Recently engaged and planning on eloping in the near future, friends Andrew and Miranda asked me to shoot some portraits of them. Since they both are currently having a long distance relationship due to Andrew’s new job in DC, the two only had a short window of opportunity to get photographed with the cherry blossoms in the district.
We planned to have a shoot early on a Saturday morning during the peak of the cherry blossom season. Since I previously learned my lesson regarding shooting at Hains Point, I asked them to come over at 9 am so we could carpool to DC.
The traffic was light that morning since the looming clouds and rain showers kept a lot of the tourists at bay. We parked near the end of Hains Point and found some lovely trees to shoot near.
For this shoot I did a combination of natural lighting and artificial lighting. Since the sky was overcast, the sunlight was nicely diffused. When I used flash, I had my loving and patient wife play the part of my voice-activated light stand (“Move two steps closer!” “Dial down to 1/8!”).
I think my favorite shots came using the flash. Being able to dial down the ambient and then compensate with the flash added some nice elements to the shots.