Engagement photography in Ojai, California. Story follows the images…
This is Nikki and Daniel. Aren’t they so cute together? We had a grand ol’ time wandering around downtown Ojai, California for their engagement photography session.We picked two different looks, with a wardrobe change to suit the different environments.
We first started at a secret garden-like location, only blocks from the town center (one of the rare times I don’t reveal a location, because it was a tip from a fellow photographer). It was an area best described as a ‘semi-formal’ garden. Not a formal botanic garden, but more something that had been planned, planted and then only somewhat maintained. I think the unkept quality of the surroundings really created a forest-like atmosphere. Which is startling when you know how close this is to the main street!
Daniel proposed to Nikki at a bus stop, so after the garden we decided to wander through downtown and head to where it all began. The series of three images where they’re sitting in front of Spanish tile is the actual bus stop. Yeah, Ojai is like that with their bus stops!
We wandered around and shot some more, had some fun, and ended up having coffee at the Ojai Coffee Roasting Company. Nikki and Daniel are an incredibly fun couple, and this engagement shoot generated sooooooo many great images. I’m really looking forward to photographing their wedding this June!
Technical details: Most of the images were shot on my Mamiya 645AF with 80mm f/2.8 lens. I also had along my Nikon F5, on which I used a long zoom, and also a handmade Lens Baby-like tilt-shift lens. There’s a black and white image above, where they’re sitting on a stump and kissing in a grassy meadow. That was shot using this lens (which is why the edges are wonderfully blurry). This image was shot on color film and then converted to black and white. The rest of black and white was on Kodak Tmax 400, and all color was shot on Portra 400.
Family Portrait and Wedding Photography by Matt Haines, based in Ventura, California.
