Crystal + Craig \\ Durham, NC

Crystal and Craig walked around downtown Durham, NC with me a few weeks ago for some couples photography.  

For this shoot my goal was to challenge my own norm of using available light in a traditional way.  

For example, some of the first shots we did were in the basement of the 21c Museum Hotel. It's dark, florescent lights were everywhere and I had no flash.  I even set my camera to "Auto ISO". This is actually a scary thing for a photographer because you have no clue exactly how your camera will react in certain areas because of the inconsistent lighting.  I approached it with confidence in myself and my previous abilities though.  

Another example was shooting portraits in broad daylight.  I took Crystal and Craig and plopped them right in the midday sunlight for many of the shots.  This creates harsh light and it sometimes can make your subjects "squint" (which happened during this shoot).  I used the sun to back light them and luckily it worked out.  Seriously..it was luck.

Apart from the nerdy photography stuff, the shoot was so refreshing because I got to document Crystal and Craig's sincere, authentic love.  I found myself smiling so much while editing these.