Time to put on your creative thinking caps again folks, because here’s another chance to win a FREE engagement portrait session with Merrick Photography. Our motto is “Images Inspired By You…“, and I thought it would be great to celebrate that fact by allowing our engaged readers the opportunity to really inspire us into doing something a little different…

All you have to do to win is suggest a location and/or theme for what you think would be the coolest, quirkiest or most romantic engagement portrait session ever. The best one submitted by midnight on 5^th May 2010 wins their dream session, which can be anywhere within 150 miles of Memphis.

To submit your entry, simply join the Merrick Photography fan page on Facebook and leave your suggestion as a comment or post before midnight on 5^th May 2010.

If you’re the lucky winners of the free engagement portrait session, there’s absolutely no obligation to hire Merrick Photography as your wedding photographer (although we’d love to do that, of course).

Thanks and good luck!

Amy & Jason will be tying the knot in June and, on May 17^th, we took a trip to the Memphis Botanic Gardens for their engagement portraits. I really enjoy and love these sessions; they are so much fun – and this one was no exception. They were simply wonderful to work with and we had a great time over the course of the afternoon as we made our around the gardens.

Shown here are a couple of images from the engagement portrait session and I’m really looking forward to Amy’s bridal portraits in June as well as the wedding itself.

The Memphis Botanic Gardens was the setting for Tiffany and Brandon’s engagement photographs. I love the gardens for the sheer beauty and variety of locations to be found there, and this was a beautiful day to have a romantic engagement session there.

I’m looking forward to photographing Tiffany’s bridal portraits there in a few weeks’ time, and am especially looking forward to their wedding in July.

Congratulations to Amber and Chad, photographed here during their engagement portrait session today at Shelby Farms, Memphis, TN.

I am honored to be photographing their wedding on Saturday and am really excited and looking forward to it.

It was great to meet with them today and we all had a great time hiking the trail around one of the lakes – despite Chad getting a fish hook caught in his jeans – looks like Amber really hooked her man!

Tomorrow, Thursday 21st May, I’m photographing Amber & Chad’s engagement portrait session in the lovely setting of Shelby Farms. The couple are flying in from California for their wedding on Saturday, which also promises to be a wonderful day! I will try to post some of the images here as soon as possible after the session…

My congratulations go to Erin & Joe, who are going to be married on June 20th 2009 – not very long to go at all now! I was very excited to photograph their engagement portraits on 16th April, starting out at the Memphis Botanic Gardens and finishing up with some unusual portraits at the Olive Branch Airport, where Joe taught as a flight instructor.

The Memphis Botanic Gardens is a wonderful location for bridal portraits, engagement portraits, families and children – and I am proud to be one of the photographic members of the MBG and to be able to take clients there who share my love for the beautiful landscapes and flowers to be found there.

I am really looking forward very much to photographing Erin’s bridal portraits in May, and then the actual wedding day itself. I’m sure it will be a perfect day!

I’m pleased to announce that Andrea & Tom’s engagement portraits are now available online at Collages.Net.

We had a wonderful time working with Andrea & Tom in downtown Memphis and I hope they enjoy their portraits as much as we enjoyed creating them.

To view the images, just click the “View My Event” link on the left.

We spent a wonderful afternoon on Sunday March 22nd 2009 in downtown Memphis with Andrea and Tom, on their engagement portrait session. Their wedding is on August 22nd 2009 in Colorado, but they really wanted some engagement portraits taken here in Memphis where they both live.

What a great day it was for photography – the weather was perfect and we found some great locations that really brought out their personalities and highlighted their relationship.

We spent about 3 hours downtown in such great places as Beale Street, Peabody Place, South Main etc. including a short trolley ride. The trolley driver even allowed us about 10 minutes to take some portraits on the trolley at the end of its run, which was a real bonus.

We finished up with some relaxed portraits down by the river as the sun started to go down.

Many thanks to Andrea and Tom for giving us the opportunity to work with them – it was a really fun afternoon.

How important are your engagement portraits in helping to make your wedding photographs successful? This is a very interesting question and one that all prospective brides should be asking themselves before they hire a wedding photographer.

The answers might surprise you…

If you’re newly engaged to be married, congratulations to you both! This is going to be the most amazing and emotional time of your lives! I know from personal experience what an exciting time this is – all the planning, romance and anticipation of your dream wedding day is ahead of you, and your wedding day is going to be fantastic.

One of the things you’re probably looking for right now is the right photographer for your Memphis wedding, but did you know that a properly conducted engagement portrait session could have a huge impact on the quality of your finished wedding photographs?

Now, I’m not talking about a basic snapshot for the newspaper announcement, but a detailed portrait session, taken on location, of the two of you enjoying life together as a couple.

But, I hear you ask, why would an engagement portrait session have any real effect on the wedding photographs? After all, the wedding day is quite some time in the future and is a completely separate event. Well, that’s partly true, but there are actually at least 7 reasons why the engagement portrait session is so important in making sure your wedding photographs turn out perfectly…

1. You and your photographer get to know each other:

The relationship between the photographer and their subject is an important and complex one, especially if the photographer is working from an artist’s perspective. In order for the photographer to create portraits of you that show your unique personalities and your connection to each other as a couple, he must first get to know you.

This is one of the reasons why the engagement portrait session is held on location, rather than in the clinical and detached environment of a traditional photography studio; it gives you and the photographer a wonderful opportunity to be your natural selves, allowing your true personality to shine through in all your images.

As you and your photographer naturally begin to connect with each other, this will show in the finished portraits. It also means that, on your wedding day, you and your photographer are already well acquainted with each other, which will lead to more personal and meaningful images from your wedding.

2. You become comfortable in front of the camera:

I will be the first one to admit that not everyone is a natural-born model! That’s one of the reasons I would rather be behind the camera, instead of in front of it. But, sometimes we do have to take on the role of model, and your wedding day is not the best occasion to try that for the first time! The stresses of your wedding are quite enough without having to cope with getting use to a camera being pointed at you all the time as well.

If you want your wedding photographs to be perfect, then it’s definitely worth spending some time to grow accustomed to your photographer and the actual process of being photographed. It really is a lot easier and less painful than you might imagine! Many people are naturally shy or self-conscious when someone points a camera at them, so I make a real effort to ensure that all my clients feel relaxed and happy while being photographed.

During your engagement portrait session, you will see how easy it really is to relax in front of the camera. I believe in allowing my subjects to just “be themselves”, rather than adopting awkward or unnatural poses, so the session is free of any unnecessary direction or weird poses. Many times, I use telephoto lenses to allow me to photograph you from a distance, so you don’t have that feeling of having a camera being right there in your face.

When the wedding day does arrive, you will know exactly what to expect, and it will help your day go so much more smoothly. You will feel more in tune with your photographer, which will show in your finished wedding portraits, allowing the true emotions of your day to shine through. 

3. It’s fun, relaxed and romantic:

As a newly engaged couple, the engagement portrait session is probably the first time you will be photographed together professionally. Your choice of wedding photographer will depend on many factors, but the primary ones should be trust and personal compatibility.

As you and your photographer create your romantic engagement portraits, you will quickly find out if they are fun to work with, if they can make the two of you relaxed, and whether or not they can capture the romance in your relationship.

When it comes to the wedding day, it will be as though you have your best friend photographing your wedding for you.

Can you imagine what a difference that makes to the final photographs, compared to a situation where you hardly know the photographer at all, because it’s the first time you’ve really worked with them? 

4. You get to see how the photographer creates photographs of YOU:

This one is so important, yet many couples overlook it. When you meet with your chosen photographer, or look at their web site, or view their samples, you’re looking at photographs and portraits of other people – not you. At this stage, you have no idea what your portraits will look like, how the photographer will capture your personality etc.

An engagement portrait session is the perfect chance for you to see just that – photographs of YOU, created by the person you choose to tell your wedding story.

When you work with a photographer who can produce images inspire you and that portray your deep connection with each other and the romance in your relationship, you know that the photographs on your wedding day are going to be better than you even dreamed possible. 

5. Engagement portraits allow for creative expression:

Wedding photography and engagement portraits are two different types of photography, yet they are intimately connected through you, the subjects. Wedding photography is all about capturing the emotions, story and family relationships of your wedding day, whereas engagement portraits are more personal and intimate – showing the depth of your relationship and your individual personalities.

The two types of photography are quite different and separating them into two distinct “sessions”, if you like, allows the proper creativity and artistic intent of the photographer to really shine.

Most wedding photography, with the possible exception of the candid photographs, tends to lean towards a traditional style in order to satisfy the needs of the many people present, including the immediate family of the bride and groom.

However, an engagement portrait session is mainly for the two of you, and it can be as creative or as traditional as you wish. Because the session usually takes several hours (although it always seems a lot less than that at the time), we’re able to create a wider range of images, from playful to whimsical, to traditional or more artistic portraits.

On the wedding day, we can take some of the ideas from the engagement portraits and incorporate them into some of the wedding portraits without having to spend valuable time to think up and develop the idea. In essence, the engagement session has become something of a practice session for the wedding itself. 

6. A different kind of emotion:

Everyone cries at weddings (even me, as the photographer!) – they are such emotionally charged events.

Emotions and tears at the wedding are expected, and can make for some wonderful memories, but the portraits we create at the wedding are subtly different to those we produce from an engagement session.

Engagement portraits are also full of emotion, but of a different kind – there are usually less tears and the mood is more carefree and playful.

These are the kind of images we might not be able to capture during the wedding itself, simply because the atmosphere of the occasion is different.

The two types of photography – the wedding and engagement portraits – complement each other perfectly to enhance each other. 

7. Everything is under control:

Your wedding day is more than likely going to be a date set in stone, and we can’t change it if the weather misbehaves. We can’t move the location to another place if the light isn’t just right, and we certainly can’t change the physical characteristics of the location.

But, for the engagement portrait session, we have almost total control over every aspect of the process. We ensure that we choose a perfect location or set of locations, that the weather is just the way we want it (no wind or rain), and we choose a time of day when the light is flattering and not too bright.

Just like in the theater, the stage is set, the lights are positioned and the backdrop sets the scene. All it needs is for the two of you, the cast of this wonderful play, to grace the stage with your presence and have a wonderful time with each other.

Now, if the conditions are not perfect on your wedding day, I will still create some wonderful photographs for you, but you will have the treasure of your prefect engagement portraits as well, to complement those from your wedding day. 

Engagement Portraits Are Important

So, you see, your engagement portraits really can make your wedding photographs more successful. Engagement portraits are so important to me, in fact, that I include them as standard in all of my wedding collections.

The diamond is forever, as they say – I believe the memories of your engagement should be too…

By the way, if you already have a wedding photographer for your wedding, but no engagement portrait session as part of your collection, then I will be more than happy to assist you by providing a stand-alone engagement session for a nominal fee. I will even work with your photographer to make supply your engagement images to be included in your finished wedding book or album.

For more information on my wedding photography services, please visit the Wedding Photography web site or call me TODAY at (901) 606-9105 for a friendly chat about your engagement portraits or wedding photography.