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Asbury Park | Same-Sex Engagement Session | Tristian and Emily | Ultimate Edge Photography

I met Tristian through one of my free engagement sessions giveaways that I was running at the end of 2019. When I run the free engagement session giveaways, I am looking for couples that I can try out new ideas on, such as poses and locations. Part of the process is I review everyone’s files and determine who will become a finalist. After the finalists are chosen, I’ll conduct interviews with each person to see if they match what I am looking for out of a couple.

After talking with Tristian, she informed me that she had already had a wedding photographer booked, actually her second wedding photographer, but that she entered the contest in hopes of having a redo of their engagement portraits. She showed me the images that were shot from the original photographer they booked with… it broke my heart.

After I had a chance to review the images, I will admit that they were not the worst I have ever seen, but I could tell just by looking at the images that the photographer probably said something along the lines of “stand over here,” and that was it. I could see in the pictures the tension between Tristian and Emily from just being nervous and having no instruction on what to do.

After the deposit they put down on the first photographer, their funds were tight for the second photographer, so they had to sacrifice having a redo of their engagement session. After learning all of this and everything they went through, I had to help. It broke my heart, knowing these two hated their first engagement session! No matter what, I do not care if it is an amateur photographer or a well-known award-winning photographer; if the client is not happy with their images, that is a significant problem.

I knew I had to help Tristian and Emily, so I offered them a free session entirely unrelated to the giveaway that I was running at that time. At this point, Tristian and I had only texted back and forth, but I already felt a connection with her. I knew we would click together, and when it came to the day of the session, I was right! I have wanted to do a session in a small downtown for quite some time, and the very first place that came to mind was Asbury Park near the boardwalk. I had only been there once, but it had the cutest little downtown!

We started the session by getting some fantastic, mouth-watering, downright orgasmic donuts from Purple Glaze Donuts. Our number one donut we had to get from them was the rainbow donut! We walked around having fun, laughing, joking, and taking some stellar shots! We stopped at some fantastic stores and shops like Hot Mess, Brickwall Tavern and Dining Room, House of Independents, and Asbury Park Casino and Carousel House on the Asbury Boardwalk. As you can see in the images below, we captured some fun shots that truly show the love between Tristian and Emily. Thank you two for allowing me to take these shots of you two and I hope you enjoy them and much as I love taking them!