I set up this sunset engagement photoshoot with Sandra & Pat with the idea that we could get some interesting sunset looks and after dark photos with my new lighting setup I’ve been using recently. We all met up in Long Beach Island, New Jersey and used a public park on the north end of the island for the location. Let’s start checking out a few of my favorite images from right before sunset, aka the ‘golden hour’.
As the sun started to get a bit lower in the sky, we switched up the location a couple of times in order to find the best views of the setting sun.
We did this whole shoot at a public park near the northern end of Long Beach Island, with this well known LBI lighthouse in the background.
The sun always seems to set super quickly when I’m on a photoshoot. Before we knew it, the sun had dropped below the horizon. Anyway I really liked these last couple of looks that we got after the sun had actually set and it was beginning to get dark outside.
All of the sudden, a random tugboat showed up and photobombed Sandra & Pat, but they took it in stride.
We kept working after it got complete dark outside, just to see if we could come up with some interesting looks in the super low-light at night.
Time machine back to the beginning of the shoot, we actually started the day just casually scouting out the park. We took a lap around the place without my lighting gear, while it was still super bright out— just get an idea of what the location could offer us. This time was also used to make some variety of brighter looks before the moodier, more colorful, sunset part of the shoot that we had planned for later.
Here’s a few of my favorite looks from that part of the day, when we just took a lap around the park without lighting gear, to check it out and snap a few natural/bright sunnier pictures before the sunset and golden hour would arrive.
We found this rock jetty area to frame up a few interesting angles. I was trying to find a way to make some interesting shots before the light got better around golden hour.
