Blog— 2022 —
Roger Williams Park Engagement Photos
Kayleigh & Matthew
Roger Williams Park, Providence, Rhode Island
October 30th, 2022
I tell every bride and groom that I work with that the first 15 minutes of any engagement session are kind of irrelevant, in the sense that it's less important for me to take photos we like than it is to get a feel for the couple and find ways to break the ice. In many ways, this is true. At the same time, however, that initial 15-minute period CAN make or break a session.
That's why I knew I was in for a great time with Kayleigh and Matthew on the afternoon of their October engagement session at Roger Williams Park.
Meeting up with Kayleigh and Matthew, I could see the tension in both of their shoulders and could tell they were super nervous and within just the first dozen or so photos alone, I saw them both visibly relax and get comfortable in front of the camera.
I knew then that the hard part was over and all we had to do was take advantage of one of the best days of the entire fall. And boy did we ever.
My time with Kayleigh and Matthew started in a random spot at the top of a hill in Roger Williams Park. I always like to hike out to a place I don't care about for the first few photos with a couple and, to my surprise, the park was so beautiful on this particular afternoon that no matter where we went everything looked great.
What I loved about Kayleigh and Matthew in particular was their comfortability with direction. That's why we were able to quickly pivot through a variety of poses and see what worked and didn't work for them right of the start of the session so when we moved further down the hill into a spot I adored with plenty of foliage, they were already seasoned pros.
Kayleigh and Matthew chose a mid-afternoon time for their engagement session and it couldn't have been more perfect. Not only had I already had ONE engagement session in the park that afternoon (So I knew what looked great and what didn't) but because it was a bit later than 1 p.m., one of my favorite spots in the entire park — the Japanese Gardens — had finally become usable as the harsh morning light had faded.
As much fun as Kayleigh and Matthew's engagement session was to start, it wasn't until we had a slight hiccup in the planning of things that I knew it was something truly special.
While driving around from the Japanese Gardens and attempting to find the Casino area of the park, I took a wrong turn at a roundabout and decided, on a whim, to park and try out a new spot that caught my eye.
Kayleigh and Matt were totally down and it paid off nicely as this nondescript spot in the middle of nowhere gave us beautiful light and a nice backdrop for some of my favorite shots all day.
With a handful of locations in the bag, Kayleigh, Matthew and I made a little journey around the park for a bit looking for one or two more spots we could take advantage of that looked unique to their session. Honestly, with five sessions in Roger Williams Park on this particular weekend, I was excited to try somewhere new so that's what we did.
First, we stopped on a random hill on the way to the Temple to Music. Then, and perhaps more clutch, we skipped the Temple to Music altogether as the light wasn't quite right there and headed over, instead, to a beautiful yellow tree that was in full bloom that had caught my eye for days ahead of actually taking photos there.
It was, without question, one of the most beautiful spots I've ever seen in the park and is absolutely going on my must-shoot list every fall moving forward.
By the time my time with Kayleigh and Matthew came to an end, I honestly felt amazing about the photos we'd captured. Not only did this shy couple warm up insanely quick to being in front of the camera but, perhaps more importantly, they were a lot of fun to work with and find poses that felt like them but also felt timeless and romantic.
Kayleigh and Matthew won't be getting married until September next year but I can confidently say their wedding will be one I look forward to all year long. It's going to be hard to top the bar we set with this awesome fall engagement session but I look forward to trying so thanks Kayleigh and Matt for a great engagement session and I hope you have a happy holiday season. See you in 2023!
