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dc engagement photos / national arboretum

in the midst of all the rain frustrating all the dc wedding photographers it literally could not have been nicer out for rachel and brad’s engagement session. we hit the beautiful national arboretum for their dc engagement photos and basically spent the afternoon clubbing trees. i also make an appearance thanks to brad’s nifty photo skills while holding my camera. needless to say… i wasn’t really prepared to be scaling tall limbs, but it was totally worth it. rachel just got back from asia, while brad just returned from iraq and needless to say i had no problem capturing their connection.

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18 Comments
  • #22 looks freaking awesome dude! You KILLED this shoot!

  • Wow Sam. Best location for an engagement shoot ever. Love this one the most I believe: https://www.samhurdphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/dc-engagement-photos-arboretum-5.jpg

  • Another lovely engagement shoot 🙂 absolutely LOVE the second image! Seeing behind the scenes of scrambling over the tree limbs was a fun little surprise as well, haha.

  • Unlike everyone above, I will not tell you how awesome these photos are or how awesome that couple was (although its all true). Instead, I will tell you that you did not use enough heavy photoshop actions and you forgot the brick wall background. Ha, stunning work man!

  • These two were obviously at ease in front of your camera; looks as though everyone involved had a blast. The bursts of laughter made for some really pretty shots.

  • Dude! How rad are those columns? Beautiful work brotha.

  • Love the tilt shift effects, and love how you’ve captured their emotion and personalities as they are. Great job!

  • These are so so fun! I love the ones in the tree and that first one.

  • These are all so sick, Sam. I mean you are truly one of the best, IMO 😉 I love #2 & #5 especially.

  • Nice, love those TS shots

  • The one where she’s laughing out loud is my favorite. You really know how to use your TS. 🙂

  • SUPER SUPER cute couple!!

  • Lovely, lovely images…so much fun to look at!!

  • Gorgeous set. I love the way they look at each other!

  • Man! What an awesome location. The portraits are so inventive, and Rachel and Brad are just gorgeous together.

  • I thought photo #1 was going to be my favorite.. then I started scrolling.. soooo many great shots, lovely work!

  • Sam, your photos are beautiful. Forever, amen.

  • This is going in my top ten favorite posts by photographers EVER. Seriously, this session is what it’s all about: you caught the emotion behind them with gorgeous tilt shift skills, the processing upped the ante with amazing beauty, and the couple themselves were fun and had a chemistry easy to see.

    That second shot blows my mind.