Jennifer Bowen Photography » Engagement, Wedding, Portrait & Family Photographer // Scottsdale, Phoenix Arizona

My 2010 wedding season officially kicks off this Saturday and I’m excited to photograph so many super cool couples this year!

One such couple is Jenna and Jimmy, and they are getting married later this month at the always gorgeous Royal Palms Resort & Spa in Phoenix. I recently completed their custom-designed Guest Signature Book from their engagement session images and I wanted to share.

These books provide such a nice alternative to the more traditional guest books where people simply sign their name on a line. They get to see all of your favorite engagement session images and write you nice sentiments in a professionally printed book that you can keep forever. Some couples opt to provide the questions that guests can answer and others prefer to leave some or all of the pages blank.

I use a professional lab that uses higher quality papers than you can find online with consumer sites, plus it lays completely flat, so guests don’t have to worry about funky writing angles. Plus all the books are completely custom designed by me to showcase the images from YOUR engagement session and YOU. Since no two couples are ever exactly alike, neither are engagement sessions and hence the final books.

I’ve been playing with a few of the free actions from Totally Rad Actions and loved the way these two looked processed this way. Combo of Troy action & bag of dirt texture, masked out (removed) from them. What do you think? It’s kind of sultry! Im typically not a big fan of washed out images, but I think the effect can work on some certain ones. I have purchased several of the Kevin Kubota Action sets over the years, so I’m sure there is a way to achieve a similar look with his, coupled with my own textures I have, but I will say this made it fast and easy.

I find I only use about 10% of the entire Kubota set because I have found my favorites over the years and how I like to process images, but I think I’ll add this look to the mix for select photos. Especially ones like this…

Photogs: for more information on actions you can purchase, and in some cases download and try a few free ones, check out www.gettotallyrad.com or www.kubotaimagetools.com

Kiley and Daniel, who are getting married this fall, rocked their recent engagement session! I had a lot of fun with them over in Old Town Scottsdale, where I shoot a great deal mostly because my clients see my sessions from there and like the look of it. It was fun trying to find new spots as well as sticking with some staple areas that I know always photograph well.

This was also one of my first sessions with clients where I used my new Canon 1D Mark IV camera. I’ll share more of my impressions with this camera in a blog post later this week and why I made the switch from the Canon 5D Mark II (or at least added this to my bag). I was nervous about such an investment in a non-full frame camera, especially when Canon rolls out cameras every year or two, however I can say with absolute certainty that I have no regrets after seeing how it handles, and the images it produces right out of the camera.

In the meantime, here are some of my favorites from their shoot. I have a lot!

I couldn’t decide which of these I liked more so I included both. I love all the feeling in these.

Thanks for such a great session guys!

Jenna and Jim are getting married this March, and we had so much fun at their engagement session a couple weeks ago. They are both so incredibly sweet and kind and I am looking so forward to their big day!

I recently met up with adorable Jeanette and Darren for their engagement session. We went to the Arizona Biltmore where they got engaged and had so much fun! They are getting married this March at the Sanctuary Camelback Mountain Resort and I’m looking so forward to their wedding. Here are some of my favs from the day…

LOVE this next one…

Jeanette had these fantastic red shoes on that I just loved!

‘Tis the season for engagement sessions! I travelled out to Orange County, California in mid December to meet up with Erica and Steve for their engagement session. They are getting married this October at Silverleaf Club in Scottsdale, but both live in LA and wanted to do their session out there. We had so much fun exploring San Juan Capistrano, a town I had never visited before. There were so many fun historic buildings there, so it offered a lot of variety photographically. We had planned to also go into the historic Mission to try and take some images, but since we didn’t have an appointment, they wanted to charge us $75 to use the grounds, so we decided not to spend the extra $$ and moved on to Laguna Beach. It was actually a blessing we left when we did, because the light drops over the horizon earlier in California than it does here, so we had the perfect amount of time left on the beach!

Erica knew of this quirky little petting zoo in town, complete with this shack that reminds me of that spooky house on LOST. You know, the one where “Jacob” lives. Or as Steve said, one look inside was like Poltergeist.

We figured when there is a bathtub on a porch, what else do you do but get in?

I loved this whole set of them on this random person’s stairs.

After San Juan Capistrano, we moved to Laguna. We went to The Montage Resort there and just caught the setting sun.

This shot is an HDR image of two exposures: one for the sky and one for them on the bench. The bird was luck.

Then we headed down to the beach, and Erica was a trouper for wearing shorts because it was cold!

I felt this next shot called for a little texture…

Taking advantage of the last remaining light with high ISO

We came back up and warmed up by the fire with a glass of wine. Ironically, The Montage had just finished a commercial shoot for their brochure and had some real props in place by the fire, including all the fixings for smores! How perfect, because Erica and Steve made s’mores together on one of their first dates, so it was especially fitting. They made me one too and it was yum – sticky and chocolatey, just like it should be.

Thank you for such a fun time Erica and Steve! I cant wait for your wedding in the fall. :)