Over the past year, I’ve gotten to know Stephen Knuth & Scarlett Lillian a bit more, and meeting them again and hanging out more at WPPI 2010 run by George Varanakis earlier this year we ended up solidifying plans to shoot their casual portrait session.  They came up to San Luis Obispo and we set up their engagement session at a few of my favorite outdoor locations.  We also hit up Farmers Market in San Luis Obispo and they loved it there, eating popcorn and buying produce/flowers.  They wanted a true rustic golden California afternoon/evening.  The weather cooperated perfectly and we had a beautiful day.  We shot for 4 hours, which went by SO fast! (as shooting usually does)  We had rented a 1973 Porsche Targa from J. Andreu’s Collectible Motorcars and it went perfect with the vibe of the day.  It added a little bit of flare for their sporty personalities.  My favorite part about shooting with them was how much fun they had, we laughed, as we shot and got to know them much better.  Shooting people is one of my favorite ways to get to know people fast.  Their true self comes out, all the elements that make up who they are and what they are like.  Its easy to judge people by what you see in life, but what you personally experience with someone is objective and their love for each other is genuine.  Its great to see how they honor each other and really strive to put serving each other above serving themselves.  I must give credit to the California Sunbounce products used here, the sunswatter for the rust background walls and the sunbounce for all the shots we did.  My sweet wife Rachel and our assistant Jen helped us out on this shoot.

Scarlett loved kissing Stephen on the back of the neck.

This is my favorite hill to shoot on! (my secret location)

Rachel actually shot this one below here, she is such a great photographer.

Just as the Porche was leaving, I grabbed this shot.  Risking getting run over, it was totally worth it.

Red Velvet?  Yea, its their favorite kind of cupcakes, so what better than to celebrate with those to end the shoot.

To cap things off, we did a night flash shot.  When I do these shots, I love to have a horizon line that is above their heads.  I shot this with a 50mm 1.2 @ 1.2, 1/50th, iso = 400 w/ 2 580exII flashes at 6′ high at 15′ away at an 80 degree angle from the camera at 1/128 power.

Thanks guys for such a great enjoyable day and for treating us to dinner afterwards!  We really enjoyed capturing you guys and hope your engagement period is a blessing!

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