Pine Lake is one of my favorite places for an engagement session

If you’ve followed my blogposts or looked through a few pages of them, you’ll notice how many of them feature Pine Lake, my home town.

This photo from a Pine Lake engagement session recently won a WPJA Diamond Award.

Redfin contacted me recently asking me if I knew of any great places to take photos in the Atlanta area.

My response?

You guessed it. I sang the praises of Pine Lake. My comments about Pine Lake appear in The Unique Angles of Atlanta: Explore Your City One Photo Op at a Time on the Redfin site.

Under the trees in Pine Lake.

Atlanta engagement photography

Blank wall — a favorite engagement photography location:

One of my favorite spots for engagement photos, actually for any portrait, is a blank wall … a mostly blank wall. Actually most walls, even ones that are one color, are not really completely blank.

Little Five Points

Example: Drew and Shea’s engagement portrait was taken against a red brick wall in Little Five Points. The texture and pattern in the bricks adds to the image without distracting from the couple.

High Museum of Art

The neutral wall of the High Museum made for a simple background for this stoic portrait of Nav and Kathryn. The lines on the wall and the tree added compositional elements to draw the eye to the couple.

Atlanta engagement photography

Inman Park

This white brick wall in Inman Park provided a clean backdrop, as well as the repetitive compositional elements of the window frame. The plants between the sidewalk and the street add a sense of depth to a relatively flat image.

Nav and Kathryn's Winn Park/High Museum Engagement Session

Nav and Kathryn say they’re “cut from the same cloth” and “bring out the best in each other.”

What more can you ask for in a life partner?

Knowing how Nav and Kathryn felt about each other, Kathryn’s family helped Nav set up a surprise engagement near a cabin in the mountains. “They set up a beautiful tent hidden in the woods with fake fur blankets on the ground, and lights strung along a path,” says Kathryn.

“Of course, I said ‘Yes’.”

“When I met Navaneeth, I was immediately drawn to his unabashed laughter, his calm confidence, and of course, his man bun! Each day, I grow more in love with his kind thoughtfulness, how much he loves our cats, and his insatiable curiosity. I can’t wait to officially celebrate finding my soulmate.”

— Kathryn

“When I met Kathryn for the first time, it was like meeting an old friend I had lost touch with. I remember being distinctly aware of just how different our backgrounds were, but even more so of how right at home I felt. She was (and is) remarkably bright and lively, sassy as hell, kind beyond measure, and honest at all costs. She made it so unbelievably easy for me to be myself. I’m lucky to have met her, and can’t believe I get to spend the rest of my life with this wonderful human being. ”

— Navaneeth

See more engagement photos.

Engagement Session Fun at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens

We were delighted when Irene and Travis chose us to take their engagement portraits. They were hell bent on having the photo taken at the Botanical Gardens, and we were hell bent on making that happen for them.

Their first date was at the gardens. Following their visit to the gardens they ate at the restaurant on the grounds. They had to wait two hours, because they hadn't made reservations in advance. Waiting for the table just gave them the chance to get to know each other better.

You can see in these photos that spending a little extra time together paid off well for both of them.

It's always fun to see a photo of the photographer taking the photo. At least if you're a photographer, it is. Photo by Sharon McMahon.