tetbury engagement photos bex and chris

Is Westonbirt Arboretum the perfect Autumn location for an engagement photo shoot?  Imagine all the faraway trees you possibly can. All with rich, warm, deeply coloured crisp Autumn leaves about to fall. Finding the best engagement photography locations is one of my big hobbies....and its worth it.. a little like the efforts that movie makers go to find the perfect location for the latest Harry Potter. The Arboretum near Tetbuty in Gloucestershire has it all.... lots of wonderful walks, over 18000 trees of national significance and above all great diversity which makes it so easy to find the right colour leaves to match the clothes and get a huge variety of of unusual and amazing engagement pictures. I don't think they host weddings here .. but they should!

Bex and Chris both love being outside and walking  and they looked so natural and at home wandering through the winding woodland paths taking their time and enjoying the low raking sunlight which makes such beautiful autumn engagement photos.

Oh my... I just love those giant trees, so old with long branches that meander across the ground to greet you and welcome you into their arms. We were looking for branches to lead the viewer in to the couple within a big landscape photo, and here, right near the end of our couple of hours making engagement photos together we stumbled upon just the sort of tree I was dreaming of. The daylight was drawing to a close and I held the camera on the floor opening the shutter for 1/4s and we all stayed stock still soaking up the atmosphere around this this awesome tree and trying to imagine what he had lived through and witnessed.

Just in the nick of time ... we made it to Westonbirt to make these engagement pictures. These big crunchy Autumn leaves only had a few days ( or a strong wind) before they floated gently to the ground to be crunched and kicked and enjoyed by kids( and big kids). I like the Sunday morning , relaxed, real feel to this photo and the sunlit spot picking out the couple so the focus is on Bex and Chris and how they feel even though they don't occupy a big part of the image. Just the sort of image that's perfect to grace your wall without your faces dominating the room. 

Deep earthy colours in the leaves behind echo the warmth between Bex and Chris.

Its hard not to smile when the evening sun is out and you're in the presence of such majestic giants as these scots pine trees.

Right from the start, when this picture was taken , I knew that we were going to make some lovely images. Bex was so at ease infront of the camera and Chris was also an easy person to photograph because he could be relied upon for a consistently good expression. I always spend the first 5 minutes without cameras so we can talk first and everyone feels more relaxed.

Just a few yellow leaves left but a whole lot of love left to share. Most romantic image of the day here, I think!

My background is scientific and I love to experiment. I make these images by shooting the trees making sure there is some white space then carefully composing another image with the  engaged couple photographed in the gap. The camera superimposes the images as I shoot. Less Photoshop and more a  way of combining 2 image shot on the same day at the same time. The vintage feel replicates that of a cyanotype image and this part is added in Photoshop. I hope its a nice combination of art and science. 

Autumn didn't make it into this picture. The joy of early Autumn is the full spectrum of colours green, yellow red then brown thats all around.

Not many of my images have a smile to camera but it sometimes works without being to cheesy and I always like to include one image - parents love these cheerful engagement pictures for their mantelpiece!

When the sunsets at a photo shoot  my camera stays out for another 20 minutes because the sky goes this beautiful deep dark shade of blue that adds drama and always makes a simple stand out image.   On this outdoor photo shoot the three elements came together so well: a happy relaxed couple, an amazing backdrop and good light - when this happens it is so much easier to make beautiful engagement pictures!

To see a video slideshow of all the images click below

If you want to see the sun set at Westonbirt do click here to  visit their website

To see the full set of image  click here

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