Kate and Cory - Engagement Session, Gatlinburg TN

I have been waiting excitedly to post these sweet images of Kate and Cory out enjoying nature in the Smoky Mountains. These images are very close to my heart since Cory is my cousin and I am so excited to have the honor of capturing this special relationship, not to mention when they say their vows in June! I have a strong feeling this will be an emotional day for everyone and I'm sure will get choked up at some point...

Since they are currently living in Colorado we originally thought there was no way to do engagement photos but then I remembered we would all see each other in Gatlinburg for our family vacation during Thanksgiving week. Then the anticipation and excitement grew for everyone, not knowing where we would shoot and what the weather would be like. Kate brought a lot of outfit options and she gave us a fashion show the night before while choosing each piece :) This is always an exciting type of session for me, to shoot in a new place and discover scenes as we go along so here are my favorites from our slightly overcast day that ended up being gorgeous and full of perfect moments!

Lens Baby for art sake

I took some personal time one afternoon (which is a VERY rare occasion!!!) and went to the French Quarter to just mess around and realized I had never really used my "lens baby". Its a funny little lens, with small bellows which you can bend and squish in all different directions which creates a distortion around the edges of the frame. This is how you control the focus, it is completely manual, no buttons or settings. My collegue Jamil gave it to me a long time ago and I had always been curious about it, never used it much since the application is more artistic than anything. Walking around I found some interesting textures, patterns and just funky stuff and had a blast! Here are a few favorites...