The Frick Engagement on Film
Pittsburgh Engagement Photos at The Frick - Gina & Nick
It’s winter, so I’m thinking back to warmer days and outings like this one. Nick and Gina have their upcoming 2023 wedding downtown at the Pennsylvanian, so I wanted their engagement session to provide complementary yet distinct images (opting for more greenery vs the urban setting around The Pennsylvanian). The Frick and surrounding Frick Park were just the ticket.
But first, a fun and completely unrelated story. I was on Vancouver Island for a wedding recently and talking with friends of the groom. I shared that I flew in from Pittsburgh. One woman said,
“Oh I love Pittsburgh, I was just there recently.”
Naturally I replied, “Oh ya? Are you from there?”
“Not personally, but I’m on the board at The Frick, so I’m often there for various reasons.”
“What a crazy small world. I live about 500 yards from The Frick and just had a wedding there 3 weeks ago! How’d you end up on the board?”
“Oh because my great grandfather was Henry Clay Frick.”
“Well, it sounds like you’re the perfect person to talk to about a policy that all weddings there have to hire me as the photographer.”
I didn’t really say that last one, but considered it.
Anyway, back to the actual photographing I did at The Frick. These were shot on a mix of film (Hasselblad H2 with Fujifilm Pro 400H) and digital (Canon R6). You can’t beat the colors from film, and I do my best matching my digital images to them. It’s never a perfect match, but often very close. I find sunlit greens and skintones are surprisingly tough to get right on digital if you don’t have a film photo to match them too. There’s just a perfect saturation and luminance balance that comes off a 400H or Portra film scan. There’s also this magical way film flares. You don’t get overly dark or muddy shadows. The atmosphere is still there catching all the light and retaining the gorgeous colors underneath:
Anyway, do I ramble too much about the details sometimes? I get it if you’re mainly here for the pretty photos. And girl, I sure do have the pretty photos. Below are a handful of my favorites from this session.
