It is officially “engagement shoot season.” I’ve been here at my desk searching for inspiration, scheduling, planning and logisticating (yeah, I know, thats not a word) engagement sessions for the past week, and, you know, it’s so much fun. Just to start pre-visualizing all the fun stuff that we’re going to get to do with our couples… mmm, mmm.

Well, two weeks ago, Kristen and I got to head back to my ol’ hometown, Pittsburgh to meet and shoot Abby + Zack. Abby is my sister-in-law’s sister-in-law’s sister. No, I didn’t keyboard-stutter in putting that relationship down in print. And, as always, its so GREAT to work with family, no matter how far removed. They called, I said ‘yes,’ and that was that.

Abby + Zack meet in college, so we went to a neighborhood of Pittsburgh called Oakland, which I have many fond memories of from my own college years. As home to serveral colleges and universities, including Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, Carlow College, and Chatham Univesity, (and there might even be another one hiding there I can’t remember) I knew that it would be the perfect place for their engagement portraits. And, there, nestled smack in the center of all that is the Carnegie Library & Museum and the Cathedral of Learning, which set the stage for our shoot…

(If you’e wondering, the camera above is the one I cherish above all others: my Dad’s first camera, a 1952 Exa, the first affordable “amateur” SLR of the era.)

Abby + Zack fit together like a lock and key… :)

The antique hardware in these classic buildings gets me so excited… thank god she had the good grace to refrain from snapping a shot of me doing so, but as we were scouting while we were waiting for Abby + Zack to arrive, we passed this door, and I stopped and silently yelled (think mouthing with excitement, as we were at a Library) to Kristen “Look at this KNOB!” Ok, you might have had to be there; it was funny. But it was also a perfect prop for a ring detail.

And, of course, as Zack’s last name is Kostorick, this was only too perfect to pass up.

And who doesn’t love a little snogging in a momentarily empty library…

And on to the Cathedral…

So many great locations in one building! Abby + Zack, it was a blast hanging out with you and we can’t wait for your wedding in October!