cindy + eric – the engagement session

Cindy and Eric met me in SoHo for their engagement session last week. As the days get shorter we obviously have to do our outdoor shoots earlier and earlier in the day. Around this time of year we’re out so early that it feels like I’m in high school again playing hookey and just wandering around town with some friends.

Some say that one of the keys to successful photography is being able to selectively eliminate the undesirable elements that don’t contribute to the story you want to tell.

Here’s the story of Cindy and Eric – a loving engaged couple.

Here’s the reality from which we distill our subject to our basic elements.

American Hardcore.

And of course we need to be sure that we pick appropriate backgrounds for the subject matter.

I loved this place we found and was about to set up some urban romantic shot until I saw that the baby had self-amputed his leg with a saw. Ok, you have to draw the line somewhere. But I thought it would be cool for Eric.

So we went here for the urban romantic shot. My personal fave from the session.

The shot below was with my old friend the Canon TS-45mm L tilt-shift lens. Who knew precision optical glass could be so much fun. You’re “supposed” to use it to extend the depth of field even at wide apertures by tilting the focal plane. I use it to do the exact opposite – to tilt the focal plane to minimize the depth of field and narrow it to just those elements that I want to be in focus. It blows everything else dreamily out of focus. That’s not photoshop, folks. Of course, this lens is heavy, expensive, and a total bear to use – with all these little twisty knobs and things to adjust and stuff; and totally manual focus too, but still so much fun. Ok, maybe it only seems fun to me. But it takes cool pictures, right?