Whitefish Dunes State Park | Chris and Christine's Engagement Session

Chris and Christine were supposed to have their engagement session around sunset on August 28th, but when we checked the forecast that morning it showed a 60% chance of rain all day. Playing the percentages, Christine rescheduled her hair/makeup appointment to the next day and our session followed. It ended up not raining at all.

That night I watched a YouTube video by Veritasium (one of my longtime favorite channels) titled Is Success Luck or Hard Work? Did you know that 40% of all professional hockey players were born in the first third of the year (Jan. through Apr.) compared to 28% in the last third (Sep. through Dec.)? The idea is that age cutoffs for youth hockey leagues are the first of the year, so kids born early on the calendar are usually bigger, stronger, and more talented than those born later and typically receive better coaching and opportunities. These small differences compound year after year, and in the end your birthday is a major factor of if you’ll make it to the NHL.

I almost always shoot engagement sessions early in the morning or late in the evening because that’s when the light is usually best. However, Christine’s new hear/makeup appointment was mid morning, so we decided on a 1 PM start time (which is statistically a tough time to work especially by the water). But you know what? Everything worked out great; we had hearty sunlight in the woods, and the clouds came out when we moved to the water (exactly what I like).

Without rambling too much and talking about technical details you don’t care about, what I’m trying to say is that you can put in all the work and know exactly what to do and when to do it, but at the end of the day we’re just playing probabilities and sometimes luck is the deciding factor. Is it a coincidence that Chris was born in January and loves hockey while Christine was born in December and could care less? Maybe, but maybe not.

Enjoy the photos!