New season begins.

Have you ever heard the saying -"Time flys?" Well it sure feels like that for me lately. On March 1st we began the summer season for Excellence Toronto. Marianna made a few calls and now I have 35 engagement shoot scheduled for April/May. Boom.

So the first order of business is to explain why it is soooooo important for couples to take this photo session very very seriously. I vividly about how we started shooting engagement photos because every other photographer did, and then over a 2 year period how we have meta morphed having your portraits taken into a science. In fact, our engagement portraits are one of the main reasons we book so many weddings. Having an Excellence Photography portrait collage at the front of your Hall entrance is a sign of quality of the wedding you are having. Our weddings are among the finest in the world.

But it didn't start out that way.


11 years ago Marianna and I used to both go to engagement shoots. Marianna would shoot the photos and I the video. The whole thing took about 30 minute total. Well, we had to shoot a nice couple I wont say their names but lets call them Lisa and Mario. Anyhow, the shoot we scheduled for a Tuesday in July. Back then we were shooting at a place on Bathurst with a park for kids, a bridge with a stream under it.

This couple arrived 25 minutes late - they were lost, no directions. They were wearing nylon shorts, and neon shirts. He didn't shave (her either ewe). It was 95 degrees and after 10 minutes they had sweat marks under their armpits.

Needless to say, when they did meet up with Marianna they couldn't find too many photos they liked.

Was this their fault? I certainly wanted to blame them. That is until I met a legendary photographer named Monte Zucker at a WPPI convention in Las Vegas a year later. He explained to me that couples, families and people in general put their trust in us as photographers to provide instructions to guarantee images that will make them look their best.


In 1998 we started with adding a map to were we are shooting, confirming appts the day before and most importantly instilling a Dress Code.

Yes - I mean Dress code. These portraits are important. Imagine that you are now 50 years old. You have had 3 kids and been married for 25 years. You walk into your 5000 square foot house (hey we can dream!) and look at the engagement portrait you took over 25 years earlier. What would you do to improve it. Imagine that for 200$ you could have had a professional do your hair. And for another 100 bucks a real make up artist did your face.

OK that seems like a lot of money now. But think about it this way now. If you make $30,000 a year for 25 years - taxes you can expect to bring in approximately $550,000. I think you can afford it.

Select the best clothing for both of you. Set a standard that is the highest not just will do.


Here are a few of my personal favorite engagement shots.