Having Professional Photos for the First Time
Hannah-Ruth and Ivana fell in love at a train station bar and have passed every test – traveling, bureaucracy and board games. They decided to have professional photos taken together, and although it felt awkward initially, they settled in and got some incredible memories captured.
Tell us about how your love story began.
Our love story began in a train station bar in Vancouver on a Friday evening at 5:30. Both of us had been dating on the apps and were tired of it, but liked the look of each other and thought we’d meet up for a drink; if it crashed and burned, we could get the bill by 6, say goodbye, and be home for dinner.
Many drinks, many stories, many laughs, and a few tipsy near-falls on the bar’s spiral staircase later, five hours had passed.
A tech jock and an academic, we never really would have met otherwise, so we both count ourselves pretty lucky.
In the months following and the years since then, we’ve passed every test: traveling, finding parking in a busy area, doing bureaucracy together, playing board games, and agreeing on the superiority of the oxford comma.
How has your relationship changed over time?
Our relationship didn’t actually change very much, but our security in it did. Our first trip together also marked the point by which we’d both met each other’s families, where some of the most important people in our lives had met the person that we had chosen to love and welcomed them.
How do you support each other?
There’s nothing particularly special here! In more difficult times, we support one another by trying our best to listen to one another’s concerns and worries and figuring out how best to deal with them, either with a tangible solution or a pint of ice cream.
Otherwise, we’re just fans of whatever the other person does to bring them joy (sport, dancing, or whatever it may be) and gladly show up to cheer lead.
Tell us about your experience having professional photos taken together, for the first time.
The experience was a little awkward initially, but fun!
Kelly was great in helping us approach it and relax, especially given that we’d never done this sort of shoot before. It takes a second to figure out how to behave in front of a camera, especially if you’re not always happy to have your picture taken or be perceived in any tangible way at all (Ivana).
Once we settled in, it was fun to splash around in the freezing water, be playful, and then hang out back in our room. It felt like we were having a chat with a friend, and that friend just so happened to be taking pictures.
We’d definitely do it again!
What does your future together look like?
The future together is wide open; one of us is finishing up graduate school and there’ll be a lot to figure out after that. We have lots of ideas and plans, but once that’s done we’ll be able to see how life will take shape— and that’s exciting!
Beyond that, the greatest battle of all awaits us: whether to use overhead or mood lighting in our future home.
Photography by Kelly Schuster Photography
