The engagement photo shoot was a lot of fun! We met our fabulous photographer, April Greer, at Dragonfish in downtown Portland first. Since I am really uncomfortable having my photo taken, I was really going to need a drink before setting out. Luckily, Dragonfish has some delicious drinks which totally helped.

I'd originally planned on just wandering around either downtown or the Pearl, since I didn't know how far we'd probably go with the wandering. Surprisingly (to me), we really took most of our photos in about a three block radius of Dragonfish. The weather was oddly cooperative as well; even though it had been raining for a bit and really windy before we started taking photos, when we started really wandering around outside, the sun came out and stayed around for the rest of our session.

Not surprisingly, I don't really know how to pose and stuff for the camera. I still felt uncomfortable, despite my delicious drink. April was really great in that she totally gave us direction when J and I just kind of sat there and looked at each other. It was really helpful, especially when we felt really awkward taking photos in public. People really like to stare! Also, since they were engagment photos, it was kind of like just making out all around the city. Not terrible, but kind of awkward with people watching.

The funniest part of the afternoon was when we were taking some photos in the park blocks. April had J and me stand in the grass on this small hill, and as we were trying our best to look like a pair of lovebirds, this homeless-looking guy (girl?) wandered by and yelled at us, "get a room!" J and I just cracked up.

Also kind of funny about the day was that there was this couple taking wedding photos in the same area we were! I couldn't tell if it was the actual day of their wedding or it was a day-after shoot or anything. We took our photos on a Thursday, so it's likely that it was just a day-after shoot. After watching that couple's photographer (and stylist, who was following them around and positioning the couple and making sure the girl's dress fanned out properly...weird!), I am really glad we have April doing our photos. The other couple's photos seemed really weird and oddly posed. I'm sure they will turn out ok in print, but watching them being taken was a whole different matter. In any event, we made April promise not to make us take photos like some of the ones we saw. She said that was no problem, heehee.

Anyway, the photo session was great! We really felt less awkward as the time went on, and I think it will probably reflect in our photos. April told us it would probably be about two weeks for the proofs to be done, so I was really surprised and excited when she sent me a few sneak peeks on Friday! I posted a few below.

So there's our shoot! I am really excited to see the rest of the photos. April is the best photographer ever!