Engagement session at Étang de Canet, near Perpignan

The Étang de Canet-Saint-Nazaire is a lagoon wedged between the Mediterranean and the Roussillon plain, ten minutes from Perpignan. Less than a meter deep on average, reed beds, traditional fishermen’s huts restored with natural materials, and the Canigou rising to 2784 metres in the background. It’s the kind of place where late afternoon light does something quite radical. That’s where I met Liza and Greg for their engagement session.

An engagement session is, in theory, a good idea. In practice, it’s useful for one thing above all: learning to feel comfortable in front of a camera without a hundred guests watching. On the wedding day, that awkwardness is gone, and what’s left is what you see in the images.

With Liza and Greg, we walked along the lagoon and waited for the light. At some point they found themselves ankle-deep in the water, at the exact moment the sun was flirting with the horizon. Yes, we had planned for that 🙂

The golden hour at the Étang de Canet is something else. The water is so shallow it reflects everything: the sky, the mountains, the colour.

Some images stay in colour for exactly that reason — the palette is part of the setting. Others shift to black and white when what matters is the geometry of the couple in the landscape rather than the shade of the sky behind them.

The session naturally splits in two, and that’s often what happens when a location is this visually loaded.