Some locations are just walls and light. Others carry weight.
Orlean Market is the second kind. It’s where Megan and Zach had their first date. It’s where Zach proposed. So when Megan won my free engagement session giveaway and told me she wanted to go back there, the answer was easy.
We met in Orlean, Virginia on a mid-afternoon that delivered exactly what you hope for when you’re photographing people outside. That golden, glowy light that makes everything feel a little warmer and a little softer. The kind you can’t manufacture.
We started outside the building, then moved inside to the bar, and finished out in a nearby field. Three completely different backdrops, all within reach of a place that already means something to them. There’s something I love about shooting in a location a couple actually has history with. It takes the pressure off. You’re not performing for the camera in a pretty place. You’re just back somewhere familiar, and the camera happens to be there too.
The light by the end of our time in the field was doing a lot of the heavy lifting. Warm, hazy, mid-afternoon glow that wrapped around them in all the right ways. The photos feel like a summer afternoon, the unhurried kind, and I think that’s a pretty accurate reflection of who they are together.
Congratulations, Megan and Zach. Thank you for sharing this place with me.
