Are you dreaming of creative engagement photos in Old Town Scottsdale?

The word creative gets tossed around so much that it can often seem like a lazy way to describe something, but a session like this reminds you what it means to be truly creative.

CREATIVE /krēˈādiv/ (adj): relating to or involving the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work.

When Adrian and Jesse first approached Earth Below Photo for an engagement session they wanted to emphasize the idea of creating with me. They didn’t want photos just because it was the normal thing to do, in fact it was quite the opposite. They specifically let me know they wanted to create real art through the images. The day we met in Old Town Scottsdale they were just as much the artists as I was. Every direction and idea I threw at them would come back at my camera lens with their own personal twist. When a couple has as much interest in the art of photography as you do it tends to add a little accelerant to the creative fire in your  heart. 

Adrian immediately let me know that she wanted the end result to be something out of a Wes Anderson film. She requested lots of color with a developed on film feel. Jesse on the other hand took on working the art of posing, a skill he had learned as a child model. To make their creative engagement session dreams come true I made sure to capture the two of them in colorful settings and unusual poses. You can most clearly see the fruit of our collective labor in their stoic poses outside the Saguaro Hotel and the far off shots of them dancing on an Old Town Scottsdale sidewalk.

We had planned to create these photos together long before the onset of COVID-19 and due to the restrictions in place here in Arizona, Old Town Scottsdale was assuming the look of a ghost town. The indoor setting of Sugar Bowl Ice Cream Parlor that we had originally planned to involve in our shoot was closed down to the public. I had to make sure to keep myself at a distance from Jesse and Adrian and not get too deeply swept up in the dance of making creative engagement photos that I forgot the reality of our situation. 

That being said, this opportunity to create collaborative art with an intrinsically creative couple like Adrian and Jesse was a welcome reprieve from the monotony of #quarantinelife. I think all three of us left the session with our minds a little clearer to the possibility of brighter days ahead, and after all is that not what creating is all about? Is it not, at its core, a coping mechanism, a way of capturing the human experience, that traces its roots all the way back to even the first humans long, long ago?

I look forward to capturing your own unique human experience, wherever you are… whenever you are ready.