“Quick, the sun’s come out! Drop your things and turn around!”

That’s how I ended up taking my favourite four shots of this engagement shoot. Read on to see them. :)

Ian and Miranda are a lovely couple from America. They contacted me because they wanted to do an engagement shoot in Ireland, on their holidays. “Cool, let’s do it!” I said. “Do you have a preference on where?”
“Somewhere by some cliffs!”
“Cliffs? I know some good cliffs!”
And that’s how we ended up in Ballycotton!

Now this wasn’t your usual ‘dash to the destination, do the couple photo shoot and then leave again’ kind of situation. No! It was my duty to show these foreigners our beautiful county! So this turned out to be half a guided tour with some photos sprinkled in. It was my first time doing something bigger like this and not “just” a couple shoot on its own. And it was pretty fun, I must say!

So we headed off to the cliff walk in Ballycotton, did a good section of the walk in some dodgy weather, while photographing cute couple photos here and there with different backgrounds. I was milking this scenery! That’s when they let me know; they’re getting married in a couple of months and want to use these photos for the invitations! Now this is perfectly acceptable and even recommended. So why was I suddenly sweating? The pressure was on to perform and take some top notch engagement photos, I couldn’t let them down! So I dug down a little deeper, to make sure they would have some ace couple photos, no matter what the conditions were.

At first, I was a little more trigger happy than usual, the rain was set to come back and it had been raining almost the entire drive to Ballycotton. I had packed rain jackets and even an umbrella as a back up. I could stand in the rain and take the photos while the couple look cute under an umbrella. That’s the ultimate back up.

Halfway through our hike Ballycotton really delivered. The clouds opened up and suddenly, we were bathing in the most golden rays of sunshine. That’s when I took my favourite photos of this entire shoot! It’s like Harry Styles’ song, “I’m so golden!

They are my favourites and I wonder which photos will be used in the end for this important wedding invitation card, although the rest aren’t bad either and would also be great candidates,

We reached the beach on the cliff walk. One of my intended destinations for this shoot. With cliffs in the background, just like Miranda had asked for, I used that lovely, soft sunset light. A gorgeous set of photos that I am also very happy with. They really are a lovely couple together! But besides the multiple, multiple locations and a hike, that wasn’t the end of our day out, no.

I mean we can’t go to Ballycotton without checking out the harbour and having a closer look at the famous light house! And we can’t go to Ballycotton without having a quick stopover and a whiskey at the Castlemartyr Resort!

If you are planning on visiting Ireland and would like to book an adventure couple photo shoot in Cork like this with me, contact me here for availability. From simple, one stop locations to spending four to six hours touring County Cork and visiting several locations, with multiple photo shoots during the day (like here with Ian and Miranda), this will be an unforgettable holiday experience with gorgeous couple photos to take home!