Tony + Emily: Metro Detroit Engagement

My brother called me late the night before a wedding. I didn’t answer. I needed sleep. He left a message. I figured I’d check it in the morning. If it was that important he would just text me.

Bad sister.

Around noon the next day I was sitting in a church pew waiting for the ceremony to start and my mom texted me, “Call your brother!”

Ok, ok fine… I stepped out and before I could dial his number, he called.

“I proposed to Emily and she said YES!”

“Oh, is that why you called me?”

“Obviously.”

“Oh, little bro you’re getting married! I have to go shoot another wedding now, Congrats!”

“Thanks.”

My brother and I have never really needed that many words to communicate with each other. It just is. And I wasn’t completely surprised; more excited. But I had another couple ready to walk down the aisle and I had to focus on them.

The fact is I always knew it would be Emily. I knew by the way my brother looked at her. There was never a question in my mind.

Jay (that’s what we call him) and Emily were brave enough to bare the cold and take orders from me on a cold November day at Stoney Creek.

This is Oakley, she is adorable, hyper and supper loving. My mom got to wrangle her for the day. She asked not to be pictured. However I still have some blackmail photos saved for later…

When it’s November in MI, it can get pretty grey out. Especially in the sky. I wanted to work in golden hour light however, because the sky was so grey (see more below) there really wasn’t a good amount of sun shinning during Golden Hour. So, how do you fix this and still make faces pop against a grey backdrop AND pull out color in the leaves? Over-expose +1 or +2 stops. Why? It makes colors muted to blend into the background but doesn’t blow out Caucasian skin tones. Another tip: Use a long lens. The 70-200 f/2.8 is magical for shots like this. I was also laying on the ground.