Winter engagement sessions are my favorite! Emily and I rode the school bus together in high school and seemed to get scheduled into the same gym class year after year. I love her dry sense of humor. We share a joy for sarcasm, laughing, and floor hockey. When I got to meet her fiance, Jason, I was thrilled that he also laughs easily and has a smile that lights up a room. They are a seriously fun couple to be around – and then I met Max, their rescue corgi. As if they could be any more fun? Max has enough personality for a photo shoot of his very own. When Emily said they wanted to do winter photos at her family’s property, I knew it was going to be a blast! We bundled up spur of the moment style on a VERY cold january afternoon and took advantage of the snow for their winter engagement photos. By the end we all almost had frostbite and my stomach ached from laughing so hard. Even my husband, Sean, came out of photo assistant retirement to wrangle lightstands and be my special effects master. Check out the fun we had playing in the snow with Max and throwing snowballs!!
Corgi butts are seriously the cutest. Max’s little legs barely kept him out of the snow, he hopped like a bunny. Every time I would set Emily and Jason up for a posed photo of the three of them, Max would waddle in, hold still and look over his shoulder at me for one photo (like he was a vogue-ing super model) and then before I could snap a second click of the shutter – NOPE – he hopped away.
Look how CUTE these two are together!
After the “dressed up” outfits, it was fun to change into colorful snow gear and just play around. We walked down to the creek behind the house and Max was investigating all the smells.
Max: “Omg Mom, what are you doing to me?!”
Then he gave in to the process. LOL !
What you can’t see is Sean just off camera repeatedly throwing giant shovels full of snow at Emily and Jason over and over again to get the right effect. I think they probably had several handfuls of ice inside the collars of their jackets by the time we were done. So why not just have a snowball fight?
Five tips on planning a winter engagement photo session!
- Watch the weather, ideally you want a day where there is snow on the ground but the windchill is above 20 degrees.
- Dress for the weather! This is the time for cute coats, hats, boots, gloves. Don’t be caught outside in nothing but a shirt – you won’t be comfortable and everyone that sees your photos will ask where you coat was!
- Hand warmers! Stuff them in every pocket!
- Remember just because snow isn’t falling from the sky doesn’t mean a good photo assistant can’t throw some snow in the air for the same effect.
- Don’t be afraid to get messy! Trying to avoid all the snow and ice can lead to stiff posing – just embrace the season and go for it!
If you’d like to see more fun winter photos for inspiration, check out our winter blog posts here !
