Romantic 90s-Inspired Engagement Session at Terrapin Beach Nature Preserve

Sep 2

2 min read

Okayyyy but Gabby + Chris absolutely understood the assignment with this one.

They wanted their engagement photos to feel romantic, nostalgic, emotional, a little messy, a little dreamy, and basically like somebody found a roll of film from the 90s that had been sitting in a drawer for 25 years.

And guyyyyssssss.

THIS. SESSION.

We photographed their engagement session at Terrapin Beach Nature Preserve on Kent Island, Maryland, which ended up being the perfect location for everything they were going for. You get the beach, the sand, the water, tall grasses, warm light, and enough open space to actually move around instead of standing there doing the classic hi yes we are engaged and here are our hands pose for an hour. 😂

Gabby + Chris are getting married in May 2027, so this was basically our first chance to hang out, get comfortable in front of the camera, and make some photos that actually feel like them before wedding day.

And somewhere during this session I became completely obsessed with something I used to probably delete immediately: blurry photos.

BRUHHHHHH.

The movement. The softness. The slightly out-of-focus frames. The grainy, nostalgic, imperfect feeling of it all.

I am INTO IT.

And here's the thing: these aren't accidental blurry photos because I missed focus. 😂 They're purposeful. Some are shot through movement. Some intentionally have that soft-focus, dreamy feeling. Some feel like little flashes of a memory instead of a perfectly frozen second.

Because I'm realizing more and more that every photo does not need to be technically perfect.

It needs to make you feel something.

Give me the photo where you're running through the water and everything is moving. Give me the blurry kiss. Give me the weird crop. Give me the frame that looks like your best friend grabbed a camera at a party in 1997 and somehow caught the absolute best moment of the night.

Obviously, we're still getting the beautiful, sharp, romantic portraits too. I'm not about to deliver your entire engagement gallery looking like somebody smeared Vaseline on my lens. 😂 But mixing those polished images with intentional motion blur and soft-focus photographs makes the entire gallery feel so much more alive.

For couples looking for a Baltimore engagement photographer who cares less about stiff posing and more about connection, movement, emotion, and photos that actually feel like your relationship, THIS is where my brain is heading lately.

And I am lovingggggg it.

Terrapin Beach was also such a good little escape from Baltimore for this kind of session. Kent Island gives you those coastal Maryland beach vibes without needing to drive all the way to Ocean City, and at sunset? YEP. So freaking pretty.