Jason & Jen's engagement @ Balboa Park

I headed out to Balboa Park this past Sunday to shoot some engagement portraits for Jason and Jen:

Jason planned a surprise vacation from Colorado to pop the question here in San Diego, which he did the night before our shoot. Unfortunately the weather wasn't typical of San Diego ( and they did get out of town before the storm ), but we made the most of the last overcast hours of the day.

Their personalities and smiles helped keep the mood lighthearted and we quickly covered a lot of locations.

I did my best to provide the historical background of the

park... "Who was Balboa? Umm.." and I felt I gave a pretty good tour.

Engagement shoots can be challenging for a variety of reasons but I find striking a balance of candid and conceptual ( cheesy ) shots is the most difficult. Trying to shoot two different styles simultaneously is a tough state of mind to maintain. I'm always just trying to give my clients variety so they're left with options in the editorial process.

Another challenge is to capture the personalities and character of people who you've had very little interaction with. This is a talent I've had success in refining. I can generally have people laughing at themselves ( or me ) within just a few minutes.

At the end of the day it's all about getting people animated and looking like they love each other! ( A lot of engagement photographers are so avant garde these days their subjects don't even appear to like each other. But thats a rant I'll save for later... )

Composition Lesson 1: The Rule of Thirds

One of the easiest rules of composition, the rule of thirds, is also one of the most universally applicable. (Whenever I talk about ‘rules’ I get uncomfortable and feel like I should remind everyone that these are conventions. Conventions are great most of the time. When they aren’t applicable, they can be effectively reversed or parodied.) Back to the topic…

The rule of thirds states that most subjects can be comfortably composed within a frame by having its most interesting parts fall along imaginary lines that divide the frame into thirds. (Just look at the picture) The four intersections of these thirds show particularly powerful areas of the frame. There are many ways to put this guideline into action but let’s talk about the most straightforward.

Once you’ve identified your subject try to determine what it’s most attractive (attention worthy) traits are. In your viewfinder imagine the lines of the thirds dividing your frame and try to place the most interesting parts of your subject along the lines and especially on their intersecting points.

Here is an alternative approach, using the thirds to divide the frame:

Most of the time when your subject is a person their face is going to be your only real concern. You’ll notice that almost no pictures of people are shot ‘dead-centered’ because it produces a feeling of ambiguity. By instead placing the subject in one of the thirds we get a more dynamic feeling about them, like they’re going somewhere.

This simple rule can transform the way you compose your pictures. Just be careful not to think about it too much. Most teachers stress that this is a good guideline. You don’t get any points for cluttering up all of the thirds in your composition, sometimes leaving them vacant can be just as

important.