Chicago Beach Engagement Photos

Chloe and Frank had an incredible session capturing some Chicago beach engagement photos.

You would not believe it from the photos, but the beach near North Avenue beach was packed. We were able to find a small space as the sun was setting with not too many people. I chose a tighter 85 mm lens to avoid getting crowds in the background and we did a fun toast on a blanket. (plastic glasses on the beach)

Chloe and Frank wanted more candid styled photos on the beach so I just let them hang out and have some fun and I just captured the moments.

Chicago Beach Engagement Photos with reflections!

There was a cool pier area that was in stunning light and as an added bonus it has puddles so I could get reflections. I freaking love reflections haha.

Chicago Beach Engagement Photos with a City View!

After some fun photos in the sand we headed across past North Avenue Beach to the Chess Pavilion area.

This area is a favorite of mine any time I want to do Chicago beach engagement photos. It gives a lovely view of the city and there are nearly always wet areas for more reflections and creative photos.

Natural Light vs Flash

I had photographed the first set of photos with a very candid style using natural light. But now I swapped to a more posed style and totally different look with some off camera flash set up next to Chloe and Frank. This helped separate them from getting lost in the busy city background. In this industry there are endless arguments over “natural light” only photographers and “technical off camera flash” shooters. Generally photographers lean towards one or the other. After 24 years in this business, I prefer both and swap to whatever the light at the moment needs. In a perfect world I love natural light, but when it is not there and it’s getting dark and you want to get the rich sky and not loose your subject as a silhouette a little bit of flash is awesome. For this Chicago engagement session I used both styles.

It was a little windy so I did not have the luxury of a nice big soft box. It would have blown over. I chose rather to use a small Canon EL-5 flash with a grid from MagMod and just give Chloe and Frank a little pop of light to separate them from the sky without lighting up the whole scene around them. I feel control of light is often more important than power. It’s actually amazing how much can be done creatively with small portable lights and a few modifiers to shape the light.

Here are a few more favorite photos from the evening. If you are interested in a Chicago beach engagement session get in touch with me.

 

Chicago Beach Engagement Photos