One of the things I ask at all my consultations are if my couple is interested in doing an engagement session what they want to do. Well for Keith & Alison they had some specific ideas which were super exciting. They are very much into wine and wanted to do a session at a winery & also do part of their session at Keith’s work. Keith is a helicopter pilot for the army and flies Apache helicopters. When they told me about this I was got very excited and my first question was will the military allow me to take photos of their helicopters. I was assured by Keith that as long as I wasn’t taking photos of the inside there would be no issues. So we started planning and it quickly became clear the first part of their idea wasn’t really going to work out due to the time of year we were doing their session. Alison had reached out to a local winery asking if we could take photos in their vineyards and they politely said yes but because it was early spring the vines would be pretty bare with no leaves and certainly no grapes on them. So off to plan B which was do the session at Nisqually Wildlife Refuge in Lacey which is near JBLM base making it easy for us to get from one location to the the next.
Well being that the session was in early March we had our next challenge the weather to deal with. Our first date looked like rain so a couple of days before the shoot we decided to call it which was bad on my part since we ended up having a pretty decent day oops, never again I will always wait till the day of to call a session from now on. The next date we picked was looking OK but the Friday before it I ended up testing positive for the flu virus so not taking any chances I canceled so I didn’t get anyone sick and could rest to get better. Finally on our third date it worked out and the weather was looking promising with maybe some actual sun. Sadly the sun never showed up but we didn’t have any rain till the very end & the session turned out amazingly! I am so excited for their big day in May it should be a great day!
At the end of the session as it was starting to get very dark Keith asked me if I wanted my photo taken in front of the Apache… not many people ask me if I want my photo taken on a session so it kind caught me off guard but I was down documenting proof of that I was there. Thanks Keith for taking this photo of me in front of your badass helicopter!
Nisqually Wildlife Refuge in Lacey is a lovely location for an engagement session. But March was particularly wet this year in Washington State so how great you found a dry day. What a great idea to pick a place near JBLM Base so you could get a few shots of Keith in his uniform and helicopter.
This military engagement session is absolutely stunning! Your photos truly reflect the love and happiness this couple feels for one another.
Beautiful couple and you did such an amazing job photographing this engagement session! I love that they were able to use a helicopter – how cool is that!
This is TOTALLY AWESOME! I love when an engaged couple is up for a little adventure, and an engagement session with an Apache helicopter is total awesome sauce! The Nisqually Wildlife Refuge in Lacey is also a stunning location — love those barns (or grain houses?) Soooooo cool!
What a cool experience to be able to take engagement photos of the couple in front of Apache Helicopters! Too bad you weren’t able to go flying. I really liked your backup location at the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge in Lacey — the boardwalks and barns were w perfect backdrop for this engagement photography session.
I love this military engagement session!! Nisqually Wildlife Refuge in Lacey looks like the perfect spot for their session and I love that Keith’s career with helicopters was incorporated!