California Coast & Redwoods Engagement

This is a shoot I've been stoked to make happen for years now. Danielle and I first met way way back in 2011 through social media. She happened to be coming to Seattle for work so I picked her up from the airport and we immediately went out and shot together. We created some photos that are still some of my favorites to this day. Needless to say, we've shot together countless times since then and I've always thought about how rad it would be to be able to document her engagement and wedding photos. 10 years later and here we are, heading out to a place on the California coast Danielle grew up visiting, to shoot their engagement photos.

I've known Vic for a few years now and any time I'm in San Diego, I'm always lucky enough to get to crash at their place and spend some quality time with them. They're such good people to be around. When Danielle and I were figuring out where to shoot at, she mentioned really wanting to go out to the coast where she spent a lot of summers as a kid. Plus, the Airbnb we stayed at is also where Vic proposed so it totally just felt like this was the perfect place to take these photos. Since we had a couple different locations and looks in mind, we decided to make it a multi-day shoot. Our first evening together was spent at this beautiful area on the coast with some epic rock formations that overlooks the coastline. The weather was perfect with a thin layer of clouds that started to develop later on into the evening which made for some really amazing lighting. After we got back to the Airbnb, Danielle + Vic, surprised me with a little happy birthday apple pie and sang happy birthday (my birthday was the day before)! I mean come on, they are the kindest people out there!

The next morning we took it nice and slow and woke up to a calm, foggy day. We wanted to take some photos at the Airbnb itself where Vic proposed so we figured this would be the perfect time to build a little fire to hang out around. It was awesome! After chowing down on some great diner food in town, we took naps and prepped to head out to the redwoods for the rest of the shoot. I haven't had a chance to shoot in the redwoods before so I was super pumped for this. Walking around these massive trees was so cool. It's just wild how big some of these trees area. It was really fun finding ways to show just how big they are by using Danielle + Vic for scale. After hanging out in the redwoods for a bit, we began our way back to the Airbnb to call it a wrap. On our way out, we were passing this field where a ton of elk were hanging out at. We pulled over to watch them a bit which was really fun. Just up ahead I noticed this empty field with so much golden light and knew we had to snag the last few photos here before heading home. I'm so glad we made this happen because we also got the most epic champagne spray photo I think I'll ever take. I love when shoots go 125% to plan and exceed what you're expecting. It was an absolute blast and I can't thank Danielle + Vic enough for letting me document this time for them. Cannot wait for the wedding in a few months!