If you've grown up in Toronto, you probably know the CNE as one of the most enjoyable date spots in the city. It's the perfect excuse to spend an evening eating a ton of popcorn, get super competitive over games, and grab your partner's hand just so you can drag them through the crowd to the next thing. So is there even a better setting for a shoot..? I think not
This was a vision Sofia came to me with for a shoot with her and Ben, and I was super excited to make it happen. We wanted the photographs to feel playful and a little vintage, think stills from a movie about young love. You know the vibe!
And so, the opening night of the CNE, that's exactly what we set out to do.
We started the shoot by wandering through the grounds, looking for rides and pockets of the space that would make for fun photographs. I knew I wanted to capture the energy of the place rather than have us settle into one spot for a traditional portrait session. There are always so many people at the CNE, and its an absolutely chaotic and bustling atmosphere, so I wanted the photos to reflect that entirely. That involved a lot of running.
We eventually made our way to the Wave Swinger, which ended up being one of my favourite spots to photograph that evening!!
I experimented quite a bit with a slower shutter speed throughout this shoot. By allowing the camera to capture movement over a longer period of time, I could keep Sofia and Ben as the focus while the people around them blurred into streaks. The CNE was the perfect place for playing around with this technique. Rather than trying to eliminate all the movement happening around us, I wanted to use it to our advantage to create more atmospheric images.
And naturally, we couldn't spend an evening at the CNE without going on the Sky Ride, playing ring-a-bottle, and ending the night with a Ferris wheel ride and one final purchase of popcorn. I mean, come on, if you're going to do a CNE date, you do have to commit to the experience.
For the most part, though, we just had fun with it. We wandered, ran around, played games, and took photographs whenever something caught our eye. I wasn't looking for everything to be perfectly posed or for every frame to be crystal clear. I wanted the images to feel spontaneous, which was a blast for everyone.
One of the things I love most about photographing couples is getting to build a session around the things they genuinely enjoy doing together. Your photos can be literally anything that feels most authentic to you, because sessions that give us permission to play make for the most fun images.
Sofia and Ben, thank you for bringing me along for such a fun evening :) I'd happily do this again
