Alright, so the leaves started doing that amazing thing they do in the fall, you know? All gold and red and orange. Just couldn’t let it pass by. My partner and I looked at each other and basically said, “We gotta get some pictures done.” It’s been on the to-do list for ages, getting some nice shots of us that aren’t just phone selfies.
Getting the Ball Rolling
First thing was figuring out where to go. Easier said than done. Everyone has the same idea, right? Every park looked like it was hosting a festival. We drove around a bit one weekend, just scouting. Found a few maybes.
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That big park downtown? Way too crowded.
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The place by the river? Nice, but felt a bit cliché.
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Ended up finding this smaller spot, more like a nature trail entrance, less known. Perfect.
Then came the clothes. Oh boy. Didn’t want to be too matchy-matchy, you know? That can look kinda cheesy. We just aimed for colors that felt like fall and didn’t clash horribly. Laid out a few options on the bed. Took forever to decide. Lots of “Does this look okay with this?” back and forth. Finally landed on something comfortable, looked decent enough.
The Actual Day
We decided to skip hiring a fancy photographer. Just used our own camera and a tripod. More relaxed that way, less pressure. We went kinda early in the morning hoping to beat crowds and catch that soft light. It was chilly, seriously cold. Had jackets we kept taking off and putting back on between shots.
Setting up the tripod, figuring out the timer, running back and forth… it was actually pretty funny. Lots of blurry pictures, pictures of us running into place, pictures where one of us blinked. But we were laughing most of the time. The wind kept messing up hair, leaves were blowing around. It wasn’t like those perfect magazine pictures, it was just… us.
We spent maybe an hour, hour and a half out there. Tried different spots along this little trail. Sitting on a log, standing with the trees behind us, kicking up leaves like kids. Got some genuine smiles out of it, not just forced camera smiles.
Sorting Through It All
Got home, made some hot coffee, and immediately dumped all the photos onto the computer. Hundreds of them, felt like. Most were junk, obviously. The out-of-focus ones, the weird faces, the ones where the timer went off too early or too late.
But scrolling through, we found some gems. Maybe ten, fifteen really good ones. The light was nice, the colors popped, and we actually looked like ourselves, happy. It wasn’t about professional perfection. It was about capturing that feeling, that day, the season.
So yeah, that was our little fall picture adventure. Didn’t cost much, just some time and dealing with the cold. Got some photos we actually like, and honestly, the process itself was a pretty good memory. Definitely worth doing, even if you just use your phone and a friend.
