love is in the air

I did an engagement session for Lizzie's deaf friends yesterday.  The purpose behind mentioning they are deaf is because I had this very cool experience of doing the entire photo shoot without talking, very unnatural. I did talk a little bit, and since Lizzie is an interpreter for the sign language impaired she was able to get us through just fine.  It was a lot fun, I had to sit back and let things happen, I like to do that anyway, but in this case it wasn't an option to direct the scene, not much anyway.  At one point during the shoot, I told Lizzie to tell them to talk to each other, you know, to get them to look at each other, get them interacting and she reminded me that they'd have to sign, sure enough we sat there for about 10 minutes with them signing, I learned Marne's favorite food and the names they have picked out for their children -- all with Lizzie's voice. Let me say that these two were so stinking cute with each other, I feel like I captured their love pretty well. To see the entire gallery go to my website, and all 87 pictures are there. Ok, on to a few pictures.   Let's start with my set up: I shoot with a Canon 40D, today I had on my 70-200 f/2.8 lens, and a 430ex flash. In this first one the bland sky ended up giving this picture that high key feel, and I loved the way it worked out.  aperture, 2.8, iso 400,  no flash, metering mode on partial.  The only adjustment I made in CS3 was to adjust the levels a tiny bit to bring in some contrast. They are actually looking away to see what Lizzie is saying here, their looking away gives it a little more of that photojournalistic feel that we love (or I love) so much.  

For this picture to work, I focused on the horizon, which left them fuzzy - intentionally. I added an antique filter, I suppose to create a little mood

This is my favorite for the day, why are sunsets so romantic? To get the silhouette to look perfect I  exposed for the sky. The lens flare to some might be distracting, I love it right where it is.  I felt plain lucky to have been at Back Bay at this moment.