Blog— 2022 —
Roger Williams Park Engagement Photos
Kimberly & Ray
Roger Williams Park, Providence, Rhode Island
September 8th, 2022
I tell every couple whose engagement session I shoot that I have two goals for our time together. First, I want to get them 2-3 photos they can use as a save-the-date. This number makes the entire shoot super low pressure and takes the stress away from my brides and grooms to "perform" or be anything but themselves on the shoot itself.
Which is also the second thing I stress. More than anything else, I want my couples to be who they are in real life when they're in front of my camera and sometimes, as was the case on the morning I worked with Kimberly and Ray at Roger Williams Park in Providence, that "real" side takes a while to come out.
Kimberly and Ray will be walking down the aisle in May but their early fall engagement session was a wonderful chance for us to celebrate a special achievement for the bride and really get to know the couple and make them comfortable in front of the camera.
And when they were comfortable? Boy, were they a TON of fun to be around.
Kimberly and Ray's engagement served a dual purpose. Not only were we there to document their love story a few months before it turns to a new and exciting chapter but we were there to congratulate the bride on her recent achievement of graduating as a registered nurse.
I loved incorporating this part of Kimberly's life into her engagement photos and could tell how proud she was on this milestone and how proud her soon-to-be husband was of her for putting in the work to achieve this dream.
It was also a great starting point for an initially shy couple to "warm up" a bit and I could see their anxiety and nerves melt away as we switched over to the engagement photo portion of their shoot at the Temple to Music at Roger Williams Park.
Speaking of Roger Williams Park ... man, what a great location for this early September session. Regular followers of this blog will know that Roger Williams Park is one of my go-to locations for an engagement session but I'm especially proud of the ways in which we were able to make Kimberly and Ray's session uniquely them.
I particularly love the silhouette photo taken above at the Temple to Music but my low key favorite spot was a little while later when we pulled over at a random spot on the road simply because it was covered in shade and looked nice.
And, wouldn't you know it, those turned out to be some of my favorite shots of the whole morning.
That's not to say we didn't still hit up the classic spots of the park as no visit to Roger Williams Park is complete without a stop at the Japanese Gardens.
The fun thing is this is where Kimberly and Ray really started to let the quirky side of their relationship show and, feeling much more confident in front of the lens now, these two future newlyweds really let their weirdness shine and I loved every second of it.
If I had to choose my favorite part of Kimberly and Ray's engagement session, though, it would be on a random winding road near the entrance of the Japanese Gardens. I didn't have much expectations for this part of the park and only stopped there because the light looked nice but this little eight-minute detour on our visit produced a bunch of shots that I really think sum this couple up best.
Kimberly, Ray and I wrapped up their engagement session on the famed Iron Foot Bridge and, honestly, at that point we had everything we could have asked for and so much more.
If the purpose for most couples getting an engagement photo session is to find their comfort level in front of the camera, Kimberly and Ray really knocked it out of the park and I seriously can't wait to see what they have in store for the biggest of big days come 2023.
In the meantime, all I can say is thank you Kim and Ray for an awesome fall morning shoot and I hope you enjoy this coming winter and holiday season because you'll be walking down the aisle in no time and I. can. not. wait. to be there to see it happen. See you guys next year!
-Paul J. Spetrini
