Aimee & Stuart’s Engagement Shoot

Where do I start… we had dogs, horses, giraffes, birds, and of course our lovely couple Aimee and Stuart. We had a lot of fun. We started out at the stable where they keep their horse, Ringo. It was my first time shooting with a horse. Ringo is a BIG horse. It was like shooting with a truck. He’s so beautiful. Can I tell you… horses don’t backup too easily. Ha! We had a good time with Ringo and he got lots of Carrots, so everyone was happy. From there we headed out to the Jacksonville zoo. We wandered around the zoo a bit and got some fun shots. It’s always a good day when I get to work at the zoo. I took the kids with me, too. So, while I was shooting, they got to wander around and see the animals. Over all… a very good day. Here’s some highlights.

This was the funniest sign! I had to take a picture of it.

This shot was a gag cooked up by Stuart. He called me a few days before the shoot and he say, “I want to play a joke on Aimee and I need your help”. I’m never one to turn down a prank, so I was in. Basically… when Stuart asked Aimee to marry him, they took a few snapshots of him on his knee with the ring. They were having fun taking pictures and Stuart wanted to pretend like Aimee was asking him and was on her knee. Aimee thought that was silly. Stuart tried to convince her that it’s a “standard” photo that all wedding photographers take. She refused. So, the gag was, I was supposed to seamlessly ask her to pose like she was asking Stuart to marry. I said, “this is fun shot that is a standard that we all get… I need you to get on one knee and pretend like you asking Stuart to marry you”. Of course, after Stuart was like, “see I told you they all get this shot”. ha! I think we played it well.

I would like to title this one, “Bird Man”. We wanted to get a shot of a bird on Aimee’s ring hand to show off her ring as well as the bird. This is way trickier than it seems, especially when the birds are cooperating. When we got in the aviary, the birds were all sleeping and not wanted anything to do with anyone. Even with food in hand. Nothing. Next thing I know… they all want to be on Stuart. I think at one point there was four or five birds on him. We still had a hard time getting on on Aimee’s hand. They all wanted to go to Stuart. It was pretty funny. I think Stuart was digging it, though.