Lara Swanson Photo » Nontraditional, Offbeat and Alternative Photographer

I’ve known Bobby for a very, very long time. Seeing him with Stephanie just makes my heart flutter – they are so good together in every way. They came down to DC to get their photos taken right at the beginning of my flu – it was the first day I hit a 103 degree fever and I had to cancel our engagement portrait session. But, as luck would have it, Brad and I had already planned a trip to NJ, so I met Bobby and Stephanie at Verona Park and had one of the BIGGEST engagement sessions ever!! I promised them one heck of a blog post, and it’s been so hard to choose which photos to include. I love them all. So here, my favorites, from swing sets to serenity to Scrabble (how he proposed!).

You may remember Meghan and Eric from our photo contest. Well I’m here to present some of my most favorite engagement photos ever taken! Meghan and Eric kindly humored me on an insanely cold day and walked with me down Mount Vernon Avenue in Alexandria. It was my first time taking photos on this street and it was a total blast!

This mural BLEW MY MIND:

Just picture it – you, your partner, and the moment you got engaged, all captured to remember and share with others later. We’ll discuss the time and location, the best place for me to remain inconspicuous, and what you want to remember from that moment. You’ll receive a disk of all the images and a 5×7 album of the best images. You’ll also receive the rights to use the pictures on the web so you can incorporate them into your wedding website, brag about it with Facebook, and share email it to all your family. Contact me to get the ball rolling!

Jamie and Adam actually live right around the corner from me, so Old Town Alexandria was really the perfect place to meet up! Jamie and Adam wanted the anti-Sears portrait, so that’s what I gave ‘em ;)

Things got a little sweet:

My favorite:

Nathan and Zula found me through another engagement photo couple, Mike and Eboni. They joined me for a great engagement portrait session in my favorite place for portraits, Old Town Alexandria. How cute are these two?

I love this series:

We got some old-fashioned nuzzling in:

I asked Nathan to kick his foot up too!

Kelly of Two Brides and Film Noir Photography came along to shoot as well, and here are two of her STUNNING photos:

Beth and Jon wanted quirky for their engagement photography session in Alexandria, VA. I gave ‘em quirky. :)

I had a total blast working with these two this weekend; we hiked in and around King Street on the waterfront in Old Town Alexandria.

My main goal, though, was to hit up Olsson’s. These are two extraordinarily literary people. I took some ideas from the last engagement session I took there, and expanded them…

And of course, the garden. My number one place of all time, in all the world, to take pictures…

… and where I found this beautiful new thing! Beth was kind enough to sit on top of it, even though there was at least one enormous bug lurking within it. Total pros, I’m telling you.

When I last saw Susie and JP, it was freezing. I had a camera, they ditched their coats, and we had fun all over Old Town Alexandria, VA shooting their engagement photography session. It was so cold, though, that I really wanted to give them another opportunity to do their engagement session in warmer weather! But I also wanted to give them some new places… here are my favorites from their second engagement session!

I really love the odd composition in these: