This session has been on my mind for a long time. Do you ever hear a song and imagine the video in your head of what it should look like? I do, all the time. And for the first time at Rose & Diesel’s couples session, I decided to create how this song felt to me. The song I’m talking about is Ride – Lana Del Rey. And if you know the song, you’ll know that there is a feeling attached to this song. For some, it feels euphoric or nostalgic. Others it’s dreamy. For me, I can’t describe it in one word. For me, it’s what I imagine a long road trip through the countryside feels like. But not the actual moment. It’s the highlight reel in your head after. The memories after the moment passed, and you’re just left with a supercut. It’s thinking back about an old relationship where you no longer see the bad parts, only the good. This is how this song makes me feel. So this is what I wanted to play with for this session. Yes, is nostalgia, but there’s a deeper layer to it, and I can’t quite put my finger on it. As a Central Coast elopement photographer, I wanted to test my storytelling a little bit and play with some things I wouldn’t normally.
For this couple’s session, I used strategic motion blur, grain and a location to create the feeling that this Lana Del Rey song makes me feel.
Rose and Diesel may not see this song the same way I do; they’ve only been dating for a year, and probably don’t have the nostalgic memories in their relationship just yet. But maybe one day they’ll look back at these photos and understand the feeling I was recreating.
Being based on the Central Coast, I took the 1.5-hour drive out to the Hunter Valley for this session so we could use the Broken Back Mountain Range in the background. This mountain range was important for me to have in the background, as I feel like it helps add to the nostalgia I wanted to create.
We had high hopes given the weather that we’ve had lately. But the original plan for this session was a golden hour and sunset over the ranges, but unfortunately, the heavy cloud coverage in the valley meant we went straight into blue hour instead.
Whilst not a deal breaker, it definitely changed the overall tone of this session. Not having the golden hour meant I played a lot more into the grain than I initially planned on. But in all honesty, I’m a little obsessed with how the photos came out.
I hope in the future I’m able to create more work like this. I find that being a Central Coast wedding photographer, I don’t get to push my craft too often. Weddings don’t offer a great deal of creativity since we have strict timelines to uphold. But this was a lot of fun, and not having a time to be done by allowed us to create something truly special.
If you’d like to connect for a Central Coast engagement session or elopement, I’d love to hear from you
