Davis Engagement Session | Ben & Marisa
I used to stress so much about engagement sessions when I was first starting out.
With weddings, a lot of the aesthetic decisions are already made. The location is set, the design is dialed, and the couple has their people around them. It is not all on me to carry the energy.
But an engagement session? It is just me and the couple. The location is on me. The pacing is on me. Somehow, I even felt like the weather was on me.
So I overprepared. I would bring props, preload poses, sometimes literally written in my phone, and always have backup spots in case we burned through the first one.
Now, 250 sessions later, it is funny how none of that really mattered.
Ben and Marisa’s Davis engagement session felt like a reminder of that.
We spent the evening wandering through open fields just outside Davis, chasing that soft golden light as it dropped lower and lower. No rigid plan, no overthinking. Just letting things unfold. The kind of session where one moment turns into the next without needing to force anything. A quiet walk, a laugh, a kiss in the sun.
And then, as the light disappeared, things shifted. Headlights cutting through dust. Their two dogs weaving in and out of the frame. The whole scene turning into something a little more chaotic, a little more alive, and honestly a little more them.
It was never about the location, or the outfits, or the props, or even the weather.
It is about roaming around with two people who love each other and photographing that slice of life. Paying attention. Being a witness.
That is what Ben and Marisa’s Davis engagement session really was.
Do dogs count as props? If yes, please bring.
