A Rainy Engagement Session at Lynn Valley in North Vancouver
There’s something about the forests of North Vancouver that we’ve always wanted to shoot in; they’re moody, dramatic, and beautiful even on a rainy day.
We spent the winter on Vancouver Island, and on our way back to Toronto we made a detour into Vancouver to meet up with Maddy and Ed for their engagement session in North Van. We'd been looking forward to this one as Lynn Valley has been on our radar for a while, and these two felt like exactly the right people to shoot there with.
We met at End Of The Line General Store, which immediately gave us some fun material for a more urban, street-level contrast to what we were about to head into. The trailhead is right across the street so we made our way down into the valley, only to find it partially closed. As it turned out, this was actually the best possible thing that could have happened! The section we had access to was completely empty; no other hikers, no interruptions, just the four of us and a very moody, very beautiful stretch of forest. We'll happily take it!
We'd normally encourage couples to reschedule an engagement session if rain is in the forecast but we had such a small window to shoot with Maddy and Ed before leaving BC (literally 1 day lol), so we decided to go for it regardless of the weather. And honestly, we're so glad we did! They showed up in great spirits, completely unbothered by the fact that they were getting absolutely soaked, and that energy came through in every frame. Their photos ended up feeling playful, a little dramatic in the best way, and so like them: adventurous, warm, and genuinely fun.
Film was important to Maddy and Ed, so Ethan spent most of the session shooting on film while Stef covered digital. For the digital edits, we leaned into a similar feeling using grain, motion blur, a few perfectly imperfect moments, not to exactly match the film, but to give the whole gallery a cohesive, lived-in quality that felt right for the session.
We had been counting on the dense forest canopy for some rain cover but spoiler: either it was raining harder than we anticipated (it was), or the canopy wasn't quite as dense as it looked (it wasn't), or both. All four of us walked away completely drenched but we had zero regrets. After the session Maddy and Ed pointed us toward Pho Goodness in East Van, which after spending an afternoon in the cold rain, really hit the spot.
If you're planning an engagement session in Vancouver, in rain or shine, we'd love to be there!
