Anniversary Shoot | St. Charles
Not many people have the opportunity or forethought to do a photoshoot on their actual one-year wedding anniversary.
But, those people aren’t my friend Kaitlin, who has always been on top of the ball when it comes to these kind of relationship things. We set up a shoot for the day of their actual anniversary at LeRoy Oakes Nature Preserve in St. Charles, Illinois.
CAPTURING SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY TRADITIONS
Kaitlin and I discussed her vision prior to the shoot. She had lots of cute ideas for poses that involved a lot props. Normally, the style I like to shoot in is more candid and natural instead of posed, but I always try to meet the client’s requests!
Her ideas involved a few chalkboards, wedding photos, and a picture frame, but by far the coolest props were their actual wedding cake, a cake tier, champagne flutes, and their wedding silverware!
I still get all giddy inside when I think about the shoot – I mean how cool is it to not only have a photo session on your one-year wedding anniversary, but also capture the moment you both share your one-year old wedding cake!
That was, of course, my favorite part of the session, due to its uniqueness and how the nature of it lent itself more towards candid photography. I made sure to get posed shots, but really enjoyed capturing them eating cake and just sharing the moment together.
PROPS, PROPS AND POSES
Other poses we did involved having the two of them hold up various blank chalkboards or photo frames, of which I would later photoshop in specific verbiage Kaitlin had requested.
They also brought along a large framed portrait of them taken on their wedding day. This pose will serve a special purpose. For next year’s anniversary shoot, they will hold a framed photo of the photo I took of them holding their framed wedding photo, and so on – creating an inception, fun-house mirror style photo as each year goes by!
FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT
After all Kaitlin’s poses were checked off the list, I attempted to get some candid shots of them sitting in the grass. However, it was TALL grass, in early fall, and the mosquitos were awful. Plus, we were losing light quickly.
Speaking of light, I have to give a shout out to my awesome assistant and partner in life (and crime), Erik. He carried around my external flash on a telescoping tripod the entire shoot and was very helpful with not only being in the right place at the right time, but also with his indispensable knowledge of light.
A good portion of the shots included fake “setting sunlight”, courtesy of Erik. We used an amber gel on the speed light to create a more realistic, warmer sunshine effect. Golden hour is by far the best time of the day to shoot portraits, but you don’t always have the luxury of the weather cooperating. It was cloudy and overcast the day of the shoot, and the speed light really helped. Thanks, Erik!
WRAP UP
I’m so grateful for the opportunity to have done such a unique – and SPECIAL! – photo session. Newlyweds, take note! I would definitely consider doing something like this for your first wedding anniversary!