Tennis engagement session in the Hamptons, but with a very personal spin: a cold, dreamy morning at the beach, real vintage rackets from Tyler’s family, and a tennis club tied closely to their story. Toni came to me after watching her older sister’s sessions turn into family favorites, so this one carried a little history before I even picked up the camera. Add a purple-black rental Jeep, a quiet overnight hideout by Shinnecock Bay, and 370 miles of travel, and this “Courtship” had quite a journey behind it.
Table of Contents
Family Talk
I knew Toni’s family well before she and Tyler booked me. Her older sister Masha first came to me with Lenny for their engagement session in 2020. Both were former competitive dancers, and the gloomy day gave us plenty to play with instead of ruining anything.
That session got people talking inside the family. I’m told my creative approach stuck with them, and that is probably the best kind of referral: Toni already had a pretty good idea what she was signing up for.
I later photographed Masha and Lenny’s wedding in 2021, then Masha’s maternity session almost exactly a year later in 2022. Funny thing: neither made it to my blog.
Not because there was nothing worth showing. Quite the opposite. I simply shoot more cool stories than I can physically sit down and write about. A proper feature takes time: image selection (and I don’t go with 5-10), retouching, research, details collection, writing, links, credits, SEO, social media posting, and then all the little things that somehow turn “I’ll post this one quickly” into at least one full day, often multiple.
So, a small heads-up for future clients who get especially excited about possibly appearing here: I love featuring my work, but a blog appearance is never a promise. Some terrific weddings and sessions stay in the archives because actual client work has to come first. Toni’s tennis engagement session, however, had too many pieces I wanted to remember: beach, family history, tennis, vintage rackets, a road-trip story, and a very different visual mood in each half. This one made the cut, and I had time.
Their Kind of Session
I’m shooting their wedding a year from now, and this tennis engagement session is part of their package. I’ve never shot a tennis theme, so I got hyped. However, Toni and Tyler did not want it to highjack the whole story. Tyler is a professional tennis coach, and he introduced Toni to the sport early in their relationship. Apparently teaching your girlfriend tennis is not always the path to domestic peace. They argued enough that Tyler’s mom eventually took over the lessons. Good ball. Now they enjoy playing together, and going to the US Open has become one of their traditions.
The family connection goes another generation back, too. Tyler’s father was heavily involved in tennis, and the wooden rackets we used during the shoot actually belonged to him. They gave this tennis engagement session another layer that no prop-shop find could have supplied!
And yet, Toni wanted the engagement pictures to feel natural and candid. She and Tyler love the beach, and wanted the photos to look like them rather than a themed production. Chill, Ed. So we split the morning between two very different settings: beach first, tennis second.
So, the plan for this tennis engagement session was to start soft and romantic. Then get playful and personal, and finally push further into editorial territory once we reached the court. Your serve, Ed!
Getting There
The early start created a little logistical puzzle for me. I live in the Poconos, and Southampton is not exactly around the corner. We wanted to begin around 7:30 AM for the softer morning light and sunrise, then head to the club after it opened.
I went pretty deep into alternatives to putting another huge round trip on my Mazda CX-50. My poor “Zotel” is only about 3.5 years old and already had around 99,000 miles. I considered driving to Jamaica, leaving the Mazda on the street overnight, taking the LIRR train to Southampton Friday evening, finding some creative place to sleep, and having Toni and Tyler pick me up from the train station in the morning. I compared train schedules, parking ideas, overnight options, and the cost difference.
Then I found a nearby rental for around $60. Simple. No train timing, no transfers, no asking the couple for transportation, and hundreds of miles kept off Zotel.
Around 6 PM Friday I picked up the rental and got a cool surprise: a purple-black Jeep Rubicon. I had not requested a Jeep, and definitely had not requested the color. Anyone familiar with Zorz Studios or my own heavily branded Mazda knows why that amused me. The two cars even got a portrait together before I left for this tennis engagement session.
The Night Before
The drive out took over 5 hours. Once I reached the Southampton area, I did not check into a hotel for a short night. I found a quiet hidden nook by the bay, parked, and made the Jeep work for its new temporary Zotel job.
Stars, wind, marsh, water, and a peaceful view across the bay toward Shinnecock Indian territory. Then came the raccoons. A couple of them showed up around the marshy edge in the early morning, checking me out while I was having my breakfast.
That little wildlife encounter, the Jeep by the water, and the empty predawn surroundings explain a lot more about me and this assignment than a clean hotel-room selfie would. One day, I’ll need to write a blog about Zotel. It could actually be a whole website, but who has time for that?
After waking up, I packed up my improvised bedroom and headed to the beach early enough to scout before Toni and Tyler arrived. I was hoping all along that the 7:30 start might reward us with sunrise color.
Nope. We got cold, gray, overcast Southampton instead. Just like with Masha… Photographically, I was fine with that almost immediately.
Soft Start
We began at Cooper’s Beach, with the dunes and driftwood before moving closer to the Atlantic.
The missing sunrise changed the look of this session in a good way. Instead of warm directional light, we had a giant soft source overhead. Toni’s pale blush dress, Tyler’s light neutrals, the sand, dune grass, gray-blue sky, and weathered wood all settled into one restrained palette, nothing screamed for attention.
Toni could lean into Tyler, drape over him, climb onto the driftwood, or laugh without me fighting hard shadows across their faces. Tyler could lift her, pull her in, or simply stand behind her while the wind worked on her hair and dress. Some of the quieter portraits feel almost weightless because the light never tries to compete with them.
I also wanted movement. The dress gave me plenty of it, with turns, little runs, lifts, wind, and the loose hem constantly changing the shape of the frame.
Toni had mentioned liking dreamy romantic blur, so I gave her one, with a small beach joke. I focused on the seagull instead. The engaged couple became a soft pastel backdrop while this guy walked away with the sharpest portrait.
Closer to the water, things loosened up more. Cold ocean water is a pretty efficient posing coach. You stop worrying about your hands when a wave reaches your ankles. They walked, jumped, grabbed each other, laughed, and reacted to what was happening instead of holding expressions for me.
A Quick Transition
Before switching fully into tennis, we had another little visual change. The flourishing bushes and the club grounds gave us deeper greens and dusty pink flowers after all that pale beach color. Tyler added his jacket, and the photos became a little more dressed-up.
It’s like a visual pause. The beach is airy and nearly pastel. The court later becomes darker, greener, and much more graphic. The garden sits between them, easing the change.
Then Toni changed into her tennis look, Tyler switched into tennis clothes, and the whole session sharpened up.
Tennis Engagement Session
This part took place at The Racquet Lounge at Southampton, where tennis is part of Tyler’s professional world. He’s a professional coach.
I started their tennis engagement session in portrait territory. The wardrobe helped a lot. Toni’s green cardigan and white skirt sat beautifully against the green court and dark trees. Tyler’s white tennis shirt kept him clean and simple beside her. Add those old wooden rackets and the whole thing picked up a classic country-club feel.
The court gave me quite a different toolbox from the beach: lines, net, repetition, symmetry, layers. In other frames I used the net as an actual divider, placing one of them above it and the other below. It became part of the composition.
Those rackets have history. They belonged to Tyler’s father, who was heavily involved in tennis himself. Once I knew that, I wanted them visible as family objects. We used them in close details with their hands, Toni’s ring, the watches, the net, and the old wood.
I also played out those (not-so-flawless) coaching moments between them. One of my favorite setups had Tyler serving behind Toni while she crouched at the net, acting as if the incoming ball might end the engagement right there. His real tennis form made her exaggerated fear even funnier.
And then we pushed the tennis engagement session further editorially. The geometry stayed clean, but their body language became looser and a little cheekier.
By the final chair setup, (shared) sunglasses were on, the sun was much stronger, and the mood had changed again. They looked less like an engaged couple doing a photo session and more like a campaign for a private tennis club.
I enjoy such transitions: soft and romantic first, playful and personal next, stylish and editorial at the end. That range also reflects my overall portfolio, whether engagement or wedding, which can move from light to dark, airy to edgy, quirky to editorial, depending on the people, setting, and story.
Camera Nerves
There was one more reason the session helped before the wedding. Toni later told me that neither she nor Tyler was especially accustomed to photoshoots, and they had started getting nervous about being photographed so much on the wedding day. During this tennis engagement session, they got to loosen up, figure out how I direct, and stop thinking quite so much about the camera.
That happened naturally in both locations. At the beach, walking and dealing with the wind kept them moving. At the club, tennis gave them something familiar to do. By the seated court portraits, I barely needed the couple from the beginning of the morning anymore. They knew the rhythm.
This is one practical reason I like engagement sessions even when a couple does not desperately need engagement photos. You learn how I communicate, I learn how you move together, and by the wedding none of us is meeting cold with a camera already pointed at your face.
Back Home
Once we wrapped, Toni and Tyler got their Saturday back. I got traffic.
The return drive stretched to another 5 hours as Long Island filled up for the day. By the time I returned the Jeep, the whole adventure came to roughly 370 miles, while my own Zotel, for once, got the weekend off.
The substitute did well: road-trip car, overnight shelter, gear carrier, accidental Zorz Studios color match, and transportation to a tennis engagement session that began in gray ocean air and finished in hard sun on a private court.
Not bad for an unplanned purple Jeep. And now Toni gets her own family blog chapter after all.
Credits
Beach location: Cooper’s Beach (@coopersbeach)
Tennis club: The Racquet Lounge at Southampton (@theracquetlounge)
Photography and creative direction: Zorz Studios (@zorzstudios)
