Blog— 2021 —
Colt State Park Engagement Photos
Ann & Andrew
Colt State Park, Bristol, Rhode Island
June 20th, 2021
One of the reasons I love engagement sessions so much is you really get a chance to connect with a bride and groom ahead of their wedding and get a better idea of how to work with them so that the photos on their big day come out the best they can.
The downside is, most of the time, these sessions are a year or more away from the wedding day itself so by the time they say "I do," a lot of those lessons can be lost. Thankfully for Ann and Andrew, there's no way that will be the case as we held their engagement session a mere six weeks before they get married in August in Sharon, Massachusetts.
And, if their wedding day is half as cool and careful as their engagement session was, I know we're in for one heck of an afternoon.
Ann and Andrew's engagement session took place on a beautiful summer afternoon at Colt State Park in Bristol, Rhode Island. As I've said more times than I can count, I adore Colt State Park for these types of sessions but, sometimes, the park can be quite a struggle as it is rather unforgiving on scorching hot days.
Thankfully, Ann and Andrew were super flexible and open to myself so when I told them I wanted to start their engagement session in the shade and keep them there for as long as possible, I was PUMPED when they said yes.
What resulted from that decision were many of my favorite photos of the entire session as the beautiful sun complimented the park splendidly ... as long as we had some giant trees and leaves between us and it.
As you might imagine, though, the choice to stay in the shade could have limited the types of photos we got. Thankfully, Colt State Park is a giant park and we were able to spend the first half of Ann and Andrew's engagement session going from shaded spot to shaded spot and kept the variety up by switching the poses up as needed.
I especially loved some of the photos we took of Ann and Andrew in our second location, a tucked away corner deep in the western portion of the park. By this time, the soon-to-be bride and groom were much more relaxed and you could see it in their demeanor.
Alas, as much as I would have loved to keep Ann and Andrew as cool as possible, no visit to Colt State Park is complete without a tour of some of their locations near the water ... which meant it was time for us to embrace the heat and deal with the brightness of a mid-afternoon photo session.
Thankfully, these future newlyweds were up to the task and whether it was the pedestrian walkway bridge, the stone walls near the chapel or the rocks and dock at the entrance of the park, the three of us found plenty of spots to utilize as our session came to an end.
I loved working with Ann and Andrew for so many reasons but, I have to say, the biggest is how comfortable everything felt. Even though we'd only met one time prior to their engagement session, within minutes it felt like I had a long friendship with this bride and groom and I'm confident that will translate to some great photos when they tie the knot in August.
So thanks for braving the summer heat Ann and Andrew and I can't wait to get together in a few weeks to do it all over again. Hopefully, this time, it will be a touch cooler out and we won't feel the need to hide away in the shade ... for too long, anyway.
-Paul J. Spetrini
