Lara Swanson Photo » Nontraditional, Offbeat and Alternative Photographer

As we all know, Old Town Alexandria, VA is my favorite place to do all portraits :) Here are a few from a recent engagement shoot!

I don’t usually use sepia in my work, but Lauren spotted this photo as the perfect sepia candidate!

I had just gotten home from Michelle and Tyler’s engagement shoot in Old Town when I engaged in a Twitter conversation with a fellow photographer about flipping gender roles in our portrait sessions. Because of my thesis in college on gender roles perpetuated by wedding traditions, I’ve taken to posing my couples in non-hetero-normative ways, or balancing the male/female roles in the poses. Michelle and Tyler’s engagement session is a great example of how much fun we can have doing this!

Michelle and Tyler do jujitsu. This is an exercise they have to do – one runs at the other, jumps on the other, then does a crunch while their legs are wrapped around the other’s waist. It’s incredible.

They watch ANTM. I told them to be “fierce”, and fierce they were.

They play a card game that I’d never heard of (and darn it all I can’t remember the name of it) – but during our “nerd out” time in the garden we agreed this would be an awesome shot.

More nerding out. She’s reading a book called “Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat”, by the way.

Both of them were superb sports, and Michelle offered to get this flying shot. No Tylers were harmed in the making of this shoot.

Amanda and Noble joined me for a gorgeous Sunday afternoon to do their engagement portraits in Old Town Alexandria Virginia! When I arrived, I noticed this enormous (random) ship in the Potomac – how have I never seen this before?! So of course I dragged this gorgeous couple on there :)

Seriously, how cute are these two?

They wanted BRIGHT photos, so I gave ‘em BRIGHT! Plus LensBaby…

Cat and Paul were great sports this past Sunday, running with me all over Arlington to get some really cool and unique stuff! They showed me a park I’d never been to before, too!

And I brought my Lensbaby along to get some more practice in!

Calvin and Danielle booked me forever and a day ago, but because of the weather it took us a while to finally get together! They happened to pick an insanely perfect day (cloud cover with sun still peeking through) and, although it was windy, we hiked all over Old Town Alexandria to get some romantic engagement shots.

How great was this wind gust?!

Amy and Cole emailed last week, and immediately I knew I wanted to photograph them! They were available right away and asked if we could meet in Old Town Alexandria, where Amy grew up. I said OF COURSE! Their request? Unique portraits. Could a photographer ask for anything more than an adorable couple wanting something nontraditional in her favorite place to take photos? :)

My favorite:

Sam and Melissa kicked off my engagement portrait season and they picked the perfect day! They are incredibly patient and kind, and I thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon with them. I was excited to meet them since I learned in their questionnaire that Sam enjoys prog rock and Melissa likes Yo Yo Ma – of course I tried to incorporate many different styles in our shoot to cover all the bases ;)

Check out that flare!