Matt & Lauren
Various locations, Providence, Rhode Island
May 13th, 2024
A funny thing happens every year in New England. For months on end, you become accustomed to cold, dark and generally unpleasant weather. Then, spring allegedly arrives on the calendar but the weather stays the same. Finally, on a random day in May, the weather turns a complete 180 degrees and it's suddenly almost summer.
As a photographer, even if you know this to be true and prepare for it, the difference can be stark and startling. Such was the case on the Monday morning Matt, Lauren and I got together in downtown Providence for their engagement session.
Matt and Lauren are an adorable couple and super fun and flexible and thank goodness they were because the bright sun and warm temperatures caught us all off guard and were a struggle to get through. But, thankfully, there are always beautiful options and ways to beat the heat if you know where to look, a lesson I'm sure will pay off handsomely when these two walk down the aisle later this year at the tail end of summer ...
My time with Matt and Lauren began with a stop at one of Providence's newest but already most popular tourist attractions: The Providence Pedestrian Bridge. While this bridge has only been around for a few years, it's already proven to be a huge hit with residents and visitors to the Providence area and for good reason. It offers a beautiful few of the city skyline and lots of room to move around at your own pace to check things out.
This was the perfect place for Matt, Lauren and I to begin their engagement session as it gave us a chance to work out the awkwardness that typically comes with the start of an engagement session and had so many cool backgrounds to offer.
As much fun as the first half of Matt and Lauren's engagement session was, I could tell the two were struggling the same way I was with the bright sun and heat. Thankfully, after spending a little while regrouping before heading over to our second location, the soon-to-be newlyweds agreed with me to pivot from a plan of shooting at Waterplace Park (Which would have also been bright and sunny) and go to the Rhode Island Statehouse down the street again.
As soon as we walked over and saw some shade, I knew this was a tremendous call and one that would yield amazing results and I was right on both counts because this quickly became a completely different shoot once Matt and Lauren could relax a bit in cooler temperatures.
As my time with Matt and Lauren came to an end, I couldn't believe our little engagement shoot had turned into a two and a half hour adventure through two distinctly different and yet perfectly fitting parts of Providence. Turns out having lots of time to capture photos on an engagement session makes things so much more fun than the alternative and while I know I won't have this kind of time with these two when they get married in the summer, I'm glad we had this time for their spring engagement session as it helped make it one of my favorites this year.
So thank you Matt and Lauren for a lovely session together, despite the heat. I can't wait to do it all over again in a few months ... though maybe this time we'll make a point out of getting into the shade much quicker. :)