Ryan & Khris
Roger Williams Park, Providence, Rhode Island
May 16th, 2025
I love a good creative challenge. While shooting weddings can be difficult simply by the stress of the moment and how many moving pieces have to interact for everything to come together, I've often found the hardest part of photographing engagement sessions is you have too much control and it's hard for things to feel organic and natural when you can almost always do what you want, take as long as you need and go wherever you feel like.
That's one of the many reasons I loved shooting Ryan & Khris' May engagement session at Roger Williams Park in Providence, Rhode Island. For one thing, it was a Friday night shoot at one of the region's busiest parks on the most beautiful day of the year so far and on the busiest weekend of the year in terms of prom and engagement sessions at said park.
On another, the park was hosting its weekly Food Truck night, meaning where we could actually access and how we could get around were severely limited.
Like I said, though, I love a good creative challenge and not only did Ryan & Khris adapt and overcome all of these issues, they proved to be so fun that their session was one of my favorites this spring and that says a lot.
About a half hour before my time with Ryan and Khris began, I arrived at Roger Williams Park determined to drive around the area and see how busy my favorite locations were and, to my dismay, I couldn't even access half of them thanks to Food Truck Fridays or whatever they're calling this weekly event.
No worries. I am nothing if not resourceful and that's why the first spot I took Ryan and Khris was to the Casino area of the park which, for whatever reason, never attracts as many people looking to take photos as the Temple To Music, Japanese Garden or Iron Foot Bridge does.
I was glad. My first task with Ryan and Khris was getting these two comfortable in front of the camera and, thankfully, that didn't take long. Almost immediately, they were both as ease with one another and we made sure to take full advantage with a trip to the Lover's Bridge area of the park next.
What I loved about working with Ryan and Khris was the two were super trusting and go with the flow, no matter how ridiculous the posing requests I had were. That's why we had so much fun doing simple things like asking Ryan to dip Khris or stopping at a tree simply because I liked the way the light peaked out from behind them.
That also paved the wave for my favorite photos of the entire shoot as, while walking back to our cars and getting ready to head to a new location, I saw some amazing warm light radiating the bannister area of the casino and simply had to stop Ryan and Khris there for photos. Talk about stunning lighting. I wish I could take credit for it. I really do.
Being able to go with the flow was key for Ryan and Khris on this spring afternoon and even when we DID manage to make it to some of the park's more popular areas — like the Temple to Music — we still had to stop along the way when something beautiful called to us.
I loved the photos we got of Ryan and Khris at the Temple to Music, sure, but I loved the ones we took before and after our trip there even more.
The one part of the park Ryan and Khris were hell bent on getting to before this session was over was the Japanese Gardens and I can't blame them because it's a lovely spot for spring engagement photos. Unfortunately, that meant a LONG walk as the entire area near the gardens was closed off so people could buy pizza off a truck or whatever. I'm not bitter. No. Not at all. :)
Regardless of the silliness that blocked our path, Ryan, Khris and I made our way to the Japanese Gardens toward the end of their session and I knew the minute we walked in that it was well worth the wait.
All in all, I can't say Ryan and Khris' engagement session turned out anywhere close to the way I envisioned it before we began on this lovely spring day but, honestly, I think it turned out better for that very reason.
Being a wedding photographer is all about being flexible and working with the conditions you find yourself in and overcoming whatever obstacles are thrown your way and we certainly did that on this day. So, thank you Ryan and Khris for a lovely time traveling the grounds of Roger Williams Park and I can't wait to do it all over again next year for your 2026 wedding.
One simple request, though: Can we leave the food trucks at home? :)
-Paul J. Spetrini
