Just before the holidays, I went down to New York City to photograph Sylvia & Ricky’s engagement session.  I love the City, so it was totally a great excuse to go down for a quick trip!  Plus, it was fun to shoot in a new place with such a different feel from the usual Boston-area eSession.  Not to mention that Sylvia & Ricky are awesome, and totally fun to hang out with!

Sylvia wrote me right after the shoot…  “I just wanted to write and say thank you so much for coming down to NYC to shoot our engagement session!!!  We had *so* much fun shooting with you … and on our drive back today we were talking about how it actually kind of felt like a (v. non-traditional) date!  We’ve been kind of bogged down with work and wedding planning stuff … so it was a really refreshing and much-welcomed break.  I can’t wait for May 1!!”

I loved that!  I hadn’t really thought of an engagement session as a date before, but it really is.  A chance for us to hang out together and get to know each other, and a chance for the couple to hang out and focus more on each other than on the wedding, or on the busyness of life.  These sessions are really fun for me, and for my couples.  Not to mention how helpful it is on the wedding day to have shot together already.  This is why I make engagement sessions “mandatory” for all my couples!  ;)

The original plan for the day was to walk around their old neighborhood and hit up some of the locations that have been important to them in their relationship.  Then we realized that we were just going to be hopping from one restaurant to another ;)  After scouting out the area a bit more, we decided to start out at Milk & Cookies in the West Village and just walk around from there.  It was a cute little bakery, and the cookies were DELICIOUS!  However, I didn’t get a ton of photos there because I was stuffing my face ;)

After stuffing our faces with chocolatey goodness, we walked around the neighborhood and found some cool buildings to use as backdrops

Haha!  These guys are so much fun!

After a little walk, we jumped in a cab (and no, it did NOT turn out to be Cash Cab), and headed over to the High Line. I was basically in love with the sunlight coming in over the tall grass.  You can ask my friend Lauren who came down to assist, I was totally giddy!

I can’t totally put my finger on why I love this shot so much…  It’s the light, and the color, the depth of field.  But also the stoic, motionless feeling – even though they were walking away from me.  There’s just something about it!

These guys were awesome!  Two random older gentlemen sitting on a bench, painting in the sunset…

And now, back to our regularly scheduled engagement session…

We got off the High Line and walked around the Meat Packing District a bit.  I’d never visited that area of New York before, but I totally liked it.  If I had millions of dollars, I’m sure I’d shop around there all the time…  haha!

haha!  These guys crack me up!

So sweet!

Oh, I loooove my 50mm f/1.4!

Love is the answer, you know

It’s nice that when the sun went down, the buildings provided me with plenty of light :)

Sylvia & Ricky – thank you so much for taking me down to NYC, and for the yummy cookies, and for the fun afternoon!  Lauren & I still talk about how much fun the whole day was :)  It was wonderful getting to know you both better, and I am SO looking forward to the wedding this Spring!!!

To view more of my favorite images from this shoot, check out the album on Facebook or Flickr.