Catherine and Chris's sunrise engagement shoot at St Mary's Loch

Catherine and Chris had their engagement shoot at St Mary’s Loch in the Scottish Borders, in the Yarrow Valley between Selkirk and Moffat, at sunrise on a March morning. Lanterns, a fire by the water, snow on the road, rain in the valley, and empire biscuits at a bus stop.

A fire by St Mary’s Loch at sunrise

We started with a fire down by the loch, just as the sun came up. Catherine and Chris had lanterns with them, and they wandered along the shore with those before settling in next to the flames with a coffee each. Nobody was posing. They were talking, laughing, sharing whatever it is you whisper to each other when you think the photographer can’t hear.

That’s the whole idea with a shoot like this. Give the two of you something to do and somewhere good to do it, and the photos sort themselves out.

Snow, wind and rain in the Yarrow Valley

Then the Borders weather did what it does. We drove down snowy roads and into steep valleys, the wind picked up and the rain came on. Catherine and Chris just got on with it, and the shots from the valley, with the two of them laughing in the rain, are some of my favourites from the morning.

Empire biscuits and love letters at a bus stop

My favourite moment, though, was a bus stop. They sat down out of the weather with a bag of empire biscuits and wrote letters to each other. No big backdrop, no view, just a bus shelter in the Borders and the two of them.

If you’re the kind of couple who’d rather eat biscuits in a bus stop than stand on a hillside pretending to look at something, this is the kind of shoot I want to do with you.

Catherine and Chris, thanks for the early start. See you at the wedding.