A couple from Texas hired me a few months ago for their NYC engagement session. They are getting married in New York later this year and flew in for a long weekend to do their engagement session, scout some details, and meet their planner. We scheduled the session for a specific afternoon, the date locked in months ahead. When the forecast came in for that week, it was raining. All day, no breaks, the kind of forecast that makes most couples panic and ask to reschedule.
They could not reschedule. They were flying back to Texas in two days, and the next time they would be in New York would be at their wedding.
It became one of my favorite engagement sessions I have ever shot.
I have a position on rain that the wedding industry generally does not share. Rain is not a problem. It is a gift. The light gets soft and even. The streets turn into mirrors. The architecture becomes saturated and rich. The crowds disappear. The couple, freed from the pressure to look perfect, actually relaxes into the day because it is no longer about looking perfect. The whole thing becomes specific in a way that a sunny session almost never is.
This post is what I tell every couple who calls me panicked about their forecast. It is also a real guide to shooting engagement sessions in NYC in the rain — what to wear, what to bring, where to go, and why you should not reschedule unless you genuinely have to.
Why you should not reschedule
The first thing I want to say is the thing that most photographers do not say.
When a couple looks at the forecast and sees rain, the impulse is to reschedule the session to another day. Sometimes that is the right call. Most of the time, it is not. The reasons it is usually not the right call are practical and aesthetic, and they are worth knowing before you make the decision.
Practically, rescheduling is often impossible or expensive. Hair and makeup are booked. Friends or family who were going to be part of the day are flying in. The dress or outfit is steamed and ready. Your photographer might not have availability for another two months. The cascading logistics of a reschedule are usually worse than just shooting in the rain.
Aesthetically, the photographs from a rainy session differ from those from a sunny session, and they are not worse. They are often better. The reflections on wet pavement double the city. The light is even and flattering instead of harsh. Umbrellas become props that add structure to the frame. Vintage cars look even more vintage on wet streets. The couple looks like they are in a movie rather than in a stock photo.
The couples who get rained on and shoot anyway almost always end up loving their photographs. The couples who reschedule almost always get a sunny day that looks like every other sunny day in their friends’ galleries.
The session that prompted this post
The route we shot was Bethesda Terrace in Central Park to DUMBO in Brooklyn, with a stop at the Lotte New York Palace at the end. Two hours. Steady rain the entire time.
We started at Bethesda Terrace because the covered passageway underneath, with the Minton tile ceiling, is one of the best places in New York to shoot in the rain. The architecture is gorgeous, the light is filtered, the rain stays outside the frame unless you want it in. The Terrace is also where almost no other photographers were working that day because everyone else had rescheduled.
From Bethesda, we walked out toward 72nd Street, where we had arranged for a vintage taxi from Film Cars to meet us. Film Cars rents classic vehicles for photography and film work in New York, and they are extraordinary. The taxi was a vintage yellow Checker cab that looked exactly the way you want a New York cab to look in your imagination. In the rain, it looked even better — the slick black hood, the chrome catching the gray light, the windshield wipers going.
The taxi drove us across to DUMBO with the rain streaking the windows. We shot inside the cab on the drive. We shot getting out. We shot under the Manhattan Bridge with the cab parked behind the couple and the cobblestones reflecting the whole scene. DUMBO in the rain is one of the most photographable neighborhoods in New York. The cobblestones turn into a mirror. The bridge looms. The buildings are saturated.
After DUMBO, the taxi drove us back to the Lotte New York Palace, where the couple was staying, for a few final frames in the courtyard and at the entrance. The whole session was two hours, door-to-door, with traffic factored into the timing.
Where to shoot in the rain
A few specific suggestions for NYC engagement sessions when the forecast is bad.
Bethesda Terrace’s covered passageway. The Minton tile arcade underneath the Terrace is one of the best rain-proof shooting spots in Manhattan. Architecturally beautiful, naturally lit, sheltered from the weather. You can shoot here for thirty minutes in a downpour and look like you are in a different city.
Grand Central Terminal. The main concourse, the Whispering Gallery, and the Vanderbilt Hall. All indoors, all photographable, and the architecture is so strong that the rain outside becomes irrelevant. (Permits are required, so this requires a bit of forethought!)
DUMBO. Counterintuitively, DUMBO is better in the rain than in the sun. The cobblestones reflect, the bridge looms, the wet streets double everything. The famous Washington Street view of the Manhattan Bridge looks dramatic rather than a postcard.
Inside a vehicle. This is the move that most couples do not think about. A car, a taxi, a subway car, an Uber. Shooting from inside a vehicle while it is raining outside is a whole genre, and it is one of the best ways to use rain as a feature rather than a problem. Hire a service like Film Cars, and the vehicle itself becomes part of the visual story.
What to wear in the rain
A few practical things that matter more than you would think.
Clear umbrellas. This is the single most important wardrobe decision for a rainy session. Black umbrellas are functional, but they cast shadows on faces and block light. Clear umbrellas let the light through, do not hide the couple, and read as elegant rather than utilitarian. Buy a pair on Amazon for under twenty dollars before your session.
Layer for warmth. Even a light rain pulls heat from your body. A trench coat, a wool overcoat, or a structured jacket reads beautifully in photographs and keeps you warm. Avoid hoodies and casual rain jackets — they read as activewear, which is not the register you want.
Shoes that can get wet. Not flip-flops. Not your favorite suede pumps. Leather, rubber, or weatherproof shoes that you would actually wear in the rain. Wet feet are miserable, and miserable people photograph badly.
A second outfit, ideally drier. If your session involves a route, the second outfit can be drier than the first. You change in a bathroom, a hotel lobby, or in the back of a vintage car. The contrast between the rain-soaked first half of the session and the more polished second half gives the gallery range.
What to bring
More towels than you think. For drying off umbrellas, gear, hair, the back of your dress, and the seat of the taxi if you get one. Bring towels.
An extra pair of dry shoes for after. Not for the session — for the moment the session ends, and you can finally take off the wet ones.
Hand warmers in cold rain. Rain in October or November in NYC is genuinely cold. Hand warmers in your pockets keep you photogenic instead of clenched and miserable.
Trust your photographer’s bag. Photographers who work in the rain regularly use systems to keep their gear dry. For what it is worth, my system on this session involved a backpack with an umbrella jammed down between the bag and my back, which kept both me and the camera bag dry while my hands stayed free to shoot. I am not saying this is elegant. I am saying it worked.
Why I love shooting in the rain
The reason I keep writing about this — and why I keep telling couples not to reschedule — is that the rain photographs are almost always the ones the couple ends up framing.
Rainy engagement sessions are specific. The rain makes them specific. The umbrella, the wet street, the way the couple is huddled together because it is actually raining on them, the cab, the windshield wipers, and the lobby they ducked into to dry off. These are photographs that could only have come from this particular day, with these particular people, in this particular weather. They are unrepeatable in the way that the best photographs always are.
The Texas couple sent me a note a few weeks after I delivered the gallery. They said they had been dreading the rain in the forecast for days before they flew in and were almost in tears the morning of the session. By the end of the two hours, they were laughing. By the time they saw the photographs, they were glad it had rained. They are getting married in New York later this year. We will see what the weather does then.
What to do if your forecast looks bad
Reach out to your photographer and ask them what they think. Not what you should do — what they think. A good photographer will have an honest answer about whether the rain is a problem or an opportunity, and you can trust their read on it. If they want to reschedule, ask them why. If they say let’s still shoot, trust them.
If your forecast shows rain and your photographer is me, the answer is that we should still shoot if we can swing it. We will figure out the route. We will pick covered locations where it matters. We will use the rain rather than fight it. We will probably make some of the best photographs we could.
If your forecast is looking bad and you want to talk about how to think about it, I would love to hear from you.
