Vancouver Engagement session with Mario and Kristy – When asked how these two met, she says it was at a Christmas party 5 years ago, and he says it was six months before that. They both agree it was love at first sight! Mario was playing a beach volleyball tournament in the summer and couldn’t take his eyes off the fierce beautiful brunette playing opposite him. He joked to his teammate that she was the girl of his dreams… who he officially met 6 months later at a Christmas party.
From Kristy: Very soon after Mario and I met, he invited to meet his family and see his home. This is when I knew that Mario was ‘the one’- I noticed right away how loving Mario’s family was and how much pride they shared for their Croatian roots.
One of my favourite things about this session were the little details Kristy and Mario brought with them. Mario is from Croatia and Kristy is Canadian and they wanted to try to bring some of their heritage into the shoot. Kristy brought a gold and glass maple leaf and Mario brought a necklace with the Croatian coat of arms. As soon as I saw the items they brought, I kew I wanted to show a little of each item surrounding the ring that represents a new union being formed… a couple proud of their heritage and excited to continue combining traditions and cultures.
Stanley Park Engagement Session
The first half of this session took place Downtown Vancouver (coming soon), and we travelled the short distance to Stanley Park for the remainder of the session. Kristy wore a red dress, which stood out beautifully against the lush green of Stanley Park. I made the mistake of shooting too late in the park, the park is so thick and lush that it gets dark way before sunset, so I had to shoot wide open at F1.2 on the Canon 50mm. Shooting ‘wide open’ or at a low aperture allows the most amount of light in. Sometimes shooting wide open can also result in images that aren’t sharp, the area of focus is sometimes less than a foot, so it’s important to be careful when shooting to make sure your focus is always sharp. I rarely shoot at F1.2, but for this shoot I had the shutter speed as low as possible and I didn’t want to add grain to the image. Luckily it got a lot brighter once we headed down to the beach.
