Whitby Engagement Shoot – Jennifer & David
Jennifer and David wanted to do their engagement shoot at Whitby. This seemed like a wonderful idea. At the time.
It was the perfect plan right up until the day. It was mid February. It was -17 degrees C with the wind chill factor. Luckily Whitby is full of coffee shops and tea houses so we were able to take frequent breaks. So good to gorge ourselves on hot drinks and cake; after all, what is tea without cake, I ask you?
I knew that we were a match made in heaven when we parked up at Whitby. I’d ambled away to pay the meter and said something typically silly that I instantly regretted. After all, I had been trying so hard to be serious and professional. Perhaps another person would have tried to correct themselves, but not me. Time to double down! I looked at Jennifer and said “well, you’re stuck now. No ‘normal’ photographer for you!”. “Good”, she said, “didn’t want one”. So we paid the parking and walked into town.
It’s Not The Setting It’s The People
The day was lovely, and both Jennifer and David really enjoyed themselves. Whether that was down to the photography, the photographer, the anticipation for their upcoming wedding, or the hour spent on the 2p arcade machines I’ll never know.
It took us a short while to get into the swing of things. Jennifer quickly relaxed in front of the camera but the first half hour of pictures were pretty much a write-off. While Jennifer smiled happily for photos, be it at the lens or her fiancé, David did not. David’s unmoving, mildly terrified stare gave him a serial killer air that is not ideal for romantic portraiture. We joked that we should do another shoot with him as Jack the Ripper. We never did get round to that.
He did relax eventually, which I suppose goes to show the importance of doing an engagement shoot. Better to get the camera nerves out of the way before the wedding!
Whitby Engagement Shoot
Once we were all into the swing of it, we went up to the Abbey. It was beautiful as always and a great setting. The couple are into their old goth music so it was all very fitting. Later, we stopped for some lunch, invariably more tea, and later the arcade. We explored the pier, and the whale bones at the top of the hill. By this time it was growing dark but we got some cute images overlooking one of my favourite towns.
We had a fantastic day and it was a great practice run for the wedding. The wedding was another incredible day, but this time at Wynyard Hall.
