Some engagement sessions need a plan. This one needed an Instagram story.
Clara and Wyatt were already deep in wedding planning with me when Clara posted a story from inside Wyatt’s motocross shop – Ping King Cycles, the place he builds and races dirt bikes out of in Jacksonville. One look at that wall of tools, race number plates, and half-stripped engines, and I knew we had to shoot their engagement session right there. I told Clara it would be the perfect location. Wyatt didn’t need convincing either – he loved the idea immediately.
About five months out from their wedding day, we spent an afternoon in that shop, and it turned into one of the most fun, easy sessions I’ve shot. Clara and Wyatt are both a little shy one-on-one, but put them next to each other and something clicks – they’re flirty, playful, and clearly still a little obsessed with each other. My job was mostly just to lean into that and get out of the way.
Where It Started: Jeans, a Windbreaker, and a Whole Lot of Tools
We opened the session with Wyatt in his everyday uniform – jeans and a gray tee – actually working around the shop while Clara perched nearby in jean shorts, tennis shoes, and a vintage American-flag windbreaker that might be my favorite wardrobe choice of the whole day. She spent most of this part of the session doing exactly what she does best: watching him work and getting under his skin a little, in the best way. Sitting on the workbench. Lying across it while he sorted through parts. Handing him a wrench like she owned the place.
Wyatt kept coming up with little moments as we went – at one point he suggested grinding metal on one of his tools to his send sparks flying behind Clara in the shop, just because it would look cool. It did. That’s the kind of couple these two are: they don’t need much direction because they’re already having fun figuring out how to show off for each other.
The Wardrobe Change That Shifted Everything
Partway through, the energy shifted. Wyatt changed into full riding gear – pants, boots, the works – and Clara traded her windbreaker for a tight little white dress and a pair of thigh-high silver, sparkly boots that caught every bit of light in that garage. If the first half of the session was playful and easy, this half was pure heat.
Wyatt rolled one of his bikes to the open garage door, revved the engine, and filled the doorway with smoke while Clara posed just outside it – a little hazy, a little dramatic, exactly the kind of image that doesn’t happen unless someone actually knows how to ride. Then he took the bike out to the dirt course next to the shop and ran circles around her while she stood in the settling dust, completely unbothered, like she does this every day.
Back to Each Other
We closed things out the way it started – just the two of them, no bike or garage between them. Clara climbed on the back of the bike with him for a few frames, and the flirting turned into something quieter. Then we ended up back by the chain-link fence at the edge of the property, where they wrapped up in each other for a kiss that felt like the whole session distilled into one image. That’s the moment I always chase – not the smoke, not the sparks, just two people who clearly like being close to each other.
The Story Was Always Them
This is exactly why I don’t ask couples to pretend to be someone they’re not or choose a location simply because it photographs well. Clara and Wyatt invited me into a place that already meant something to them – his shop, her humor, their shared confidence, and the way they naturally fit together. The result wasn’t a styled engagement session with a motorcycle. It was a collection of photographs that feels unmistakably like them.
A few months later, I had the honor of photographing their wedding day too – a celebration every bit as joyful, genuine, and full of personality as this session. You can read the next chapter of their story here: Rain, Left-Handed Cigarettes, and All.
Ready to Tell Your Story?
Every couple has places, traditions, and little pieces of their relationship that make their story uniquely theirs. Whether it’s your favorite beach, a downtown street you always wander together, your backyard, or a place no one else would think to photograph, those are the locations that create the most meaningful images. If you’re looking for engagement or couples photos that feel natural, connected, and unmistakably like you, I’d love to help bring that story to life.
Explore my couples and engagement photography to learn more, or get in touch to start planning your own session.
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