I welcomed this cool married couple flying from Hawaii to NYC with a badass couple photoshoot in Central Park on their bucket list. Little did I know how much grit the brave woman had.
Married Couple Photoshoots
I’m back to this topic—married couple photoshoot—so I won’t repeat much. The key point is that weddings aren’t the last photo-romantic chance to vent artistically for married couples. Many do family sessions once they make a kid or two, but wanting to still rule it as a married visionary couple (sans kids) is a rare thing. I did a handful of such photoshoots. Here are some:
- Indian married couple flying me to France and Morocco
- a married couple from Louisiana flying me to Jamaica for a mermaid-theme shoot
- a married couple visiting NYC from Israel for an edgy urban experience
- a married couple visiting from Indiana for their super fun NYC Christmas cards
- a dramatic/soft 10th-anniversary photoshoot for a family in Brooklyn
Meet Today’s Badass Couple
Kosh and Oni live in Hawaii. The wife found me online when planning their visit to NYC, and the original plan was to shoot at the Met’s Cloisters in Manhattan. I love working around it (you cannot shoot inside) and in years, developed a cool route to take my clients around that area. I shared my latest beauty shoot around the Cloisters, and Kosh went bananas at the prospect of shooting there.
Noteworthy, her goal was “a bit more of a raw/not elegant look”, “more edgy”, and “to convey a sense of grit”. Oh, another one: “much like the classic silver screen kind of look”. Wouldn’t I love them already?
During the pre-shoot preparation, Kosh struck me as absolutely bubbly, sweet, and witty. I learned some words from her, like nincompoop, duderino, stoopid. Curious ones, especially if you don’t know the context, ha-ha.
Didn’t See That Coming…
The powerful and energetic visual image I built of her in my mind left me unprepared for what happened next…
The night before the shoot, she wrote:
In short, she had to replace the Cloisters with their couple photoshoot in Central Park, close to their hotel, for commiserative health reasons. But wait, there was another thing that threw me on the floor:
This golden soul was not only willing to forfeit her deposit by canceling the shoot but also the entire amount… for an unexplainable reason, however considerately it appealed to a business owner. I wouldn’t accept such a “turnout”easy” way out for me, obviously, and started looking for last-minute accommodations. We agreed on a proverbial couple photoshoot in Central Park, and as she put it, “just walk gently there… in a bubble marked “fragile””, ready to stop whenever she felt so.
Couple Photoshoot in Central Park
To cut the story short, it all worked out well. We covered the full timeframe and then some. I couldn’t get enough of Kosh’s magical powers which, despite everything, were irresistibly radiating. Her unbeatable confidence and readiness for anything (during the consultations, she also pondered on a couple boudoir theme) had me fully defeated. I wanted to give her everything I could squeeze out.
Her husband, Oni, deserves a separate paragraph. His look… You know what I mean. Strangers approached us and asked if they were dancers. One guy asked if Oni was an actor or a model. There is no way of denying it—this married couple seems to be unreal.
Post-Production
There is another thing that describes Kosh and Ori as one badass couple… Their photo package, as most others, included a number of enhanced images, which give these retouching skills. Kosh kind of asked not to push those, explaining that “We do tend to lean more towards the natural scale on most things (arm fat, chin lapping, and our fine lines being what they are)”. More points to her grit!
While easing on the advanced retouching, I gave myself the freedom to convert most of their portraits into the requested old Hollywood silver screen look. The key component would be a certain studio light setup, which wouldn’t be feasible for our outdoor and mobile couple photoshoot in Central Park, but I played with the black-and-white conversions, enhanced with the tilt-shift effect that my 85mm f/1.2 lens can help imitate.
These are just the studio’s favorites, not the full gallery. Kindly refrain from re-uploading images to social media during the first week of the feature. “Share” instead and give credit to @ZorzStudios!
It’s a long shot to deliver the entire collection in B&W to a client, of course. I only did one hilarious family shoot entirely in B&W, promptly calling it Antifam. So, I gave some color to a few other images:
This couple photoshoot in Central Park, as ordinary as such sessions could go, turned into a statement and will hold a special place in my heart and portfolio. I’ll conclude with Kosh’s feedback:
