Beautiful spring flowers  engagement

The snow is melting and my favourite season is just beginning. One of the photographs that sums up my joy for spring has to be from Gemma and Ben’s spring flowers engagement session in Lausanne. Shot as part of their pre-wedding photo session, it combines beautiful light with a natural but unusual pose. This is one of the reasons it is so memorable to me. I have my go-to poses but here I saw an opportunity to experiment quickly in between locations and it worked perfectly. Here’s how it came to be.

The story of the photo

Gemma and Ben wanted to have their pre-wedding photo shoot in a field of flowers but we were too early for the alpine meadows. With their wedding coming up in June, we searched for somewhere lower down that would still have that natural, wild feel. By chance, Ben came across this wild flower meadow just above Lausanne. It was exactly what we were looking for and also gave stunning views over the lake.

We met up on a warm Saturday afternoon in May and scouted some locations. To start off, and warm everyone up, we did some more traditional couples’ photos in the shade of some trees and sitting in the long grass. Just as we were about to move off, I caught a glimpse of another photo in my mind. To capture it naturally I had to set up a movement and hope that my couple would be relaxed enough to just respond. This is something I often do to keep people at ease and make the shoot more enjoyable.

I asked Gemma and Ben to walk away from me in the flowers, then turn walk back hold each other at arm’s length, pause and then spin in. It was more complicated than I would normally ask but I could see the image so clearly in my mind that I just hoped they would be up to the challenge. Throughout the whole movement I kept shooting and then the sun hit my lens and I knew I had the perfect, romantic—but not cheesy—photo.

Natural poses for real people

You would have thought that nowadays, when everyone seems to be photographing or photographed continuously, it would be easy to capture natural moments. But we are also programmed to smile as soon as we see a camera turned in our direction. Capturing natural poses of real people is really important to me. I want to discover each person’s own unique way of being in front of my lens. And so, if I make you do silly things or complicated actions then the goal is always to get you to laugh—or react—as only you can. In doing so I can feel as if there is a little bit of your personality in each picture.

Discover the story behind some of my favourite engagement photos, check out the links below or visit the Story of the Photo page. If you would like to book a wedding or couple’s photo shoot, get in touch to check availability.