Brainard Lake Engagement Photos | Rachael + Felipe
This Rocky Mountain Lake session with Rachael and Felipe was the perfect example of making an engagement session a fun date night. We drove up above Boulder to Brainard Lake and had the shoreline to ourselves. Of course, they had to bring their dog Lobos to share in the family fun. The evening was a perfect warm temperature to enjoy a drink of champagne and celebrate their new engagement among the rocky mountains with a gorgeous alpine lake as their backdrop. On the way up to the location I even spotted some moose along the road! Nothing says high altitude engagement like wildlife along the drive.
For their outfits, they did such a great job of choosing colors that would go really well with the background. Felipe wore a pink-ish brown as a pop of color but it still worked so nicely with all of the tones of the environment around them! Between the blue mountains, the deep green trees, the lake, and the rocky beach their outfits went so well. Felipe’s shirt was such a nice contrast and brought out some of the warmth in the environment around them. Amanda brought a hat and she wore it for some of the photos but took it off to mix it up in others. Rachael chose a short white dress with a beautiful silhouette that felt summery but also very on theme for an engagement session. I really love that I could use the darker colors Felipe wore with the contrast of Rachael’s dress to pose them and have contrast.
I really loved that they included their dog as part of their session. I often get asked if it’s okay if couples bring their fur babies and the answer is always YES. I particularly like to select locations where dogs can walk around. By nature they do best when they are able to roam a bit and it always ends up great if a dog can be in a more natural state of living so it depicts the moments with them more naturally.
When thinking about the when and where for your session, if you are going to be somewhere like the Rocky Mountains you want to keep the time of sunset in mind. If a mountain range is your background the sun will “set” behind the mountains a lot sooner than the predicted sunset time and will affect the lighting for your session. Once the sun sets below the mountains you will be in blue hour which has a completely different look and feel than golden hour. Blue hour feels a lot cooler because there is no direct light while golden hour will bring a golden haze and glow to your photos.
This session was a blast! I think recreating a date and making it into a session is so much fun and feels so genuine. It represents you and your partner and what you love doing together. If you choose to do something for your session that you are used to you will likely already be comfortable and have a good time naturally without having to force anything at all. If you are looking to do this with your partner for photos ask yourself what you do for date night, do you two love hiking? Kayaking? Going on picnics or going to the movies? Making brownies in your kitchen and dancing together? Going to your favorite coffee shop? It could be anything and everything. Whether it’s your first date like Amanda and Chris did or a date that you love to go on with your partner, consider recreating it and getting photos! It will be so meaningful to your relationship and they are always so much fun to be a part of because I get a sneak peek into what is special for the two of you.
