Kaylin is a JFP bride that’s getting married this September. Since she and fiance booked with me last summer, I’ve seen her a total of three times…probably the most of any JFP bride before her big day! We’ve met for two different engagement sessions, one occurring last summer and then another in November. One was an engagement session filled with outfit changes, pretty backdrops and a few props. The session in November was a Christmas-themed engagement session that included a tree farm, a string of lights and the nighttime scene of downtown Cumberland, MD. Both sessions were beautiful (and tons of fun!) and both clearly displayed who Kaylin and Brad are as a couple. And yes, believe it or not, Brad agreed to two engagement sessions! He’s a winner in my book. 🙂

But happenings with Kaylin didn’t stop with two engagement sessions. In February, she emailed me wanting to do a mentor meeting. She had nephews, nieces and pets that she wanted to take pictures of…but not just any pictures, good pictures with a nice DSLR camera. We decided that even though her mentor meeting would be different from the ones I had done recently, it would still be a beneficial thing for her in her photography journey. We talked all about shooting manually, using a glass of water, a lens cap and her dog Oaklin as subjects. Kaylin seemed to understand fairly quickly the functions of ISO, shutter speed and aperture and how they worked together. I noticed her ability to focus while shooting and knew that when combined with her new ability to work with manual settings, she’d start getting some great images.

Kaylin’s “next moves” are to just practice shooting manually in different light situations…and to not always depend on a moving subject. Her nephew and dog are constantly on the move, which definitely creates a challenge, so I encouraged her to choose some still subjects once in a while to practice using directional light and various apertures. I think Kaylin’s desire to make things happen combined with the large amount of pre-mentor meeting practice will allow her photography to significantly move forward.

Here’s Kaylin and 5-month old Oaklin. He was so well-behaved for being a puppy. I was very impressed. 🙂

I think fiance Brad will especially love this picture. From what I understand, he loves Oaklin…and obviously he loves Kaylin, too. 🙂

A little solo time for Kaylin. Love this shot of her in her parents’ front yard…beautiful light…

And then the sun went in and cooled things down a bit…both in outside temperature and image temperature…

After shooting in some harsh sunlight, diffused sun and then cloud cover (we had it all that day…great white balance lesson!), we headed to the porch for some shade…and Kaylin continued to rock it for the camera. 🙂

I love this one! Kaylin, new Facebook profile pic I think!

Kaylin, we’ve been through a lot and your wedding is still five months out…but I’ve really enjoyed all our time together and I’m so glad we’re getting to know each other so well before the wedding day. If you need anymore pictures taken or if you have any other camera questions, you know who to call. 🙂 See you September, my friend!

Mentor meetings are pretty much for anyone! Whether you’re a business owner or someone who just wants to use your DSLR camera better, mentor meetings can be for you. I have openings for summer mentor meetings, so if you’re interested, check out this blog post and get in touch!