Let me tell you something that almost never happens.
We were wrapping up. I was pulling out my flash for a few final shots, mentally closing out the session, and Jacob, who had shown up to Delaware Park an hour earlier not entirely sure what to do with his hands, looked around, pointed at the mirrored tree root sculpture across the way, and said: can we go over there and use that as a background?
In over years of photographing couples, I have never had a man ask for more photos. Not once. Not like that, not with genuine excitement, not with a creative idea already in his head.
That's what a good engagement session does. It takes two people who are nervous and awkward and completely convinced they're not photogenic, and it turns them into people who don't want to stop.
Maddie and Jacob were never in front of a professional camera before their session at Delaware Park this past July. By the end of the night, they were golden-hour dancing by the AKG sculpture garden and heading off to dinner to finish their date night. This is their story.
Delaware Park in July: A Creative Challenge
Here's what nobody tells you about shooting in Buffalo in July 2026: the Canadian wildfire smoke had settled into the sky and turned everything a flat, hazy grey. No golden hour. No warm orange wash on the water. Just diffused, even, slightly moody light and a photographer who had to get creative.
So we leaned into it.
Instead of relying on the sky, which wasn't going to cooperate, I used everything else. Branches framing the couple against the water. The underside of bridges. The natural canopy of the willow trees creating their own soft, enclosed world. The smoke that could have ruined the session ended up giving the photos a cinematic, slightly dreamy quality that honestly suited Maddie and Jacob perfectly.
Sometimes the best light is the light you didn't plan for.
How It Started: The Nervous Beginning
Maddie and Jacob arrived the way a lot of couples do, a little stiff, a little self-conscious, smiling that particular smile that says I want to be here but I have no idea what to do with my body.
We started gentle. Sitting together in the Rose Garden, snuggling close, low-pressure prompts that didn't require much more than existing near each other. And they were sweet, clearly in love, clearly comfortable with each other, but I could feel them thinking about the camera instead of each other.
That's when I knew we needed to move.
The Turning Point: Always Be Touching
The rule I use with every couple is ABT, Always Be Touching. It sounds simple but it changes everything. When there's constant physical contact, a hand on a waist, fingers intertwined, a forehead resting on a shoulder, the camera becomes an afterthought. You're not performing anymore. You're just with your person.
From the Rose Garden we moved to the water's edge at Hoyt Lake, and I started layering in movement. Walking together slowly, then pulling each other forward. Dancing, just swaying, nothing choreographed. Chasing. Whispering something in her ear and catching her reaction. Surprising Maddie mid-laugh. Grabbing each other for a kiss over and over until it stopped feeling staged and started feeling like a Tuesday.
Each prompt built on the last. By the time we reached the willow trees, Maddie and Jacob weren't thinking about the camera at all.
The Willow Trees: Where It Clicked
The long, sweeping branches create a natural canopy that blocks everything out, the city, the other park-goers, the grey sky, and replaces it with something that genuinely feels cinematic. We were tucked inside the curtain of branches with the lake behind them, and the photos from that spot have a romantic, almost otherworldly quality that I don't think either of us expected going in.
This is where it clicked. The nervous couple from the Rose Garden was gone. In their place were two people completely lost in each other, laughing at something private, moving together naturally, completely forgetting I was there.
That's the moment every photographer chases. We found it under the willows.
Across the Street: The AKG Sculpture Garden
Once we crossed Delaware Avenue to the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, the whole energy shifted.
The park setting had been romantic and soft. The sculpture garden was something else entirely, more playful, more unexpected, with strong architectural lines and interesting textures that gave the photos an editorial edge. This is where I pulled out my silliest prompts.
Run up and give her a bear hug from behind, go. Try to kiss her while she dodges it, and keep trying. Push and pull each other around the sculpture. The prompts that work best in a setting like this are the ones that feel like a game, because games make people laugh, and laughing people photograph beautifully every single time.
And then Jacob stopped me.
He'd spotted one of the large mirrored tree root sculptures, the kind with a reflective surface that catches whoever's standing in front of it, and asked if we could use it as a background with the flash.
His first ever professional session. Suggesting his own creative direction. Using flash and a mirrored sculpture.
I set up the shot. It was perfect.
What This Session Was Really About
Maddie and Jacob came to Delaware Park nervous. Genuinely, authentically nervous, the kind of nervous that makes you apologize for not knowing how to pose before you've even taken a single photo.
They left having had so much fun that they went straight to dinner to extend the date night. That, to me, is the whole point of an engagement session. Not the photos, though the photos are wonderful, but the experience of discovering that being in front of a camera doesn't have to feel like a performance. It can feel like an evening with your favorite person, with someone along to document it.
Jacob wanted more photos. Maddie was laughing so hard by the willow trees she could barely stand still. They found something they didn't know they had, an ease in front of the camera that's going to serve them beautifully when I see them again in 2027 at Shea's Seneca for their wedding.
Thinking About an Engagement Session in Buffalo?
Delaware Park is one of my favorite locations in the city, the Rose Garden, Hoyt Lake, the willow trees, the AKG sculpture garden right across the street, it gives you four completely different backdrops in one evening without ever moving your car. It works in every season, every light condition, and apparently even when the sky is full of wildfire smoke.
If you're newly engaged and nervous about being in front of a camera, good. That's normal. That's almost everyone. An engagement session isn't about already knowing how to pose. It's about learning, together, that you don't have to.
And maybe, by the end of it, you'll be the one pointing at the mirrored sculpture and asking to keep going.
