Something Different

When it comes to family...

Let me preface this post by saying I’m not really into event photography - especially when it involves trying to make people happy. I meddled with wedding videography back in the 80’s and discovered that sort of thing just wasn’t for me. While I do enjoy the challenge of capturing people ‘being themselves’ (not posed or scripted), I don’t really want the weight of disappointing people who have expectations in mind hanging over my head.

However, when one’s youngest son asks if you’ll photograph him proposing to the young woman he has been dating for several years and intends to marry, it’s time to step up to the plate and do what you can. Thankfully, I know my son and his fiancé (ooh!, I can say that now!), are deeply appreciative people and would be happy with anything I could do for them. So, this past Saturday, I had an opportunity to photograph my son proposing to his, now, fiancé (I’m kinda liking the sound of that!).

We were at Kings Gap Environmental Center, in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. It was a dreary day with on-again, off-again drizzle and rain. Celeste had no idea what was about to transpire as Corey and their friends had effectively kept it a secret. Photographing the event was a little challenging as the leaves, being fairly new, were a rather vibrant green and the light gray sky created a backlighting with which I had no experience (especially noticeable being at the top of the mountain). And, not knowing how the Fujifilm X-T5 would handle the situation I had my fingers crossed.

All in all, it was not only a treasured time to experience, it was a good time of learning for me; and I came away loving my X-T5 even more. I used my Fujifilm 16-80mm f/4 lens as I wanted the added versatility my 7Artisans 35mm prime lens could not provide. The photos were shot in RAW and lightly edited in Lightroom Classic. I did have to edit out a bunch of raindrops on several of the shots due to the shutter speed being such that they looked like short diagonal lines (if you look closely at some of the photos, you’ll see some that I did not remove).

I think things turned out well, all things considered and, I’m especially thankful they did as my wife wasn’t able to be present due to being in New England for several days dog sitting for our oldest son and his wife, and visiting her family.

I’ve rambled enough. Sorry. So, without further adieu, here are some of my favorite shots from the day…

No bubbles as Corey didn’t shake the bottle, but I caught the cork in mid-flight!

Capturing the iPhones was not staged at any point in the day. They were just giving me room and I thought they made the images more interesting.

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