Hannah & Paul
Colt State Park, Bristol, Rhode Island
March 28th, 2025
I have a love/hate relationship with winter in New England. While it's a great time for me to decompress and take some time away from my camera, it's also a miserable time of year weather wise and the shoots I do have can prove quite challenging to make look nice with a noticeable lack of colors and foliage in the area.
But, sometimes, it's fun to take on a new challenge so when Hannah and Paul reached out to me and said they wanted to set up a late March engagement session at Colt State Park — one of my favorite locations but one that doesn't look great until May — I figured "Hey, why not? Let's have some fun!"
And we sure did.
Hannah and Paul, who are getting married this summer, had my first engagement session of 2025 and let me tell you what: They set the bar pretty high for the year and if this is any indication of how their wedding will go later this year, let's go right ahead and fast forward to August please and thank you.
I knew from the moment I met Hannah and Paul in the parking lot of the dock at Colt State Park that we were in for a quality shoot as they were both excited to be there and we lucked out with one of the nicest days of the month on this particular afternoon.
It didn't take long for these two to get in a groove either and I'm not sure if it was the creative energy I was bubbling with having just returned home from the WPPI expo in Vegas four days earlier or their genuine adorableness but we were in the groover right from the start of this session.
I mean, look at these two. How cute are they?
One of the nice things about Hannah and Paul choosing Colt State Park for their session was that I am BEYOND familiar with this park and know what areas to go to and which ones to avoid when the colors and foliage are gone and after hitting the fishing dock to start, we made our way over to a nice winding road down by the Chapel by the Sea which, if you time it right in the day, looks great no matter the time of year.
This was also a great place for Hannah and Paul to swap outfits and, looking back, I'm not sure which of their first two looks I liked best as both were perfect selections and made the soon-to-be newlyweds look super comfortable despite the relative chill in the air.
What I really loved about Hannah and Paul was how amenable they were to posing suggestions and because we had tons of time, I was able to bust out some old familiar poses that I love to do on engagement sessions and some new favorites and these two made everything look so effortless and seemed so at ease with one another.
I especially loved that they were up for all of my weird ideas ... even when I laid on the ground to get a paricularly weird (to them) looking angle of Hannah's engagement ring.
I could tell Hannah and Paul were having a great time because THEY were even suggesting things during the shoot and, to me, there's no greater sign that a bride and groom are into what we're doing. That's why I loved when Paul asked sheepishly if I minded if he tossed on his leather jacket for a couple of photos.
Do I mind? Absolutely not. In fact, I encourage it!
Turns out the leather jacket was the perfect addition to the third location we chose at the park for Hannah and Paul as the tall yellow stalks were an amazing backdrop for the leather and black look this couple had. These were, without a doubt, my favorite shots of the shoot.
As Hannah, Paul and I watched the time tick away to sunset, I wasn't exactly sure what kind of lighting to expect as it got darker at the park but I knew I wanted to close on the location's iconic bridge and, so, we did.
Even though we were almost two hours in the shoot at this point, Hannah and Paul were still game as we changed them into their third and final outfit and we capped the session with some lovely photos that, I think, took full advantage of a particularly blue sunset.
As Hannah and Paul closed out our time together, I left Colt State Park super excited to get home and send them sneak peeks and, honestly, that's my favorite feeling leaving an engagement session. I had a blast working with these two and I genuinely can't wait to see how their wedding in August will turn out.
I can think of no better way to have started what I hope is a crazy good 2025 season of portrait sessions with brides and grooms so thanks Hannah and Paul for a wonderful afternoon and I can't wait to regroup and try to top it when we get together later this summer. See you then! :)
-Paul J. Spetrini
