Sometimes an engagement session will really stretch you as a person and a creative. Paige and Kyle’s engagement session did both. They really made me muscle up and be bold in new situations and made me simultaneously have to rethink my creative processes.
The fearlessness came about, because I found myself taking portraits of Paige and Kyle in a sea of strangers who were just out on the town for a drink at one of the many bars in Milwaukee on a Friday night.
First, I love working with couples to get engagement portraits that cater to their likes and interest. This sounds a bit complicated, but it doesn’t have to be. If you’re active and like doing a particular hobby it can be really easy to bring something that showcases that. You like eating and drinking, we can do a picnic or take photos in your kitchen. You like hiking? Let’s go to the trail. You like baseball? We can take photos at the park and bring your baseball mitts along.
Some of these ideas, really only require bringing an extra item or two to sell it!
For Paige and Kyle, they really dived right into this concept. And, their two interests were going out for drinks and traveling.
And, one of their favorite places to go out for a drink was Shaker’s Cigar Bar in the Walkers Point neighborhood in Milwaukee.
Shaker’s Cigar Bar
This bar is not your average Milwaukee bar. It’s special and unique. It has a very loud and unique history. It was built upon a cemetery and then later was a speakeasy during Prohibition and owned by the legendary Capone brothers.
It’s a favorite stop on ghost tours and also a favorite spot for people that like cigars while they drink.
It was an exciting place for a photo session, because of its history and how uniquely it’s decorated inside. All the decorations look like they’re from an antique store and they have a multitude of different colored lights throughout.
They have two bars downstairs and an airbnb upstairs where they bring you on the ghost tours.
Paige showed up with a big floppy black hat and a long black dress that made her look like she was from the 1920s and Kyle styled himself to match with black slacks and a grey button down shirt.
It was a little tricky navigating the bar with the tight space to work with, but as the session wore on I brought out my camera flash and used it to highlight them in different seating and standing areas.
One of my favorite shots was taking a photo of the two of them playing cards sitting on a table. A single flash behind them really isolated them, making them pop off out of the background.
Multiple Days
Another unique aspect of Paige and Kyle’s engagement portraits was that it was split into multiple days. The first day we met in the evening and spent the whole time at Shaker’s Cigar Bar and Paige and Kyle stayed with one outfit.
The next part of our session was a couple weeks later and we met outside at Grant Park Beach in South Milwaukee for a sunrise session. Both sessions were about two hours long and it really gave us the time to focus on each spot, take our time and get some incredible photos. We weren’t rushed and we weren’t panicked. We were relaxed and got great portraits.
If you do want engagement photos done and do want to get the most out of it and have some really creative ideas, you may want to consider two days. This would be important, especially if it’s not really feasible or practical to combine two disparate ideas into one single day.
For Paige and Kyle it was really helpful, because the portrait session at the bar worked best in the evening and by the time we were even close to being done it was already well past sunset and anything outdoors and in nature was off the table.
There will be an added charge if you’d like to do a two-day session, but depending on your circumstance it could be well worth it!
Benefits of sunrise sessions
As I mentioned before Paige and Kyle did a sunrise session for the second part of their engagement shoot.
I don’t get a lot of sunrise sessions, mostly because they have to be so early in the morning. During the summer you could be talking about meeting at 5 am or earlier. So, it can be very daunting. For Paige and Kyle we met in October so it was a bit later in the morning, but still plenty early.
There are incredible benefits towards having a sunrise session though and the first one is that Lake Michigan is east of us!
This is something we cannot change. Milwaukee and the surrounding areas have incredible beaches, but most of them are all on Lake Michigan and therefore the sunset will never be over the water, only the sunrise!
The second thing is that it will always be more peaceful and less crowded for sunrise. Whether it’s 5 am or 6 or 7 am people will just not be out and about as much during the early morning. Compare this to sunset at 7 or 8 pm and there will always be plenty of people in the scenic locations you choose.
It’s pretty freeing and calming to have an entire beach to yourself for portraits.
For Paige and Kyle we started walking along the beach and getting photos with the beach and water in the background and then eventually we switched to their final creative idea, which was to incorporate their love of traveling.
I also love to travel. My wife and I are big-time road trippers, so I was excited to work this concept out for an engagement shoot.
For Paige and Kyle we decided to use the idea of a road trip and worked out of the back of their car. They opened the trunk and sat in the back with their luggage flanked on the ground beside them.
They also had baseball caps, giving them a more casual vibe and Kyle brought a travel camera which he slung over his shoulders for some portraits. The last touch was that they brought a bottle of wine and shared a glass between them.
All in all it was great a travel engagement session and I was so glad that Paige and Kyle were both creative and spunky enough to make this special portrait session happen.
Verse of the day:
“I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil – this is the gift of God.”
Ecclesiastes 3:12-13
