Photographing couples is always an ever-changing experience for the photographer and that is also true about this Scotland couple photoshoot we recently did. When you look at all the pictures of the many couples we’ve documented thus far, it just seems like a bunch of cool compositions and fun-times (we hope :D)–but from our perspective, each session was incredibly unique from all the others based on their individual personalities as well as their special dynamic. It’s always a challenge in one sense to make sure you accurately capture both their personalities as well as their relationship, but on the other hand we never get bored and are always meeting and learning about new people, which is just fantastic 😀

Maggie is a photographer herself, and also has been a model for photoshoots before, but Ed had never really been in front of the camera, so he was a bit worried that he will not know what to do, or that he wouldn’t be photogenic enough. So we started with some coffee for me (Pavel) to get me through my lack of sleep, and beer for Ed so he gets through the stress. Both of us felt much better after it (and Maggs just felt awesome from the start :D).

Beginning in the place where our couples live is an amazing thing for us to experience. Seeing how Maggie would love to grow some plants, but that they are all dried up on the window sill is actually a wonderful little dose of un-faked up reality we LOVE to capture. We don’t like to fake that your lives are something they are not, or that you’re a different person than you are. We always say that we’d genuinely just want to capture the real you. And that might sound cheesy and stuff, but it is all true (who wants to look at photos of themselves not being themselves?!). So even though Maggie wanted to hide the flowers I told her that she should keep them there! And we are so glad she did 🙂

I love that we as photographers can be creating art wherever we are. We choose what to include and what to hide in our frames. The tiny apartment room of Maggs wouldn’t look like a great place to take photos to many people, but for me it was just magical (I should have taken a photo of the other side so you all would know what I am talking about, but I think that Maggs would fly here to Chicago to personally kill me :D).

We continued at Salisbury Crags, which, for those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s a gigantic hill in the middle of Edinburgh. For someone who lives and shoots most of the time in Illinois, it looks like the biggest mountain in the world. How big is it? Well, let’s say that both of my knees started losing it and it created a lot of pain for me. Either I am super old now, or weak. You decide 😀

It started to rain a bit and we saw how everyone started leaving back to the safety of the city, but we decided to continue and climb a bit higher. And I am confident to say that it was worth it! After some time and hundreds of photos we went back down only to realize that Maggie lost her beret somewhere up in those hills. She just wanted to let it go, but before she was able to say anything Ed started running back up to find it  (that is real love for you all :)).

When he came back with the hat, we took only few more photos back in the streets of Edinburgh and they went to continue having awesome lives. And I left satisfied and partially dead back to my AirBnb with great memories and photos which I think you will enjoy (Maggie and Ed told us that they loved them, so we hope you will too).

It was an amazing session, but it doesn’t matter if we are in Scotland, Czech Republic, Illinois or anywhere in the world. These photos literally capture a moment in someone’s life and save it for generations to come. That is why we love doing what we do. It is not just creating art, it is not just a lot of fun. It is something that will last until the internet breaks down (print your photos people!) 🙂

We also shot this wedding session in Edinburgh so check it out after you see this one 🙂