A Valentine's Day Love Story | by Franzi Annika

Charleston Engagement

Elevated photo session

I’d be lying if I said I don’t adore these two. It’s not only because they are this picture-perfect couple with amazingly sweet personalities but also because they trust me 100%. Always! It was the second time Therés and Chris were in front of my lens. Click here to see their out of this world Folly Beach sunset session a couple months ago.

When Theres reached out to me a week before Valentine’s Day asking if by any chance I would be available to do a session, I got super excited. For me this was no big deal since Martin and I do not really celebrate Valentine’s Day. We basically love each other unconditionally every day of the year already 😀

There was only one potential issue:

Therés is a very successful and busy model and actor and was coming from New York. She would land at around 5pm, fight her way downtown through rush hour traffic and get there before sunset at 6:00pm. As everyone knows, I don’t like shooting with a flash! And as everyone knows as well, traffic at 5:00pm is a nightmare… If you are a photographer, you know that this is where you start getting nervous. As soon as the light is gone, it’s gone! And at a certain time, you lose light pretty fast. It’s literally a matter of seconds. The big challenge that day was to find a spot that had the longest possible access to light.

With all the buildings downtown, it definitely had to be somewhere really high. A rooftop if possible. And where do you find public rooftops? Usually in hotels. After we got rejected by one hotel we didn’t have much time left. At this point it was certain that Therés and Chris wouldn’t make it until a couple minutes before 6:00pm.

My mind was rushing.

A race against the time isn’t fun at all. I turned around and there it was. A parking garage with on-deck parking! Martin and I rushed over, took a couple test shots while I was texting her the address. I was afraid that Therés must have thought I was crazy. You have endless options in beautiful Charleston and I chose the top of a parking garage… But that’s exactly what I meant earlier when talking about trust. The parking deck was our only option that night to get amazing images…and they never questioned me. Not a single second. They arrived at 5:57pm and we knocked out the most stunning images in 15 minutes.

Honest opinion? This might have been one of my favorite shoots so far. And again it shows that as long as you work with a little creativity and courage, everything is possible – especially with photography. With their crazy schedules – Chris is in the military– sometimes that’s how a photoshoot looks. Sometimes I have to accommodate my couples’ needs and that’s totally fine with me when the end result looks like the one below.