The older I get, the more fascinated I am at the phenomenon of how time seems to speed up. Our wedding day feels like it wasn’t that long ago, and yet somehow, the fall of 2025 marked our ten year anniversary!
I suppose I shouldn’t be terribly surprised by how quickly the years have flown by. After all, we’ve kept ourselves pretty busy. Over the past decade, we’ve bought our first home, undertaken a great many DIY and renovation projects, returned to college to earn additional degrees, and each embarked on a new career path. My husband transitioned from healthcare, originally working as a medical laboratory technician, transitioning to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming an engineer. Meanwhile, I studied at the University of Minnesota’s College of Design and found my passion entering the local creative scene.
As the months of 2025 ticked by, I found myself increasingly drawn to the idea of updating our couples photos to celebrate our first big milestone anniversary. There was just one little hiccup: we were planning a trip to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and the last thing I wanted was the added stress of searching for a photographer or coordinating all the logistics.
While I’m sure there are plenty of talented photographers to choose from, I didn’t love the idea of traveling to another area to find someone whose style aligned with my vision. I wanted the creative freedom to bring the ideas in my head to life, and I knew my husband and I could have a lot of fun doing it together. Honestly, that felt like a much safer bet than working with someone new. Our introverted little hearts tend to be a lot more relaxed, playful, and natural when it’s just the two of us.
Furthermore, culling and editing, typically the bane of a photographer’s existence in most cases, is hands-down my favorite part. I love combing through session images and enjoy the process of narrowing down selects. If I hired someone else, I’d miss out on all of that fun.
With roughly a month left before our anniversary getaway, the lightbulb finally went off. What’s a designer with photography training and a collection of camera gear to do? Naturally, I decided to take on the role of creative director and plan our very own mini editorial-style photo session.
Early inspiration moodboard/scenario planning.
I started gathering some inspiration shots from Pinterest and planning out moodboards to coordinate with rooms in our Air B&B as well as the surrounding nearby area. We’d booked a beautiful lake home with plenty of space, tons of natural light, and access to nearby waterfront all in one place. In fact, there was a small river that wound through the property and led into the waters of Lake Superior across the road.
In the midst of planning out a variety of lifestyle, cozier images along with more formal, special occasion portraits, I knew I had to take advantage of the built-in game room offered at the house. The space was complete with a billiards table and bar which would give us the chance to have some fun with a totally different aesthetic.
I prepared shot lists, outfits, and even sourced some special LED clear balloons to use as a romantic, fairytale-esque backdrop in one of the scenarios. To put it simply, things escalated quickly. Considering I was originally overwhelmed with the idea of hiring a photographer I had never met before, somehow I’d signed myself up for triple the work with no guarantee the images would even come out well. Still, I was excited to give it the old college try and trust the process.
My husband has the patience of a saint because he put up with me doing trials and tests in our own home while we were cooking Sunday breakfast. I needed to practice and determine if my self-timer, iPad and tripod setup would be sufficient. The entire thing was a big creative challenge; one that I found myself getting more and more excited for as the days went by.
I daresay, I was more excited about the photoshoot activities than any of the other outings we’d planned for our vacation.
A behind the scenes collage of some early proof of concept testing.
I’d warned my husband that we’d want to devote an entire designated day for the actual session. This way, we could take our time with setups, rig additional lighting if needed, and then get changed into our outfits. With all the prep done, we’d be able to walk in front of the lens and pose ourselves (easier said than done, but we tried!). We were staying at the Air B&B for five nights which gave us plenty of time to settle in and get to know the space. We decided that the fourth day of our stay would be the best option for clear skies and good weather to ensure the sunset finale scenario on the beach would be as beautiful as it could.
Soon enough, that fourth day was upon us and it was finally time to make all my scheming and dreaming of perfect shots come to life.
Early in the day, we inflated the helium balloons and placed the strands of fairy lights. This alone took a great deal of time and effort. Lucky for me, I married someone who worked at Party City in high school (RIP), which meant he had a healthy amount of expertise when it came to inflating balloons. I wouldn’t know considering I’ve never inflated one ever in my life, but the material of the clear balloons was tricky to work with and fill just right. He inflated and I “Lumièred” the strings of delicate lights before setting everything aside until we were ready for it that night.
I whipped out my softboxes and fill lights, then got to tinkering with the scene while we prepared breakfast and sipped morning coffee. I wished these images had turned out more like some of my inspiration boards as the final products were a bit lackluster by comparison. Even so, I got a couple okayish ones and didn’t spend too much time perfecting it since it was the first of many scenarios planned.
Unexpectedly, some of my favorites from this scene were ones were our dog wandered in to sniff out what was cooking. That aspect was much more realistic to how a typical day looks for us anyway, and now I’ve got some photo evidence of Chef George “helping” us cook.
Scenario #1: Breakfast Lifestyle
By the time we wrapped up the first set, it was already nearing noon. For our second scenario, we combined a decorative celebration scene with a first-look-style reveal. Once again, we spent a good amount of time hanging glittery garland and decorating the stair alcove with a few carefully chosen props: a giant X-shaped Mylar balloon, strawberries, champagne, and a piece of artwork I’d woodburned featuring the silhouette of our wedding venue. The artwork was especially sentimental, crafted from a piece of birch wood that had originally served as a table centerpiece on our wedding day.
After placing things just so, it was time to switch into our formal outfits and do a little dress reveal. I’d managed to score an absolute gem of a thrifted gown from ThredUp and was thrilled that I got a special look without a hefty price tag. While I originally considered buying a new formal ensemble for the occasion, I didn’t like the idea of dropping a couple hundred dollars on something I was going to wear this one time, maybe twice if I found a reason to. My $55 find was well worth it in terms of how well it fit with no additional tailoring, and had just the right amount of glitz to feel extra special.
I kept the dress a surprise until I walked down the stairs to begin our photos. It gave us the opportunity to share a romantic moment just between the two of us, recreating the excitement and anticipation of our first look on our wedding day. It was a small, yet meaningful moment that made us pause to reflect on how far we’d come these last ten years.
Scenario #2: Formal Reveal + Champagne Celebration
We took a bunch of posed photos at this location, probably more than any other scenario. The setup had taken time and effort, and so I wanted to make full use of it’s potential.
Fun fact, the gentle curve of the stairwell alcove wasn’t even pictured in any of the Air B&B listing images. As soon as we walked into the house, I knew I had to feature it in the session. Lighting was somewhat challenging with the dark shadows present, and I learned that I could have benefited from one or two more supplementary fill lights since my ISO had to move up higher than I would have liked to compensate.
Once again, our nosy hound dog made sure he was part of the action, occasionally photo-bombing an otherwise romantic moment by appearing partially in frame at the bottom of the stairs. Once we sat down, we managed to capture a few family photos of the three of us, too. Though, if I’m being honest, there’s a good chance those came about because he was busy trying to sneak a strawberry or two when he thought we weren’t looking.
The berry thief in question.
I’m happy to report that only one casualty resulted from his fruit-stealing efforts in the form of a broken glass that fell while trying to steer him away from the tantalizing strawberries.
In addition to the first look and champagne pop, we opted to position the camera overhead and try a few birds-eye-view poses while we were here for the leading lines of it all. That’s when the photography gods smiled upon me with nothing short of a miracle, but not before I aged 15 years from the unexpected scare…
While we were dialing in the composition, my camera and attached 24–70mm lens became unbalanced and the next thing I knew, I was watching my gear topple over to come crashing down. Somehow, the body and lens survived without a scratch. Our theory is that the tripod cushioned the fall and took the worst of the impact. I didn’t get off totally scot-free because the ball head and locking mechanism on the tripod were damaged (yet still workable!). I’d much rather have this as the outcome instead of crying over my broken, expensive glass!
Deciding to quit while we were ahead, we look a longer break while keeping an eye on the light so we could move over to the beach during golden hour. With about an hour of sun left, we made our way the short distance to an overlook along the shore where we were pleased to discover that we had the beach completely to ourselves.
Scenario #3: Sunset Sparkles
I set the self-timer to capture dozens of shots in succession, giving us the freedom to move around naturally without having to stop and reset the camera between poses. The weather was perfect, and it was a beautiful late-September evening, so more than anything, I wanted to be present and enjoy the moment. With the formal poses out of the way, I spent the rest of our time goofing off and running hand-in-hand along the beach with the love of my life, rather than being glued to my iPad and constantly monitoring each shot.
There were absolutely more shots that didn’t turn out than ones that did, but that was okay. We had a blast darting in and out of the water, chasing each other across the sand, and savoring the sunset. While I wish that the focus would have been tack-sharp on many of the pictures we took during this scenario, upon reviewing the batch, I was still happy with what we were able to capture. Not bad for one photographer doing the setup, posing, and capture totally alone!
Another bonus of getting a thrifted dress: I didn’t have to care about getting it wet or picking up sand. Actually, neither of those things even mattered afterward because it was perfectly good-as-new following a gentle soak in the bathtub. Win, win, win.
After the sun went down, back to the Air B&B we went for one final close out scenario. It was time to use the clear balloons and create a magical, soft ambiance. Originally, I’d planned to take these outdoors in a charming little spot near a pond with stone garden bench and some lovely landscaping. The vision was something similar to a fairytale forest being framed by the trees. The wind, insects, and ISO limitations of my crop sensor camera had other plans however, and so, we adjusted accordingly opting to set up indoors instead.
I’m pleased with how these looked indoors even despite it being different than what I’d imagined. I love the paned set of double French doors behind us and the way the floor tile reflects the light. I’ll be the first to admit that these have a certain “prom-y” look to them. And again, that’s okay—rolling with the flow was part of the fun after all. Plus, my husband never attended his high school prom so this way he got a small taste for that experience.
Scenario #4: Romantic Light Party
By the time we were finished and packed away all the gear, we’d spent about eleven hours in total throughout the day. Needless to say, both of us were more than ready to relax instead of trying to pivot to fitting in the game room scenario on top of everything we’d already done.
Once again, my husband amazes me with his patience and willingness to endure all this for so many hours on end. I don’t know many other men that would be keen to get hauled in front of the camera, assist setting up cute scenes, and take on the hassle of inflating over a dozen special helium balloons because his wife was determined to photograph everything herself.
I think I shot close to 1,200 frames in total by the end of day one. Something I had really underestimated was the amount of setup and configuration time needed before jumping in front of the camera. Even though I tried to organize ahead of time as much as possible to keep things efficient, making adjustments on-the-fly ate into the timeline and really added up quickly.
When it came to styling the balloons scenario especially, I found myself with a newfound greater appreciation for technicians, photo assistants, and stylists who typically help make production run smoothly! If I ever do this again, I’ll absolutely be enlisting at least one other set of hands and eyes to save myself some of the hassle.
Scenario #5: The Billiards Club
The next day we went out and about exploring and saved the final game room scenario for after dinner that night when we could play a few rounds of pool. The lighting in the basement area was the most challenging part of this setup by a landslide. I knew that I was going to be somewhat limited between the gear available and the space itself, but at this point, any images I captured from this set were going to be a bonus since we had taken so many over the course of the previous day’s session.
I moved the camera around a lot testing out different angles. This too proved to be tricky and the crop-sensor camera made for an added challenge due to the magnification with my lenses. I’d been intent on using my 50mm due to the 1.4 aperture capabilities but I quickly pivoted back to the 24–70mm, 2.8 due to spatial reasons. Each time I shifted the setup, the lighting also needed a revision. Because of the wood paneling on the walls, there wasn’t much natural reflection to work with and I needed to kick the ISO up several notches.
The overall quality of this set is noticeably decreased, even despite my efforts to brighten and color correct. Due to the amount of enhancement needed, I experimented with adding some color filters for a moodier look and played around trying to make the best of things in post production. I chose a handful of my favorites to do a detailed pass at color balance, background cleanup, and altering the hue of the table felt from light blue to the traditional deep emerald green.
My husband played at least two full games of pool completely by himself in the time it took me to configure everything enough to actually step into the photos. Alas though, tired of fiddling with the settings, we took turns at the table while working our way through some of the planned images on my shot list.
I’d saved a good deal of inspiration poses for this scenario for the sake of trying new things. A few of them turned out; most of them didn’t. The individual portraits we took of one another while lining up our shots though are some of my absolute favorites from the entire exercise. Neither of us feel like we pull off serious particularly well, but man, did we have fun pretending to be pool sharks for the sake of these photos!
To close things out, I wanted to re-create one of the inspiration images I’d seen with the numbers on the billiards balls arranged as our wedding date. It was a good thing we got married the year that we did since 2015 was one of the last years this idea works for.
The essence of the photo came out the same as the original inspiration composition with the background going slightly softer than I would have ideally liked. In hindsight, I wished I’d have configured this setup first to be more intentional with my approach. It also may have been helpful to take this in the afternoon since there were two small windows behind us that could have helped balance the interior lighting. With a smidge more light and about six more square feet of surface area to work with in the room, I think this entire set would have been drastically improved.
Once we returned home and settled back to our routine, I’d eagerly open my computer after work in the evenings to set about culling, color correcting, and arranging the images into a slideshow presentation. I paired the new images with a timeline of photos from our dating years and a few from our wedding day that I was able to display on our smart TVs when we hosted Thanksgiving a few months later. Our families all gushed about the pictures and thought it was such a unique activity that was perfectly suited for the two of us.
Better still, my photos inspired another relative to have her own anniversary session taken and I was fortunate enough to be asked to lend my eye to the task. As much as I loved getting to be in some pictures for a change, I think (like most photographers) I’ll stick to keeping behind the camera for the majority of the time since that’s much more natural to me.
All in all, I consider this undertaking to be a healthy success as I learned a lot throughout the process of planning/executing my own custom couples session. Sure, it’s possible to get a handful of good images on one’s own. It’s much more practical though to let someone else operate the camera and guide the composition and session flow!
After I’d revealed the session and shared my excitement with my husband, his exact words were, “I just know these are going to end up on the internet somewhere.” Sorry to say B, you were right as usual. I had so much fun bringing these together and was proud of what we created ourselves that I knew I had to find a way to incorporate them somehow. Turns out, a blog post fits the bill nicely.
One Year Later…
In the time since taking these, we celebrated another year of happy, healthy marriage. Our 11th anniversary festivities were much more laid back in comparison, yet it was still special because we met in 2011, and therefore, the number 11 is a lucky one.
Also in the last year, I finally made the leap to upgrade my main camera body. Now that I’m in possession of a fancy full-frame 5D Mark IV, I have a newfound confidence when it comes to my photography work. The limitations with dynamic range, ISO, and low light performance were holding me back more than I wanted to believe. After making the switch, I’m even more impressed that the anniversary photos turned out as good as they did.
The perfectionist in me is still trying real hard to be okay with the graininess and soft focus issues that I was so used to dealing with before the upgrade. My ever faithful T6i was my go-to for over six years and I’d never wanted to get too hung up on the specific gear even though I recall fighting with poor ISO performance a great many times. After all, it’s a poor craftsman who blames their tools.
Instead, I’d slowly invested in better quality lenses until I could financially justify going full frame. Now that I have, I’m glad I took the time to learn one body inside and out because the limitations made me a better photographer in the end. Every time I import new session images taken with my pro body and lenses, the uptick in quality still stuns me enough to marvel at how I can’t believe the photo came from my camera. Being able to worry less about the technical manual limitations has allowed me to focus more on composition which has me excited to continue practicing and aspiring to new levels.
I have a growing desire to take another stab at creative directing our own couples photos thanks to the update. If nothing else, for the geeky comparison aspect between the two cameras alone! It hasn’t happened yet, and while I will definitely try my hand at coordinating another self setup down the line, take two will be a smaller scale where I work smarter instead of harder.
“Far and away, the biggest takeaway from conducting this experiment applies to how I treat new client portrait sessions today. Pouring energy into my own special occasion inspired me to do the same for other clients.”
The process of bringing a certain vision to life and planning out scenarios with sentimental props and special enhancements is genuinely rewarding to me. Much of what I did for this project inspired my service offerings and photo packages offered in the freelance services for StudioKJL.
I’d love nothing more than to serve another couple with the same care and attention to detail as my own portraits. Crafting personalized, unique experiences is going to become part of my special sauce that sets my offerings apart from what’s typically offered in traditional couples packages.
If you or someone you know wants to hop on a call to chat through a customized session in celebration of your own milestone anniversary, I’d love to hear from you and help lend a creative eye!
