Drue & Colin's Boston Elopement Session: First Look, North End, and Golden Hour at Fan Pier Park

Drue and Colin had already gotten married. Their actual ceremony happened at their temple back in Utah, so by the time we met up outside the Boston Massachusetts Temple in Belmont, just outside of Boston, there was no officiant, no program, no guests. Just two people in a wedding dress and a tuxedo, ready to spend a full day making photographs. That's a pretty great starting point.

They're both graduates of Berklee, studying music, which tells you something about who they are. Music at that level takes the kind of commitment most people talk about but don't actually practice. It requires faith in something that hasn't paid off yet. Drue and Colin brought that same energy to this session, and it showed.

The First Look

Because the couple had already had already been married, we decided to do a first look out in front of the Temple. The architecture of the Boston Massachusetts Temple is dramatic on its own terms, and it gave the moment a real backdrop. Whatever they were feeling when they turned and saw each other, the building behind them wasn't competing with it. It was holding it.

Formal Portraits on boston Template grounds

Before we headed into the city, we spent some time on the tree-lined path near the Temple. It's a quieter setting, the kind of place where the background doesn't compete for attention. Tall trees, clean sightlines, enough space to breathe between frames.

This is where we worked through solo portraits for each of them and then brought them back together for a few couple shots. I wanted a clear tonal break between the formality of the Temple architecture and the dense brick and noise of the North End. That path gave us exactly that. Soft, contained, a little removed from everything.

It also gave us time to settle in. First looks carry a lot of energy, and that energy doesn't just evaporate the second the moment's over. Working through portraits in a calmer environment lets a couple come back to themselves a little. By the time we finished on the grounds, Drue and Colin were loose, comfortable, ready. That matters more than people realize. The North End portraits you'll see later didn't happen because of some lucky burst of chemistry in a cold alley. They happened because we'd already put in the groundwork here.

A cozy romantic portrait session in the north end

This is the part of the day I keep coming back to.

We were in a narrow alley in Boston's North End, surrounded by dense red brick buildings, tucked into one of those tight corners the neighborhood is full of. It was cold. Not uncomfortable but manageable cold. cold. And you could see it on them.

But here's what I noticed: they didn't care. They wanted the photographs more than they wanted to be warm. That kind of commitment is not something you can manufacture on a shoot. You either have it or you don't, and they had it .

This is also where I want to say something about how I approach portrait work, because this session is the clearest example I have of it. I work in two different modes. The first is purely observational. I'm watching, listening, staying out of the way, and capturing what happens on its own. The second is different. In that mode, I'm taking in everything I know about a couple, their personalities, their style, where we're standing, what the light is doing, and I'm actively building something. I'm directing. I'm placing people. I'm making choices.

Some photographers treat those two modes as opposites. I don't. The portraits we made in that alley were set up. I put them where they were standing. But Drue and Colin's actual relationship is what filled those frames. The direction gave it shape. They gave it everything else. That's the distinction I'd been trying to articulate for a while, and this session is where it finally clicked for me.

Fan Pier Park at GFan Pier Park at Golden Hour

We finished the day by the water as the sun was going down. Fan Pier Park is one of my favorite spots for portraits, and dusk is the reason why. The light at that hour is lower, warmer, and more interesting than anything you'd get at noon. It wraps around people instead of flattening them. We didn't fight it or try to work around it. We just let it do its thing.

After the North End, the open water felt like a different world. The tight brick alleys, the cold, the narrow sightlines, all of that gave way to something broader and quieter. Drue and Colin had been moving for hours by this point. Formal attire, city blocks, cold air. But they didn't show it. If anything, they looked more relaxed here than anywhere else we'd been.

That's what a full day builds toward. You don't get that ease at the start of a session. You earn it. By the time we reached the water, Drue and Colin weren't thinking about where to put their hands or whether they looked natural. They were just there, together, and the camera was nearby. That's the version of a couple I want to photograph, and Fan Pier, at that hour, gave us exactly the right conditions to close on it.

A Night to Remember on Boston Harbor

I've shot a lot of sessions over the past twenty years. Most of them are good. Some are great. A handful stick with you in a way that's hard to explain to someone who wasn't there.

This one sticks.

It's not about any single frame. It's not about the light at Fan Pier or the brick in that North End alley, though both were working in our favor. It's about what Drue and Colin actually brought to the day. They were in formal attire for hours. They walked city blocks in the cold. They stood in a narrow alley with the wind cutting through and never once flinched or rushed me or checked their phones. That kind of commitment is rarer than people think, and it's not something I can coach into someone in the first ten minutes of a session.

What I can do is recognize it fast when it's there, and then build toward it. Every location choice, every transition between spots, every decision about pacing, all of it is in service of getting a couple to a place where they stop performing and just exist in front of the camera. Drue and Colin got there early and stayed there. By the time we hit the water at golden hour, the work was almost easy.

That's what the best sessions feel like from my side of the lens. Not effortless, but earned. And these two earned it.