Engagement: Jessica & Ben

Don't they have beautiful eyes?! Jessica & Ben are just all around great people. Much like my husband and I, they met in college and had similar "geeky" interests. I can tell that they have a lot of fun with each other and love to goof around together, but like a lot of guys, Ben took a while to warm up to the idea of someone snapping pictures of him in unguarded moments (which, in my opinion, are the best kind). Generally, when I can tell someone is freezing up because of the camera, I find ways to get them focused on something other than me so that they can relax and their expressions can happen naturally. For most engagement shoots, all I really need is one or two good pictures of you looking into the camera, and the rest are me just getting to know more about you, your chemistry, your style of communication, and exploring different ways of photographing you.









Jessica & Ben chose the quaint town of Zionsville, IN for their engagement photos. Ben grew up here and had very fond memories of this Lions Park. It was really neat to listen to his stories of growing up in the town and how things have changed over the years. Does anyone miss teeter-totters as much as I do?? This was actually the first park that I've seen in a long time that still has one!!









Jessica's favorite place in Zionsville was the Ganache Chocolatier and now I'm kicking myself for not getting pictures of them in the window while the shop was still open!! (Note to self: check hours of operation in advance!) It was also really cold that day, so we spent some time warming up at the Eagle Creek Coffee Company while Jessica & Ben got to preview the images from the park on my camera's LCD. After we had warmed up a bit, we headed back out for some shots using the interesting textures and colors downtown.





One of the things that Jessica had told me about in advance was how much she loved Ben's "monkey face"!! I just HAD to see what she was talking about!! You can even see Jessica trying to imitate him... this just cracks me up!!!



Well, I can't embarass others without also embarassing myself, sooo..... one of them said, "wouldn't it be funny if someone stuck their head in the lion's mouth?" I said, "I'll do it if you do it!!" So we all stuck our heads inside in the lion's mouth... and yes, I handed my camera over to them and let them snap this oh-so-lovely picture of me with my head in the lion's mouth!! Yes, I'm a dork. ;-)