Winter sessions are tough. I’m not going to lie. Between the cold temps and shortage of leaves, they kind of just lack everything that typically makes my photographer heart skip a beat! This day on the other hand, may have begun to redeem the winter season for me. One word: snow. I’ve not gotten the chance to do a couples session in the snow yet! Though I had longed for it, I just couldn’t buck up the guts to bundle up and get myself outside to brave frozen fingers to capture the magic, well that was until last week!

Cameron & Karissa had one day for their engagement session, last Tuesday. Karissa and Cameron are college students from Florida. So while Karissa was coming home to Ohio for the holidays, Cameron was planning to stay with his family in Florida! They’ll be getting married here in Ohio at one of my favorite venues next summer, Polen Farm, so we had to get down to the details on how to make their engagement session happen! With the craziness of their schools schedules plus the holidays, we found one small window where Cameron could fly up here and we’d shoot their engagement pictures. I’m not gonna lie, it made me a little nervous and caused me to pray real hard about the weather! I can do shoots in the rain, of course, but it’s so much better when we have sunshine! Thankfully, the day before our shoot I woke up to snow and not rain! And that snow stayed around for the next day! Making for an excited photographer and some super magical portraits! But, I’m getting ahead of myself!

Now, let me tell you about this couple! These two are such genuine people and it doesn’t take long to feel like friends around them. Truly. We talked for hours! And since their engagement session destination was Downtown Lebanon it called for a stop at one of my local coffee favorites, Lot No. 1! Cameron and Karissa shared about their families, wedding plans and so many childhood stories! We talked about growing up and what winters looked like for us where we lived and about what life looks like now! It made me so thankful for a job where I get to not only document some of the most important moments in someone’s life, but I also get to share in relationship with them while doing it! And when I get asked what my favorite part of weddings is, it’s honestly getting to celebrate alongside my friends!

I also need to mention how amazing these two are. Here’s why: they walked across a swampy, mud filled field for me to access a location I’ve been dreaming of shooting for an engagement session! When they told me their love for adventure and the great outdoors, I knew right where we should go. Caesar Creek State Park has some beautiful spots that look more like you traveled to a different state for a day rather than being nestled in southern Ohio. One of my favorite spots is a wide open field with access to the water and patches of grass that glow in the sunset light. However, what I didn’t realize was that the lack of grass makes the field more like a mud pit with just a little rain. We rolled up to the spot and began the trek across the field, quickly realizing that we had to hop from “snow island” to “grass island” just to keep from sinking into the mud! It made us laugh quite a bit and I thanked them a million times over because y’all! They didn’t complain once! They trusted my gut on that location and it paid off! I ended up taking some of my favorite and most epic portraits of my career thus far! You’ll see those closer to the bottom of the post! And I have a feeling you’ll love them as much as I do!

I’ve kept you waiting for these portraits long enough! And I’m super impressed if you’ve made it to the end of this novel before the temptation of looking at all the photos! But I just wanted y’all to know a little more about these two and the experience we had during their session because I think it makes the photos that much more special! You may look at these and see pretty photos, but I look at them and see friends who made this extra long engagement session one of my highlights of the winter! Enjoy!