A snowy engagement session at sunrise in downtown Charlottesville

How many people would be up for taking engagement photos on not just a cold January day, but the coldest part of the day on one of the coldest days in January? Gotta assume it’s not many of y’all. My car’s thermometer read 17F when I parked just after sunrise, for reference. But Caitlin and John were super down, and the absolutely freezing weather did mean that we were gifted the rare Virginia snowy morning. I’ve never gotten lucky enough to photograph a session while it was actively flurrying in 7 years of photographing weddings

We started on the downtown mall to hit a couple iconic spots and then kind of just wandered wherever the morning took us. My favorite spot was this very unassuming corner of IX Art Park that normally would look like nothing special but was giving heavy winter wonderland vibes on this day. The snow in the pine was so beautiful. Couple that with some gorgeous sunrise light and Caitlin + John having the absolute best time despite the well-below freezing temps and you’ve got one of my favorite C-Ville engagement sessions of all time. This was such a good day. :)