The great thing about engagement sessions is that you can really do whatever you want with them. Want to dress nice and shoot in the park? Great. Want to go to the beach and get in the water? Sure. Want to shoot at the cross-fit gym? Fantastic!

I love a good challenge. I’m a big believer in the idea that a good photographer can do good work in any location under any condition. This is why we have lights. This is why we have expensive equipment. This is why we are constantly learning new tricks and techniques.

So, when Derek and Beth said they were big into Crossfit and asked if we could incorporate that into their engagement session, I was all for it. We started in the dark, windowless cross-fit gym which required three different flashes and ended up at the park where I was able to work with natural light quite a bit. I don’t think I’ve ever had an engagement session that had so much variety of style and lighting.

If you look on Pinterest, you’ll probably find some cross-fit images that are very similar. Beth brought me some examples of what she likes and I tried to copy them for her. It’s always a little weird when you basically reproduce someone else’s shot but really, all photography is copied in one way or another. All art is, really. For example, we have a lighting pattern in photography that’s called “Rembrandt Light” because it copies the lighting pattern that Rembrandt used in his paintings. I’m happy to give people what they want. Of course, I do my own stuff too. (In fact, most of these shots are my poses)

We had a great day. Here are a few of my favorites!