Brian Harte the photographer

A few weeks ago I was asked to go to Runswick Bay for an engagement shoot. Being one of my favourite areas of England I jumped at the chance.

Pulling in to the bay the weather was good, in fact it was great! So in an upbeat mood I went for a little walk along the beach looking for locations where I could take Peter and Helen. I decided to challenge myself and look for locations that you might easily walk past without a glance. Having had a look around I was quietly confident that I had my locations in the bag and decided a nice cup of tea was in order.

It was then that the nice tea-shop lady informed me that the weather was about to turn quite nasty. I found it hard to believe looking outside on a glorious day however I’ve experienced this scenario in the past and my gut feeling said to go with the tea-shop lady. So I ambled up the quaint narrow passages towards Peter and Helen’s cottage. In fact I got lost and had to ring Helen to come down and find me, but hey that doesn’t sound as good!

We quickly had a look over the clothes and selected a few tops and jackets to wear and hit the beach where the weather had turned to what I can only describe as “driving rain”. Hmmm….nice.

Keeping a big smile on my face I jollied them both along and managed to get some smiles from them in the rain. Helen’s prediction that “it would pass” was fast being proved wrong so we ran to one of my locations which would provide shelter. Here I shot them on their own and together getting some cracking shots but I wanted something more….

…I wanted them to get wet. No really I had some ideas but I also wanted to know if they trusted me, which they did, and I got each of them standing in the rain while I used a flash off camera (also in the rain which is not advisable if any photographer is reading) to get a fashion look for the photos. This turned out to be Peter’s favourite photograph and for me was evidence to them that whatever the weather I will take photographs and they will be great.

We moved back to their cottage where I took some window lit photographs as we dried out.

Helen was a bridesmaid at a wedding I photographed two years ago and I love it when people come back to me as I know I must have made a good impression first time around. I’m looking forward to their wedding and I hope to make it even more fun than their engagement shoot.

Peter and Helen have two romantic cottages they rent out. One at Runswick Bay and the other at Robin Hood Bay on the North Yorkshire coast and if you would like to find out more you can visit their website here.