Arkansas Engagement Photos in the Ozarks. Elizabeth + Brandon

So here’s my struggle right now. On one hand, I want you to close your eyes and picture yourself at sunset standing on the edge of a 400 foot bluff while the spring breeze blows in and the last few moments of the sun’s warmth lays across your shoulders. I want you to hear the sound of the bird’s wings in the air as they fly overhead and the water dripping out of the springs in the rocks under you falling on the leaves of the trees below. I want you to feel what I felt yesterday throughout one of the most amazingly beautiful shoots I have ever been a part of, but honestly - first… I want you to see what I’m talking about…

This is Brandon and Elizabeth. About three years ago this guy crash landed into my life in a way only God could really make happen. It wasn’t a graceful landing and yet, I’ve realized over the course of the last few years that one of the things I needed most in my life was a little shaking. He’s done that, over and over as our team videographer - shake things up, but for all of the ways he pushes me and encourages us to grow, he is also growing a lot himself right now. Obviously this blog isn’t about him though, it’s about them. Elizabeth is a bit of a perfect counterpart for him though if I’m honest. She’s quiet, intentional, smart, beautiful. She’s deliberate with him, making him smile and laugh and flirt with her but never too much. The thing I suppose I can say the most about these two is that they seem to center each other. Brandon can at times be the guy who is too hard on himself. He achieved some pretty lofty things early on in his career and he holds himself to a standard that might not be totally fair. Elizabeth is also a bit brilliant in her own way. Talented at design and photography they found each other as kids and have literally grown up together. It’s a really interesting things being the guy who is simply fascinated by human emotion and watching clients, friends this closely. I’ve shot a handful of really close friend’s weddings in the past. Dave, Delyn, Justin - but this one seems different to me. I put myself in their shoes a lot, wonder if I’m enough for them. Put a lot of pressure on myself to be extra talented for their sake and then the reality hits that for as much as I care about their images - they are in this for the marriage. The photos are simply memories of this time in their lives. This shoot was special. Max - who has been beside me for 6 years now - is one of Brandon’s groomsmen but also came just to be a part of the evening with us. We drove and laughed and had fun, just the four of us as friends and then - when we got there, we shot. It was perfect, but not because the light and the wind and the colors and the love, just because it was real. Two people, perfectly in love with each other, willing to let their photographers capture it in the most creative and beautiful way. I can almost assure you, I’m more grateful than they are. They’ve said thank you a million times - but as you see this, so will they for the first time and the truth is I feel like I am the one who had the day I needed yesterday. Just to breathe and rest and enjoy my job and the way I feel when I get to do what I love to do - capture. I can say sincerely I am more excited now to shoot this wedding than perhaps any I have shot thus far. With my wife, and my friends, and so many people I know there to watch - these two are certainly a testament to the power of love.