Tony & Geena: An Engagement Session
I was just as elated as the rest of you when I happened to scroll social media and saw a video Geena had posted where Tony planned a surprise engagement for her. Tony and I worked together several times and I the same with Geena as she modeled for a few of the brands that I have worked with. I was excited for these two. So much that I called a meeting with them both and talked about gifting them with an engagement session.
In our meeting, I laid out my points for what I wanted to capture. I told them exactly what I felt based on their personalities. With Tony being the quiet, shy and subdued individual while Geena being the social, outspoken and expressive member of the bunch, I had the notion to shoot two looks. One of them being a more chill, homely and casual look, fitting Tony’s speed while the other being more fashion-based which would fit Geena’s personality perfectly. In the meeting, the couple laughed over and over as I hit all my points like a hammer to a nail.
I told Tony that he’d have to dress up because if you know Mr. Williams, a pair of dark shorts, a t-shirt and some tennis shoes are his life. This only made Geena excited because she expressed getting her now fiance´ to dress up was always a challenge. Tony agreed and the planning began.
With the help of Realtor Phillipa Newton of C.A. Christie, we found the perfect home to which would serve as the backdrop for their e-session. TONS of natural light flowed through the home and using my mirrorless Z6, I was able to focus more on creating my shots allowing me more time to manipulate, highlight and create a mood to the photos that simply worked. I used a reflector to help me fill in the dark areas, high ISO to let in tons of light and as I directed the two I felt like it was easy because I’d known and worked with them for some time so it was familiar to both parties.
I hope you enjoy the images.
Clients: Tony Williams + Geena Thompson
Photographed + Styled by: Scharad Lightbourne
MUA: Alexandria Miller
Grips: Dayna Pratt
Set Asst: Caneasha Carrol
Abandoned resort E-Session!
If you saw this location prior to me shooting there, I’m almost certain you would have looked at me sideways especially if I said I was going to photograph an engagement session there! This now abandoned resort appeared to be a far cry from its former glory days. The dilapidated and abandoned facilities were now hurricane damaged and now occupied by overgrown weeds, vines and trees.
Now I’d photographed Elena before and we always kept in touch and when she approached me about shooting her engagement session I was excited about doing the honour. She became more excited by convincing me that she wanted to do the shoot on a certain property, one she had sent me photos prior to. At first it did raise a few eyebrows especially after seeing these images but I embraced the challenge and I accepted.
“This shoot was incredibly special for us because of our connection to the location and our story as a couple. We have shared 8 beautiful years together and recently purchased our first home in this area 2 years ago... so we thought, what better place to shoot than in our backyard, the place we spent the most time together! ”
I wanted to show you the images Elena sent to me…
I decided that I’d want to shoot closer to sunset because the resort faced the ocean on the western side of the island where the sunsets were typically the most dramatic. More so, I hoped to get good golden hour light for lifestyle imagery. Styling wasn’t an issue either. Elena was a little bit of a hippie so she told me she wanted a “boho chic” look which I agreed with. Hank, on the other hand, would need more convincing. He’s very laid back and doesn’t like cameras or the limelight so getting him to “dress up for photos” became a running joke between Elena and I. Hank eagerly fell in line with the plan.
“Who knew Scharad could turn my man into a model in these photos!.... I was low key jealous when I saw how amazing he came out in them!”
The shoot went even better than we initially planned. Elena’s close friend and MUA Erica Bogart had flown in from Miami that same day and jumped right into makeup upon arrival. She was fast too! I brought along my Nikon D850, 2 lenses, the 85mm f1.8 and the 24-70 f2.8 and B1 light from Profoto to mix both the artificial and ambient light together and it worked out great. At first, I shot the couple in natural light but as the sun set in our blue skies, I brought out the strobe to balance the strobe light with my ambient light.
Hank and Elena’s chemistry was great. I barely gave them any direction.
Elena prior to the photoshoot told me,
“We just want to be ourselves and not overthink how we should pose or interact,” to which I happily obliged because this was particularly my preferred method of capturing these types of themes.
I can't stress enough how beautiful the light was and frame after frame my team and I salivated and got weak in the knees at how the light worked so well with us to create the photos.
Please enjoy the couple’s gallery below.
“Shooting with Scharad and his team was amazing. They were patient, creative and beyond talented.They captured our personalities with ease and caught that sunlight at such perfection that it felt surreal”
Beautiful couple shoot whimsical maternity photos at Ocean Club Bahamas
Photography + Styling: Scharad Lightbourne
MUA: Regina McCook
Grip: Wayde Stubbs
BTS: Rayandra Nairn
Location: Ocean Club, A Four Seasons Resort
Heading into the latter part of December 2018, Brent and Kim Mayson approached me about doing a maternity session for them and immediately my first reaction was, “you guys already look like supermodels so that's half the battle!” After sharing that laugh, they were both over the moon with excitement and we began to hash out ideas, looks, concepts and location for this Mayson Maternity session.
I had an “ah-ha” moment and I asked Brent, “Do you think Ocean Club would allow us to photograph on premises?”
He confidently responded, “Bro-skee, if that's what you want, its a done deal!”
Photographers around the world go bananas for a beautiful location and I am certainly no different. At this point, I was literally a minute away from doing a triple back summersault! You have no idea how badly I wanted to do a shoot like THIS on THAT property. Ocean Club, A Four Seasons Resort would prove to be the amazing canvas on which I would photograph this session.
Now…Kim was beyond prepared bringing her girl scout mentality to our initial brainstorm meeting. She told me she’d already secured several looks, an MUA, made her hair appointment and only needed to know what my team and I ate on set so she could provide catering…talk about a superwoman!
Shoot day was nothing short of breathless, frame after frame, Kim (for the most part) served effortless and beautiful poses. Clearly, her background as a flight attendant helped. I helped put together a few looks for Brent as well and on the brink of becoming a new Dad, I wanted him to be in some of the shots just to validate his existence. We both admitted midway through our shoot that he was just a prop.
“These pictures are beyond amazing!!! We are so incredibly happy we have such beautiful memories and will value them forever ❤”
This was an incredible shoot for me. It took me weeks just to curate the images posted on the blog. It felt different, not the typical “maternity” session. I felt like it was my voice as I checked my camera’s display screen. That was important and I had great clients in Kim and Brent who gave me the creative freedom and the connections to shoot on this property to creatively execute this maternity session. I truly enjoyed working on this.
Please enjoy the images below.
