Engagement Photography

Fearless photographers see past the obvious—and, as in this shot, sometimes force viewers to look past it, too. The photographer posed the couple just past a rift in the foliage, then let us see only their big smiles in profile.

The giant smirking face on this mural would surely be hard for any photographer to resist. To keep the red face from overwhelming the couple, this photographer posed them in front of the yellow yo-yo. Having them dip put their heads in just the right spot and elicited a good giggle from the bride-to-be.

As the vast, everyday world sprawls out below them, this couple looks completely lost in their private mountaintop reverie. The soft, neutral tones of the couple's wedding-day attire made this setting, in all the same colors, an ideal choice. A quiet harmony builds through the subtle use of color and the gentle post.

Engagement photography at the Washington Monument in Washington DC

A colorful couple gets a colorful engagement portrait. Perfectly suiting their blue and gold outfits (and her stunning blue hair), the photographer selected a soft green and yellow background. The snuggly pose, with their faces partially obscured by her flipped-up locks, feels natural and intimate.

Engagement photography is a chance for couples to celebrate the love in their life—and for many people, that includes the love of their animal companions. As their human friends smooch in the background, these two pups posed perfectly in the evening light. It's a warm, sweet shot of the whole family.

The underwater setting makes this an unexpected wedding image, but it's the outstanding use of all the other elements that really makes it special. The couple is beautifully posed and lit, the composition is spot-on, and the addition of a man swimming past in the far lane adds more than a little humor.

The play of shadows and highlights make a strong graphic statement in this charming backlit portrait. The photographer brought softness to the composition by including the circular steps at the bottom of the frame and a dancing pose for the couple at the top of the frame.

We can't figure out where, what, how, why or when. We only know who - the bride and groom - in a torrent of light and water that takes us out of our world and into another.

Whether it was shot from a drone or a bridge, the high perspective still feels fresh and unexpected. Clearly, the photographer also invested some serious time in planning and preparation to get the couple beautifully posed in an unstable environment and almost perfectly aligned with the plane's shadow.

Posed far off in the distance atop a rock, the bride and groom occupy almost no space in this composition—but the arching palm frond in the foreground tells us a lot about the tropical locale of their event. Almost as though the frond was a building that housed them, the photographer has opened a door between two leaves and allowed us to peek in at the secret moment.

Against water shown as dark as a starry sky, the couple seems lost in each other. As we observe from far above, the white deck slices through the frame, transporting the couple—and us along with them—to a magical place.

When you choose a national landmark for a background, it only makes sense to bring that same proud spirit to the rest of the image. Posed on the lip of the Grand Canyon, the couple's embrace is beautifully backlit. The same light through the flag caused it to glow. Shooting right into the sun also added flare that softened the gritty scene for a more romantic look.

They may be soaked to the skin, but this pair is clearly embracing the downpour and loving their time together. The photographer caught them in a tight, laughing embrace under the umbrella and let the flying raindrops fill the foreground. The light, pastel tones throughout the frame give this shot a wonderfully soft, romantic look.

By exposing for the bright highlights, the photographer pushed the bulk of the tones in this scene into the shadow realm. The result is a graphic, low-key image that plays the woman's brightly lit profile—and swooping hat—against the silhouetted profile of the man in the background. It's an attention-getting (and keeping!) presentation.

Images that make the viewer do a little of the work can be quite compelling. That's the case with this unusual reflection shot. The two different angles of the Vespa's mirrors give us two different views of the same subject. It's not how we're used to seeing the world, and we like the little surprise.