When Lauren scheduled she and Jonathan’s fall engagement session for October 12th, I knew we were going to hit the colorful fall season at exactly the right time. Garrett County, MD fall tends to be a little earlier than the surrounding areas, so shooting just before mid-October is usually the best for foliage in our neck of the woods. As I drove around Garrett County in the days leading up to their session, it was confirmed. The leaves were really colorful and peak was upon us!

After driving around our beautiful area day after day and oohing and awing over the leaves from the window of my car, I got an idea. What if we just drove around the lake and took pictures at every beautiful spot we saw!? There were so many beautiful spots, so it was hard to just pick one, or even a few. I wanted to give Lauren and Jonathan the best, most colorful fall session that I could, and was so happy when they agreed to my newest invention: A Drive-Around Session!

We met at my house and used my neighbor’s yard first. They had a sea of yellow leaves in their backyard and a bright red and orange tree in their front yard just bursting with color. It was definitely a sight to see! After that, we got in my car, I gave them a condensed tour of Deep Creek Lake, and we took pictures whenever there was a colorful backdrop. Sure it was a little bit more work than a normal session and we were in and out of the car about five times. But I think Lauren and Jonathan can agree…it was a great way for the three of us to get to know each other, it added an element of adventure and they got to see some of the real beauty of Garrett County. 🙂

First up, my neighbor’s backyard! Look at this place! Quite magical, if you ask me. 🙂

I love their choices of yellow and navy against this fall backdrop…

Oh the black and white…especially the one on the right! Lauren and Jonathan look so good in black and white…as you’ll see throughout this post…

How cute are they!?! They were so friendly and so willing to love on each other a little for the camera…even if it was a completely new thing for them. 🙂

Looking lovely in black and white again!

Now for my neighbor’s front yard…

This tree! BURSTING with color!!!

More black and white goodness!

Lauren and Jonathan love Harry Potter, so they wanted to incorporate that in the session. We found an old house with lots of colorful leaves along the road during our adventure, and it made an appropriate setting for some Harry Potter reading…

Lauren made those paper flowers! I told her she should definitely make some bouquets for the wedding day.

This was our third stop for the session…

I think we need to repose this on their wedding day. 🙂

Our fourth stop! More roadside colorfulness at the lake!

I don’t think Lauren knew she could pull off the “model look” so well! Now we know to do this again on the wedding day!

My favorite thing about this portrait: Lauren’s hair sweeping in the wind. 🙂

Our final stop…docks at the lake.

It wasn’t until the very end of the session that I discovered Jonathan had hot dog socks on! I’m a sucker for unique and fun socks, and I encouraged him to wear them on the wedding day. 🙂

I forced myself to use my 70-200 2.8 lens during this session and it really paid off! All those close-up black and white portraits that I love? All shot with this lens! Including these final portraits to close out the session…

Lauren and Jonathan are getting married in May and I’m so excited to get them back in front of the camera! They were able to have fun and laugh and snuggle together, but also get a little more serious…and it’s so awesome when a couple can do both! They’ll see a larger variety of portraits in their collections because of it, and I’ll be able to take pictures of them for days! Thanks for coming on my little adventure in Garrett County, you two! See you in May!