Rinat Halon is a wedding, portrait, and commercial photographer in Orlando, FL. In addition to her photography business, Rinat recently authored the educational photography book What’s Wrong with my Camera? To see more of Rinat’s work, visit her website and follow her on Facebook & Instagram.
A few years back one of my closest friends and her husband were starting to drift apart. Their wonderful, loving, respectful marriage turned into a strand of routines held together by kids, mortgage, and “to do” lists. The close connection they had between them seemed to just fade away. Before they knew it, their marriage started falling apart at the seams.
A busy life led my friend and her husband to neglect the beautiful love between them. They didn’t even notice it happening, but as my friend told me, “One day I looked at him and saw a stranger.”
Could I help them? Being a photographer I am blessed with the opportunity to capture love. I have been photographing weddings and family portraits for over 18 years. Like any other professional photographer, I know how to capture that special essence of a loving relationship with the click of a button, and present this treasured time capsule to my clients through a beautiful portrait. But this was different. This was just two people in a marriage, I initially thought.
And then I realized – I was wrong. I could help them! I needed to take this couple back to their “why,” reminding them why it all started. Why they fell in love with each other. Why they got married. Why they made this huge, life changing, unparalleled-in-consequences decision to take two individual people and turn them into one. Basically, I needed to remind them of their love story.
I created the Our Love Story to celebrate a couple’s love. To celebrate the foundation their blooming family tree is planted on. And to have this personal love history presented as a family heirloom for generations to come.
For this new wedding anniversary portrait product line I added to my photography studio, I decided photographs were not enough. I also needed words to pull the story together and support the images. I created a list of relevant and emotionally triggering questions to ask the couple after their Our Love Story portrait session, with questions like “Where did you meet?” and “What’s your most memorable moment from your wedding day?” (The complete Our Love Story Interview Question List is available as part of the Our Love Story bundle.)
These questions often end up revealing deeper layers of the couple’s love, and things come up I never intended on asking. Like one couple reflecting back to the moment they realized the husband was having a heart attack. As that story unfolded in front of me during the Our Love Story session, their love connection became evident. When they reached out to comfort in each other, holding hands as they were telling me about the fear and angst they were feeling in those frightening moments, I picked up the camera and clicked.
Then I put together the couple’s answers with chosen photos and create a custom designed heirloom album. Initially I couldn’t find album page templates that were designated for text and photographs, so I created custom templates to fit my favorite album – Miller’s 8×8 Signature Album (these templates are part of the of the Our Love Story bundle).
The result? A beautiful reminder of the “why” for a loving couple celebrating an anniversary. An album they can reach for, look through, read, connect emotionally and be reminded of where their love story began. I look at it as a way of nurturing the love garden a couple plants together. A visual growth chart of their relationship.
Thais & Gregg’s “Our Love Story” album page, All Rights Reserved to Rinat Halon
Kelly & Jim’s “Our Love Story” album page, All Rights Reserved to Rinat Halon
As professional photographers I believe our photography talent is nothing short of a super power. I also believe it is our duty and responsibility to use this super power we were given to bring good to the lives of our clients. The Our Love Story heirloom album proves itself over and over again in my photography studio. When my clients share stories with me about how walking past their coffee table catching a glimpse of their album cover makes them smile. Or when they have an argument they go to the album and read some of the answers they gave during the interview, which in turn brings their love emotions for each other rushing right back.
When they tell me their children love flipping through this album and that the kids ask them to read their love story to them as a bedtime story – I know my work here is done.
Tags: Guest Post
