Ragen and Austin won an instagram contest I was hosting for a free engagement shoot. You see, even though it’s cold and dreary outside, I want to show the world we can still capture some breathtaking engagement portraits! Ragen had a cool idea for her session: smoke grenades! I’d photographed smoke bombs once at a bridal session so I had a little experience with it {pro tip: know for sure which way the wind is blowing before you light the smoke grenade and visually plan where you want the smoke to be in your image}.

The shoot was a total success! Even though we only photographed for about 10 minutes (again… cold, but I don’t need much time to rock out a great e-session! I’ve done it a few times before). It also helps to have Tyler on location with me to assist, which brings me to pro tip #2: have a cute photo assistant there with you to hold the smoke grenade and run around with it if a sudden gust of wind comes from an unexpected location.

And now, on with the {smoke} show…

Talk to you soon,
Dale