This is the expansive land preserve called “Al Sabo” near Texas Township. A popular place for bikers, nature lovers and photographers, there is a variety of greenery, deep woods and silvery bushes to use as a backdrop. Angie and Colby are to be married this summer in Colorado, and they have a photographer out West for their wedding event, but we met at the Kalamazoo Wing’s Stadium Bridal Show in January, where they won a $150 print credit, perfect for printing a wedding display of engagement session images!
Their dogs started the evening with us so we could get some whole family pictures in the fields! 
Then, we went deeper into the trails for romance!
Al Sabo has some great golden hour sun flare locations! And they ROCKED their super model pose in the woods. (Don’t worry, I teach you how it’s done! I love creating high fashion images with all kinds of people. You don’t literally have to be a super model or know how to pose!)
And these close ups… Angie has the most perfect eyebrows! My photographer friends know I’m obsessed with great eyebrows. These have the perfect arch, the perfect color for her hair, they are expertly groomed, and I didn’t touch them at all in Photoshop! Seriously. Natural perfection! 
I say a great black and white image is a contrasty scene that can handle areas of TRUE BLACK, and areas of TRUE WHITE. In my opinion (since art is subjective), de-saturated grayscale “black and white” images are more properly called “Monochromatic”, and I think they typically lack impact. If you tell me you love black and whites, you won’t get a lot of “newsprint” colored images, but bold, deep, clean TRUE black and white shots. Those are the best! This smaller image below, is a more newsprinty style commonly called Noir. If you look up that word, you’ll find connotations that are even a bit naughty. Noir is the French word for Black, but when applied to art, it means “dark” and often in a more morbid sense. I use a Noir tone if I can tell the image will still carry impact because of other elements. In Angie’s case, below, her black dress allows me to get away with the matte noir look in the smallest image. Notice that one has no true white anywhere in it? The woods and the trees are all varying tones of gray! The larger ones are clean black and whites, with true white showing in the light between the trees, and true black in her dress. I love them both, but clean is my favorite! 
