Annika and Riley are getting married next October on her parents’ farm in Lake Shore, so that is where we made their fall engagement photos: among rows of young pines on a gray Sunday evening, Riley in red buffalo plaid, Annika in white. What I’ll remember isn’t the pines or the plaid. It’s how easily these two laughed, and how they kept reaching for each other in between.
Olivia and Adam sent them my way, after I photographed their engagement session at Grand View Lodge this summer. I gave them a few simple directions at the start, and within minutes they had stopped needing them. That is what an engagement session is for: a relaxed hour to get comfortable with the camera, and with me, long before the wedding day.
Fall Engagement Photos on the Family Farm in Lake Shore
Annika came with an idea for their save the date, and she made the sign herself: a round slice of wood propped against a pair of antlers in the grass, with Save the Date, October 9, 2027 written across it. It was the first thing I photographed. If you have an idea of your own, bring it. The details you make yourselves end up being the photographs you treasure.
Up close in front of the pines, they stopped performing for the camera and turned toward each other. Annika’s hand kept finding the middle of his chest, her ring resting on the plaid. Riley pressed his face into her hair, and she folded into the biggest laugh of the night, eyes squeezed shut, while he laughed against her temple. That frame opens the triptych at the top of this post.
Walking the Lanes Between the Pine Rows
Walking frames teach me the most about a couple, because there is nothing to hold still for. At one point Annika grabbed his arm with both hands and the two of them cracked up face to face, her hair lifting behind her. I don’t know what was funny, and I didn’t need to. You can see in the photograph that it belonged to them. My advice for your session: talk to each other, tease each other, laugh at whatever comes up. The real reactions are the ones worth keeping.
Black and White Engagement Photos, and Why This Post Has Both
Annika told me she loves black and white photographs, so I edited every frame of the session both ways, something I don’t usually do, and this post mixes the two. Color tells you where they were: red plaid against dark green pines, the orange of the hardwoods at the end of a lane. Black and white tells you who they are. Take the color away and what is left is expression, the crease of a real laugh, closed eyes, a hand pulling someone closer. So tell your photographer what you love. It shapes the work, and it is how you end up with photographs that feel like yours.
That was truest in the trees. Shooting through the soft pine boughs made those frames feel private. Riley held Annika from behind while she laughed so hard she had to turn away, and he kissed the side of her head while she was still laughing. A few minutes later she took his face in both hands and kissed him, and neither of them could stop smiling long enough to make it serious.
A Lift, a Piggyback and a Dip Down the Lane
Then their playful side took over. Riley lifted Annika clean off the ground, one boot kicked up and a hand in the air. On a piggyback down the lane he turned to look up at her while she laughed down at him, one of the quiet keepers of the session. In the open lane I asked for a twirl and a dip, and he spun her until her hair flew, then dipped her into a kiss with her boot in the air. The prompts were mine; what they did with them was all theirs. That is the balance I aim for every time: enough direction that you never wonder what to do, and enough room that you stay yourselves.
Annika laughed so often that I stopped waiting for it and started planning around it. All I had to do was keep Riley in the frame, because he was usually the reason.
Save the Date: October 9, 2027, on the Same Land
To finish, Annika’s sign came back out. I set it in the grass at the head of a lane and let Riley dip her into a kiss in the soft background: their date in front, the two of them behind it, on the land where it will happen. The last frames were Annika hugging Riley from behind, laughing over his shoulder while he grinned with his eyes shut. It was the same thing I had watched all evening, just closer.
Next October they will be married right here, on her family’s land. I’ll be back for it, and after an evening like this one I have a pretty good idea how much laughing there is going to be.
Planning Fall Engagement Photos in the Brainerd Lakes?
Choose a place that means something to you. You are at ease on ground you know, and the photographs carry your story through to the wedding day. Wear what you would actually wear together. And plan for the hour before sunset; late October in the Brainerd Lakes gives you evergreens, the last of the hardwood color and soft light, even on a gray evening like this one.
My page on private cabin and lake weddings has more on weddings on private land. I take a limited number of weddings each year. If you’re planning yours, reach out and tell me about it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Wear something you would actually wear together, with a little texture and a color that suits the season. Annika and Riley kept it simple: a red-and-black buffalo plaid flannel and dark jeans for Riley, a fitted white long-sleeve top and light wide-leg jeans for Annika, and boots for both. The plaid warms up the color photographs against green pines, and the white top keeps Annika bright in black and white. Skip big logos, and bring a layer in case the evening turns cold.
Yes, and I love it when couples do. Annika and Riley made theirs on her family’s farm in Lake Shore, where they will be married in October 2027. Photographing on the same land ties the engagement session to the wedding day, and on a private property it lets me learn the light and the best spots a year ahead.
Both work, and you don’t have to choose before the session. I deliver in color. Annika told me she loves black and white, so for her session I also made a black-and-white edit of every photograph. Black and white tends to suit the laughing and close-up moments, where expression carries the frame; color suits the frames where the setting does the work, like red plaid against dark green pines.
Yes. Annika and Riley’s late-October evening was gray from start to finish. Soft cloud light keeps faces even, with no squinting, and makes evergreens look deeper and richer. I plan fall sessions for the hour before sunset, which in the Brainerd Lakes comes around 6:15 p.m. in the last week of October, before the clocks change.
