Crystal and Nick Engagement Session

This past Saturday I set out with a great couple Crystal and Nick to capture some images celebrating their engagement. The location they decided on was Falls Park in beautiful downtown Greenville. Being a photographer wanting to control light as much as possible, I wanted to shoot as late as possible. The best they could do was at 5pm. Experience tells me that trying to shoot in the late afternoon in June here in the south is asking for trouble with both heat and humidity, nothing could be further from the truth. It was a perfect day which brought its own challenges. The fantastic weather couldn't be kept a secret so we would be competing with everyone else wanting to enjoy the park that day.

Falls Park is a photographer's dream with a wide range of settings in a relatively small, and walkable, area from dark wooded secreted places, urban backdrops and, of course, the falls and the trademark bridge. We intended on taking advantage of as much of it as we could in the short amount of time we had available to us.

We first started in shaded areas of the common area surrounded by beautiful flora with stone paths and stairs carving through them.

Next we moved to one of the bench swings under the bridge and snuck a few nice shots. This was a high-traffic area but people coming through were very accommodating and Crystal and Nick never missed a beat.

After several winning shots here, we strolled away from the crowds and crossed the river to a spot I have wanted to shoot against for some time. Near the Governor's School, there is a tree on a bank with a vast array of exposed roots. I thought we could shoot here unimpeded but traffic on this road turned out to be more than I anticipated. I ended up shooting from across the street with a telephoto and I'm glad I did.

We proceeded further away from the main part of the park into the woods. There are great little paths and bridges along a creek that flows into the Reedy River including a small waterfall.

We finally got that hat off of Nick.

We decided to brave the crowds for a shot of them on the bridge.

Lastly we wanted to get some detail shots of Crystal's ring so we looked for some local plants that mirrored their selected colors.

This last shot is one of my personal favorites. Crystal and Nick were easy to work with and were up for anything I suggested and even had some ideas of their own (as Nick will brag that this last shot was actually his idea).