Creative Shoots
A modern take on the Engagement Session. (And all the reasons you should have one)
I’ve been a wedding photographer for nearly a decade and for a long time I avoided doing engagement sessions. I picked up on how my couples found the concept a bit cringey, and to be honest I hadn’t really seen many examples that pushed back on this. I focussed on these ‘No’s’ and left it at that. That was until I realised how many untapped ‘yeses’ there were to be explored.
Yes 1: We can reimagine them to be something that actually excites you
If couples were finding the common concept cringey… what wasn’t cringey? We started brainstorming and came up with a million things. The Hong Kong wedding shoots of bridalwear glam juxtaposed on mundane urban scapes were a starting point. Couples’ own wedding themes became another (surrealist ball, colour-filled fabulous). I invited my couples into a process that helped them dream up cute editorial concepts that felt deeply, playfully them: ‘Hope-punk in late-stage capitalism’, ‘Modern Afro royalty’, ‘Indie Sleaze trash queens’. Or to simply weave in meaningful elements of their lives: their fur children, their craft, the local cafe and cornerstone of community during covid. The whole process became so much fun and the creative output sky-rocketed.
Yes 2: We can do things that just aren’t possible on your wedding day
My style of wedding photography on the day is largely documentary, (with a healthy peppering of joyful interaction and playfulness with guests). My goal is to let you be present and spend as little time away from the people you love. An engagement session on the other hand is not competing with these precious moments. Which blows our creative parameters wide open. We can travel to cool locations, wear crazy outfits, leap in the ocean, enshroud you in smoke, have multiple looks. There are infinite creative possibilities.
Yes 3: It helps you get more comfortable in front of the lens
I couldn’t tell you how many times my darling couples tell me “we’re so awkward in front of a camera”. I geddit. I much prefer being on my side of the lens. But what I also know to be true is the reality is far less painful than people realise. You get tangible proof of this when we do a shoot before the wedding. My observation has been that it also makes you so much more excited and relaxed on your wedding day.
Yes 4: You can use the content for digital / website invites
I’m seeing more and more couples creating digital invites for their weddings. This is clever for a bunch of reasons: it’s more affordable, more sustainable, and you can update and communicate new details as the event gets closer, as well as easily collect RSVPs and dietaries from guests.
Doing a shoot before your wedding means you can use the magic we create there on your digital invite. Moreover - if you’re having a themed wedding (asking your guests to really bring it with the dress code!) we can build this into the shoot and get you plenty of content to help excite and inspire your guests.
Yes 5: It’s still a moment to celebrate
Your engagement is a cute glowy moment in time. Absolutely worth celebrating. Let’s not let the fact we don’t see examples out there that look and feel like us put us off from picking up our paintbrushes (or camera in this case) and putting something out in the world that does reflect you. Let’s reclaim, reimagine and celebrate!
Yes 6: It’s an opportunity to make some whacky, beautiful, fabulous art
Once you see how deeply fabulous you look in what we create, you’ll agree you are indeed art. We can solidify that by turning it into wall art to hang in your home. Art filled with personal memories that make you giggle is the best kind.
Yes 7: It helped me design a concept for portrait sessions that could be used for anyone. Not just engagement sessions.
You don’t have to be getting married to have one of these shoots. It can be a couple shoot, it can be a portrait session with one of your besties celebrating your friend-love, it might be an ode to self-reclamation as a solo shoot, or it could be a gift to your beautiful mama or loved one.
The common thread is we plot and conceptualise something that ignites and excites you. Whether a juxtaposed urban-scape of glamour-trash, a cinema inspired vision or a frolic out in nature. Let’s make some unique portraits that feel colourful, quirky, joyful, and inspired.
Yes 8: What the punters have to say
“We weren’t planning for any pre-wedding photos; and although nervous we’re so chuffed we did. The photos! I actually can’t believe it’s us! And at the same time they feel so deeply ‘us’. Like the most authentic version of us, just extra fabulous. We thought we were reaching with our vision for a queer, playful, anti-bride, doco-style shoot.. and then we found Carly! She helped us do it our way, the process felt so fun and collaborative, and she made us feel so comfortable during the shoot. I feel everyone should experience this. Couples, singles, friends, lovers, engaged or otherwise. Everybody deserves to feel the fun, fuck-it-ness and empowerment of it. I think it’s actual therapy. With the gift of yourselves turned into exquisite Art at the end.”
––– Claire & Jackson
“To put 5 stars to our experience having a Creative Shoot with Carly is an understatement. Carly helped us connect with ourselves and the ‘more beautiful world we know is possible’. She is fun, magical, playful, and the fairy godmother of baby queers who guided us outside of set structures and frameworks we have inherited from outdated sources. The experience was a photographic documentary of love, celebrating the marvellous amidst the mundane.
The joy and intimacy she captured is exquisite. The photos are surreal, browsing through them felt like removing the filter of our inner critic and a quiet little declaration of what decolonisation, anti-patriarchy and non-conformity meant to us. Carly not only gave us a wonderful experience of a photoshoot and stunning photos, but also the permission to just be. We are super stoked and beyond grateful to her.”
––– Maxie & Matt
