This Gen Z love photoshoot brought the youngest couple I’ve ever worked with to a cool and sexy photo session spanning a movie theater, studio, hospital, and the rainy night city.
Meet Teddy and Leo celebrating their Gen Z love, the youngest couple I’ve worked with for a romance photoshoot. I felt shy to ask their age but they look around 20 to me, possibly even under.
As you may know, I am no stranger to engagement sessions which I tout as edgy and adventurous artistic celebrations for pre-wedding couples. Naturally, they present the bulk of relationship photoshoots for any photographer offering wedding photography. It is pretty sad that such sessions vanish in the married life so I root for those few married couples who keep the creative flame going in their lives, like this Indian couple who flew me to Nice and Monte Carlo for their romance photography session.
And here we come to Teddy, who boldly defies all norms of waiting for that serious M stage in life to hire a professional photographer. She Googles and contacts me to celebrate their first anniversary with the Gen Z love photoshoot. The shoot date earlier this month fell right on the 12-month mark of their first date! See that “TWELVE”? Ah, ah, aaaah? Smart. <pfft> But you may appreciate the word play even more learning that “TWELVE” sign is inside the very AMC movie theater in Kips Bay where they had that date!! Baam! <Patting myself on the back> That’s where we started the 4-hour shoot. I arrived earlier and chatted with the staff to sweet-talk us into shooting inside. Sweet management they are!
Next, as part of my planning, I learned that a nearby Bellevue Hospital also managed to play a role in their young relationship. Definitely not luckily, both of them happened to be admitted to it throughout their 12 months and they visited each other for a support. How crazy? The hospital briefly made it to the shoot with a symbolic hand-in-hand gesture.
As we walked on the streets, it started to rain as forecasted. I was in fact looking forward to it and glad that we couldn’t change the date (remember, anniversary). Rain is so elusive in portrait photography! Most clients avoid it and reschedule whenever possible but I love it. I love it personal life and I love the mood in photos. They pulled out an umbrella and I got my camera tucked into a special bag that I’ve used for years now, including the dramatic maternity shoot in Greece where you can see it in the behind-the-scenes.
We were yet to get into the real rain but first, entered the studio for clean editorial portraits. I wanted to achieve a contrasty fashionable lighting effect so I only used one portable source of light, my Pocket Wizard triggered speedlight which I held in my extended hand. And then I asked Leo to hold the flash above them for a sexy and rebellious under-the-lamppost feel.
Finally, we went back out to the Flatiron District streets stopping by The Little Beet where I spotted that “It’s All Good” sign. The rain intensified, presenting a new and even lesser-used opportunity to shoot in the dark rainy NYC. My lens kept catching the droplets but I didn’t try wiping them too much — loved the resulting speckles! The setup reminded me of the rainy night Times Square shoot for an emerging singer Annamaria. With some directing and timing on the intersections, we had a ton of fun depicting the over-the-puddle jumping and carefree Gen Z love against the urban traffic lights. Yass!
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[…] may get enough from the shoots they are hired for. And, there was one very young couple who did a romantic photoshoot with me just for fun, for no […]