Marianne Wilson Photography Blog

Frances + Mike pt. 2: Rustic Engagement and Wedding Shoot

Marianne — Tue, 01 May 2012 21:34:25 +0000

And….here is the 2nd part of Frances and Mike’s engagement shoots. To get even more looks in they decided to add another session and shoot in the Malibu hills on a 2nd day. This day was a little more peaceful than our crazy L.A adventure. Frances brought a collection of one of her favorite things…hats! So we played with some hats, a gorgeous red chaise, and had fun with all the little special touches Frances put in to this 2nd shoot.

Frances + Mike Pt. 1: Downtown Los Angeles Engagement

Marianne — Tue, 01 May 2012 20:05:19 +0000

I’m not going to lie, some pretty crazy things went down at the first half of this two-part Engagement Session! You would never know it by Frances + Mike’s glowing smiles and super fun attitudes, which is a huge testament to how awesome Frances + Mike are! But, we just have to tell you all the “behind the scenes” story on this shoot:

Part 1: The Homeless Lady Prom Pose: Frances really wanted to shoot in an antique store. She found one and it was great, but we only had 20 minutes to shoot in there before they closed up shop. That’s pretty quick! So we are shooting around when Joe notices that a homeless woman is talking to the store manager. No big deal, we shoot on. Then she starts heading over toward us and the couple. The lady starts talking with Frances + Mike (I mean, who wouldn’t? They are awesome!), so Joe runs interference and talks with the homeless lady about ALLLLLL sorts of things (turns out she has a small white tent across the street in a parking lot for her dog, who is also white, otherwise she wouldn’t bother with the tent and… etc.) as he walks her out of the photo. Marianne shoots, Joe shmoozes the lady, all is well. She finally says “ok, well I have to get going” and starts walking away. Joe turns around and starts shooting again. As it turns out, this lady had some strong opinions about what an appropriate pose is for an engagement shoot in an antique store, walked right over to Frances + Mike, and could not be dissuaded from setting them up in the most severe case of prom pose awfulness we have ever seen. So… that happened.

Part 2: Drive-By Photo Gang Verbal Assault: We moved on to the Arts District in Los Angeles, happy to put that scene behind us. We are shooting Frances + Mike against a cool ivy wall when a car full of people drive by screaming every expletive known to man and waiving their cameras out their windows in what we could only interpret as some sort of a photo gang equivalent of a drive-by. Mhmm, that went down and we lived to tell the tale. We are hard like that. Canon thugz fo’ life son!

Part 3: Random Racist Comment Lady: Have you ever had a moment where someone said something to you that was so out-of-nowhere overtly racist that you just couldn’t help yourself from stopping in your tracks and dropping your jaw and being like “Whoa! Did you seriously just say that”? So, we are still shooting in the Arts District. Some random lady walks up and asks Joe “so, is this an actual shoot for something?” This is not an unusual question for us as we frequently find ourselves shooting good looking happy people out in public, and the public can get curious sometimes. So, Joe responds “Yes it is…” and before he could finish his sentence to say “an engagement shoot for this lovely couple!” she snidely asked “For what? The Korean times?” In yet another testament to Frances + Mike’s awesome attitude, when Joe told them about the comment Mike jokingly stated “At least she wasn’t like ‘Hey, look! It’s Jackie Chan!”

So, that made for an interesting shoot! Check out the photos from part 1 of this engagement session. Part 2 will be following shortly!

Haley + Brian: Balboa Island Engagement Session

Marianne — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 18:40:24 +0000

Haley + Brian really wanted to shoot at Balboa Island for their Engagement Session. While we were shooting in front of Haley’s Grandma’s house, we found out that they had actually spent their first date people-watching in the exact location that we placed them for one of our first stops of the day! It was so much fun shooting while they relived that first date and reminisced about the things they had done and seen from that very spot. Then we walked around and it was so cool to be listening to their stories about Balboa Island, particularly the community-wide division over the major political dispute about which store actually made the first “Balboa Bar” (an ice cream on-a-stick with various dipped toppings). We may have also ended the shoot at a random laundry mat where we told them they were hiding from zombies in some sort of impromptu apocalyptic scenario…..we may have done that. It was a really great day and we can hardly wait to see them again for their Hummingbird Nest Ranch Wedding in Simi Valley this summer!