Engagement Session Dos and Don'ts

Do wear solid colors. Blue, green, red look good on everyone. Browns and autumnal shades look good on medium to dark complexions. Purple and pink work on most women. Pastels work on darker complexions, but have a tendency to wash out pale skin. If they are richer pastels, this is probably not a problems.

Do be careful with patterns. Certain patterns work, but nothing too loud. And be aware that your pattern may clash your partners.

Don't wear the exact same color (ex. both wearing red sweaters makes you look like you are in a K-Mart Christmas Card). Shades of the same color work though(ex. pale blue and royal).

Do go casual (jeans), which looks great and makes for a comfortable shoot.
Or
Do get decked out. There is nothing more fun that both of you dressed like you are going out to a fine dinner. Girls, be careful that you don't wear heals too high for you to walk around in though, as most engagement session require a bit of walking around.

Do match your styles. If your man is going to wear really casual, you shouldn't be in evening wear.

Don't wear over the top makeup or hair styles. You want to look like yourself...not a glammed out version of you.

Do only bring a smallish purse, as I will be carrying it when I am shooting you. It gets heavy with the camera bag and a big clunker of a purse.

Do bring lipstick or chapstick and chapstick for your man, as dry lips don't look good in pictures.

Don't be afraid to try a new location to shoot in. I love shooting in new locations and get some of my best ideas from interesting new areas.

Do schedule your shoot at least a month before your wedding date, so I can post-process the images and get them ready for any prints or sign-in books you might be ordering. I will call you to schedule, but do make it a priority, as your complementary engagement session will expire if you do not take advantage of it before the wedding.

Do have fun with it! It is a fun couple of hours that you get to have some professional pics taken with you and your fiancee.

Engagement Session Locations

I wanted to share some of my ideas for engagement session locations.

Old City / Penns Landing
Rittenhouse Square / Center City West
University City / University of Pennsylvania Campus
Art Museum Area
Love Park / City Hall Area
Philadelphia Zoo
Morris Arboretum
Ridley Creek State Park
Valley Forge State Park
Buck's County Community College Campus
New Hope

For a travel fee, we can go to the Jersey shore, NYC, DC, etc. Feel free to suggest anything, I love shooting in new locations!

Argentina Uruguay Slideshow

http://lorrainedaley.com/argentina/slideshow.html

Here are a few of our favorite pics from the trip!

Vacation sneak preview

I promise to have more pics up! The trip was awesome. The only problem is being back. The flight home was horrendous...I wound up barfing for the last half and hour of it, as was so turbulent, due to high winds. What would a trip be without a few bumpy bits? According to Greg, this is part of what makes it exciting (not sure I totally agree, but there is definitely some degree of truth to this).

Greg and I started out in Buenos Aires. The city is full of tree-lined streets, grandiose boulevards, sprawling parks, cafes to the max and lots of wine and meat. We stayed for 5 nights and ate like kings. We tried everything from traditional parillas (a barbeque with lots of meat) to trendy restaurants in the hip neighborhoods of Palermo Viejo, Palermo Soho and Palermo Hollywood. The city is quite affordable, but perhaps not as "dirt" cheap as some have implied. A great meal, with a pound of the best steak you have every eaten, with a bottle of Malbec and a salad, coffee and one desert is about $75-$90 for some of the best restaurants in the city.
We did a little clubbing as well. They still like the music Greg and I love in South America, so we danced the night away a couple times.

We then headed to the Mendoza region of Argentina, which is just to the east of the Andes. We could see the range from our hotel room. We stayed in an incredible hotel right in the city center for about $100 a night. We did two full days of wine tours. The first day was a bit generic, but we got a taste of the region. The next day was done by a group named Trout and Wine. It was one of the best travel days I have ever had. We visited 4 of the best vineyards in area and tasted well over 20 wines. I kid you not, there was not one bad one in the bunch. Malbecs are now up there next to Cabernets and Zins. If you enjoy white wines, I strongly suggest trying a Torrontes, one of Argentinas premier grapes. It is floral and sweet to the nose, but dry and delicious to the tast. We got to taste the grapes off the vine and my goodness, were they delicious! At the winery, Tapiz, we did out of the tank (pre-bottling) tastings....what fun! We also made our own blends at one of the winerys. Please do yourself a favor and get a bottle of Alta Vista's premium Malbec. You will not regret it.

Greg and I both loved Mendoza...it is a fairy large city (approx. 100,000) people, but the atmosphere is relaxed, the food is good and of course, the wine is superb and not to mention extremely reasonable.

After 4 nights, we were off to Uruguay for some beach action. We took the ferry to Montevideo, then the bus to Punta del Este, a posh beach town, known for its party atmosphere. We soaked up some gorgeous Uruguan sun (or at least Greg did). Suprisingly, there are some fantastic restaurants despite it being a seasonal beach town. We then headed over to Punta Ballena to stay at the amazing Casa Puebla, a white Suessian hotel perched on the side of small peninsular jetty of land. One of the views is pictured in the image above. There are more pics on the way.
We met so many beautiful people along the way, saw so many gorgeous things and tasted so much good food and drink. If you are thinking of a trip, please drop me a line, as I would be glad to share any of my insights.

Back

I am back from Argentina and Uruguay! I will be writing about both and putting up some pics once I catch up a little. In the meantime, there was an article in the Philadelphia Daily News about my wedding photography:
http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/39189942.html