Alberta Street Engagement Session, Portland, Oregon Photography

For Quinlyn and Ren’s engagement, we photographed the majority of the session on Alberta Street. They had, however, recently moved into a new house, so we started there with some casual shots on their front porch and in their backyard to commemorate their new place. Afterward we drove over to Alberta Street for the remainder of the engagement session and just strolled, stopping at cool spots along the way. Alberta Street is a wonderful location for an engagement session because it has so may beautiful murals tucked away and fun shops and bars to explore. Just for fun, we decided to stop in at Cruzroom for a beer, hung out by the fire pit, and kept things casual for bit. It’s always nice to have a little time like this in the middle of the session to just hang out. Even though the primary purpose of an engagement session is, of course, to get great portraits of the couple, it can also be an excellent time for the couple and the photographer to form a bond so everyone feels that much more comfortable during the wedding while collaborating on the photographs. Alberta Street also happens to be one of Quinlyn and Ren’s favorite places to hang out, so having the familiarity of place, I think, also helped them feel that much more comfortable with the process. When it comes to your engagement session, I always encourage couples to think of a place that has some sort of meaning to them, or at the very least a new place that would be exciting to visit, because it will ultimately make the photographs that much more special. 🙂 — KC