outfits, Ryan and Jess looked the part. We love how natural and relaxed these photos came out. As always, we suggest posing prompts to our couples and then let them find the sweet spot that works for them.
We spent some time working up some shots in Bearden park, one of the cities green spaces. We love this set of images, considering we are in such a big city, these felt so intimate and as if Ryan and Jess were in their own world. In these photos the camera was forgotten about as they shared a quiet moment together.
There’s only one right answer to ‘can we bring the dog to the shoot’ and that is YES!! Look how happy she is, I think we have found a future star!
Charlotte is home to three major sports teams; the Charlotte Hornets NBA, Carolina Panthers NFL and Charlotte Knights Baseball. Truist Fields, the ballpark for the Charlotte Knights has a long mural featured along the outside walls of the stadium. This mural goes the length of the stadium and features some vintage baseball posters and advertisements. They gave us the perfect backdrop and it was nice to incorporate some of the local landmarks.
We were too far away from the mountains to have a snowy backdrop but there were just so many different shots, we ended up taking well over 1000 photos!
As we were walking around the city, trying to scout for our next location the heavens opened. And when I say it chucked it down, I mean it! There was no where to hide and the photos do not do justice for how wet it got! So instead of hiding we decided to make the plunge and get wet! The rain just made it feel like we were living life in slow motion. With dancing on the crosswalk, kissing in the street and zooming through uptown charlotte on scooters it was like being in a 1990’s romance film featuring Tom Hanks. The rain just added so much and we would not change it!
After drying off, we changed location and headed over to Lake Norman (after a hot chocolate of course). Ryan and Jess are quite an adventurous couple, they did get engaged in a cave in Puerto Rico after all! So capturing them in the natural outdoors felt like the right thing to do.
The rain had knocked off, but we were left with dark, swirling clouds which added a dramatic backdrop to the photos. Sometimes blue sky is boring, so this worked out well for us!
Believe it or not, 99% of this engagement shoot was unposed! That’s the way we like to do things, we suggest some prompts as we go along and then let the couple do the magic. Everything is just so natural and candid, as if it were a screenshot of their life together.
Dancing in the woods, need I say more? We love the dancing prompt, every couple has their secret dance that comes out randomly when the right song comes on in the Kitchen!
I am Jack and JRQ Media Weddings is my Weddings Photography business! I am an award winning West Midlands based wedding photographer and I cover weddings up and down the UK and abroad. We are now taking bookings for 2023/ 24 weddings. If you would like to reserve your date, get in touch soon to avoid disappointment!
Natural, Relaxed and Modern West Midlands Wedding Photographer