I don’t think I’ll ever grow tired of shooting engagement and couple’s photos! I mean who doesn’t like getting to pretend like you’re creating a romance story on the beach, right? ;) When you find the one your soul was made for, there really is nothing like it. Holding hands with your best friend till you’re old and gray.
Love in the Desert | Laguna Beach Engagement Photographer
Meet THE world’s sweetest couple and 100% made to be soul mates! I actually had the super fun and amazing privilege to shoot their surprise proposal at Laguna beach the year before. I fell in love with them that day and was so excited when they let me know they were going to be back in Laguna and wanted some engagement photos taken! Since the proposal had been at the beach they decided to mix up the backdrop and I am SO happy for it too! These foothills are by far one of my favorite places to shoot at in Orange County with its completely true to life Southern California landscape, but still giving me my colors and skies that I live for. :)
Believe it or not it was super overcast the entire day before our session. And to top it off, as I drove up to the spot it started sprinkling! Since they were only in town for the day we decided to go with it, rain or shine. I had my rain cover all ready to go, but just so fitting for their sweet love, as soon as we started the sky decided to part just enough to allow the most amazing sunset to come through! I would be lying to not say I was in complete photographer bliss!
I am so happy for these two and their beautiful future together. And I can’t wait to get them behind my lens again someday—maybe with a pregnant belly too. ;)
Number One Thing to Do In Orange County: Newport Beach Photographer
When you think of Orange County what’s the first thing to come to mind?? BEACH, right?!?! Seriously, what would this place even be without its cliffs, rocks, and breathtaking blues? A trip to the OC would be a total failure without a trip—or two or ten—to our crazy breathtaking shores. Ok, yes, I may be argued that in fact the number one attraction here is Disney Land. And I won’t complain in the least if that’s your thought process as over half the families who come to me do so during their week long trip to Disney! BUT as many days as they spend with Mickey their mouth always drops just a bit when they step on our Pacific land.
When we first moved to the OC we spent our every last spare minute on the sand. And I every last click of my shutter. My car was perpetually one large sandbox and my trunk filled to stock with shovels, buckets, and extra towels. Because even on the days we were just going to “hang out” one of my kids still did not fail to get soaked. ;)
I come to the beach so often to shoot now that I actually rarely take my own kids here. But still my car is one large sandbox as (little secret) I LOVE to shoot right there in that magical number one salty beauty. And I just love how fitting it all is, how things really do seem to run full circle. I get asked to shoot at the beach almost exclusively these days. The very place where I first learned all the ins and outs of photography. The place that always brought us peace at the end of a long day.
Winter usually means we run more from the water, getting little more than our feet wet. Not the case when it comes to my favorite kind of people though—Canadians. It was 50 degrees with winds 19 miles per hour. For us local OC folks, that is simply polar vortex terms. ;-) But they had just been in negative 40 windchills the week before. “It’s not too bad out!” they told me, and made all my water loving dreams come true.
I’ve been starting to do more and more couples shoots over the past year and YOU GUYS!! This genre I used to be so crazy intimidated by is becoming one of my very favorites! Still though, it doesn’t make me want to do any weddings yet. ;-) Sticking to romantic sunsets for now!
Why I Shoot Engagements But Not Weddings | Newport Beach Photographer
Whenever I tell people I am a photographer the first thing I am generally asked is, “You do weddings?” A quick look around my site probably tells you the answer to that one. :-) And maybe someday I will start taking them on, but for now my love for this whole family photography thing runs too deep. My sessions are very laid back and fun in nature. I mean what brings people more calm than running along the sand? ;-) I’m a mom of littles and passionate about freezing those fleeting moments. Wedding are a whole other beautiful ball park, that mushy mom hearted, easy going self probably couldn’t handle at this time. BUT engagements sessions, well, I love those just as much as six kids!
Generally, when you book a wedding photographer an engagement session comes along with it as part of the package, and for this reason I get very few inquiries. Every so often though someone has an out of state, destination, or backyard vows and in this case I get to let all the romantic poses out of the bag.
This evening was one of those, with the sweetest people you could meet who somehow believed me when I told them I wouldn’t make them do ‘ring around the rosie.’ Doesn’t mean I didn’t still have him swing her around a few times though. ;-) Pretty couple. Pretty beach. Pretty amazing afternoon. They made me wish I did shoot weddings, just so I could do more of these engagements!
This last moment made my entire day as just that morning I had put a pic up from the summer calling it my ‘final ode to summer,’ and explaining how it was just too cold out now to get too wet.
Fast forward a few hours and I go and meet these two who brought all my wet waves dreams back to reality—at least until next summer rolls around again. ;-)
