Jake and Riley. A Couples Session in Mueller and North Loop, Austin.

Jake and Riley met us in Mueller and North Loop, two Austin neighborhoods that sit close together and photograph nothing alike, for an autumn couples session. The frame here says most of what needs saying: her hand on his face, both of them mid-laugh, shot through a gap so the city squeezes into the edges of the picture.

What we did not know at the time was that this session was reconnaissance. A few months later Jake contacted us quietly, booked what Riley believed was another shoot, and proposed on a walkway in downtown Austin. You can see how that turned out in their surprise proposal gallery.

Couples who shoot with us once tend to come back at the next milestone, because the awkward first twenty minutes of being photographed is already behind them.

Should you do a couples session before proposing? It worked for Jake. A prior session makes a photographer’s presence unremarkable, which is the entire disguise a surprise proposal needs. Friesen Co photographs couples sessions and proposals across Austin, Texas.