Mt. Hood Engagement Portraits // Timberline Lodge, Government Camp Oregon
If I haven’t mentioned lately how much I love being an engagement and wedding Photographer here in Oregon … well, I LOVE IT … SO. Darn. MUCH!
A couple months ago I did a Landmark Location Engagement Session Giveaway ( I run those from time to time on my IG) and I made room for two sets of winners. Z & C (using first letters to respect privacy) were the first to win!
I got such a kick out of their engagement story,
“We don't have a cutesie engagement story. Although it is very us. We'd been thinking about getting married for a while and one day just decided that we were now engaged!”
Like, can you get any more unique and honest!?! Haha. But after getting to chat with them and checking her out on IG, I knew this was a great fit because they love the PNW and go on a lot of adventures in the area. ut also because of how laid back they were.
We chatted on the phone for quite a bit discussing their relationship, when they were getting married and how excited they are to be merging their two cultures. We also talked about the engagement session and after naming several landmark locations, C decided he wanted to do the session on Mt. Hood in the snow. He loves cooler weather and it fit them perfectly.
They were coming from Tualatin and I was coming from Salem so we decided to meet up near Clackamas and just ride up together giving us more time to chat and it was great! We had so much more in common than I thought and there was barely a few quiet moments all the way up to the Timberline Lodge. I love LOVE using Timberline lodge because weather can be tricky and if the weather doesn’t cooperate, the lodge is still an incredible setting for a portrait session (plus, they make the BEST hot cocoa I have ever had!).
Those chose to start the session in traditional Indian attire to honor Z’s culture and then C got to wear his flannel in the end representing his “man culture”, haha! Timberline Lodge has several locations/settings for weddings and we were able to sneak up to the Ravens Nest which was empty and snuck a couple photos before heading outside! Though C was very nervous in front of the camera (pretty typical for the guys), a beer from the bar helped him tremendously and he did incredibly! I also use a technique when someone is really nervous where I only take photos for 1 minute at a time then we move, we talk, we STOP THINKING ABOUT THE CAMERA and after just a couple cycles … they are warmed up!!! Works like a charm. Look how fun and playful these engagement photos are and look at C by the end … that is a really genuine smile!!! After we parted ways, Z sent me an excited message,
“Thank you so much for the photoshoot. We had such a great time. I’ve never seen C be this comfortable in front of a camera before”
Mission Accomplished!
