Sunshine. Not something we see much of on a regular basis in Michigan. But for a whole WEEK, we had our February thaw and all that blizzard snow melted away (although yesterday we got a bunch more...). It was perfect timing for the shoot I had scheduled with Ashley and Jerrad. Originally I was supposed to be doing their wedding, but sometimes plans change and it worked out that the two of them could meet me in my newly leased studio in Grand Rapids for an awesome couples shoot!
We started at the studio (which is fabulous, by the way, and I can't wait to use it again for multiple shoots I've got coming up this spring!). I was meeting Ashley for the first time, and she turned out just a sweet as I thought she'd be. Jerrad went to high school with me, so I knew him from back in the day. They were fun, easy going, and had lots of fun ideas to work with. I can't believe how much fun I had during this shoot!
After our studio time was up, we headed out into GR and did some photos by the river, at a spot where the train tracks cross the Grand River. There's a lot of fun graffiti on the walls of the warehouse nearby. Then we made one final stop at another warehouse just next to the apartments at GVSU's downtown campus. Despite the warm sun, Friday was WINDY (yes, in caps and italisized!), which you can see in my first ever "blooper real" after the regular post.
Jerrad and Ashley (and Jerrad's brother, Ronnie, who was along for the ride) had to head back to their home in Virigina that day, where Jerrad serves in the Navy. What a long ride! We wrapped up around 1:30, although after all the waiting to do photos, I could have went until dark! Right now, they are on vacation in Vegas, so now they have some awesome photos to come home to! Thanks guys, it was a BLAST!
^Ashley is just gorgeous!
^This green chair was a prop in the studio... love it!
^Ahhh, aren't the just adorable!?
^Jerrad was really rocking that serious look. Nice!
^Doing a little silhouette action...
^Jerrad is hilarious, here he is going for something like Ashley's last pose. I think he nailed it.
^They wanted to do the "heart hands" together but Ashley was frustrated because her hand wouldn't make the heart! Jerrad filled in for her!
^Time for our barefoot part of the session...
^Really liked this one. Clever!
^Jerrad wanted to get Ashley up on his shoulders for a few shots. She wasn't too thrilled. He got her up there, but not without some danger... check out the bloopers for more on that...
^They liked these crates, so we got a few with them.
^LOVE!
^The halo we were getting her was great!
^I didn't really notice the red graffiti going so well with Jerrad's shirt until post processing... but I like it!
^I absolutely love cute couples. These two are just so adorable.
^Obviously we were going to for more of that "urban" look when we found this "sketchy" door.
^Jerrad said he didn't think he knew how to dip Ashley... yeah, okay ;-)
And now, just cuz we had some fun ones like this... our "Bloopers" or just a few fun shots I thought I would share!
^I hope Ashley doesn't hate me too much for including this, but it was so much fun! I took tons of Jerrad trying to steady her up here, she was a little nervous. We had so much fun at our shoot!
^The studio had lots of props, including this... we never really figured it out, but Ashley looks good using it as a wig!
^A little jump shot, nice kick, Jerrad!
^Here's Ronnie, who was helpful watching the clock and holding my keys. He was showing off some of his skills as well.
^Compliments of the wind!
^Ronnie climbs the overpass...
^There goes that wind again. We thought the building would block it, but I'm pretty sure it just made it worse.
^Now THIS takes some muscle!
^Hopping off of the warehouse...
^...and climbing back up!
