Engagement | Jess + Ryan - Taurie Studd Photography

It’s blogging season, which means I’m finally dusting off all the photo galleries that quietly waited their turn during the whirlwind of session season. Today, I thought I was ready to share Jess and Ryan’s in-home newborn session with their sweet baby girl, Rory from this past spring… only to realize I had somehow skipped right over their engagement session entirely 🫠

So today feels like the perfect excuse to step back in time (way back to 2021!) and relive their unforgettable, stormy engagement session. And like any good story, it deserves to start at the beginning.

Jessica went to nursing school with my sister, and as it turns out, Ryan’s uncle was as a groomsman in my parents’ wedding in 1989. Proof that the world is far smaller than we often realize.

The original plan was to do engagement photos at a creek near their home in Allegany County, but days of storms had left the creek high and muddy. So we pivoted, chasing clearer ground and finding ourselves at the top of a hill on their property, standing in the middle of a hay field.

Behind them, dark clouds gathered, heavy and dramatic, as if the sky itself was holding its breath. Somehow, the storm held off just long enough. The wind, the light, the mood— it all came together in a way no amount of planning ever could.

What unfolded was one of the moodiest, most powerful engagement sessions I’ve ever been a part of—and one I’m so excited to finally share.

p.s. click here to see their full wedding blog post