Viewing entries in
Engagement Sessions

San Francisco Engagement Session @ Palace of Fine Arts and Baker Beach

San Francisco Engagement Session @ Palace of Fine Arts and Baker Beach

This two-location destination is a popular choice for my Indian couples wanting to capture a slice of San Francisco beauty during their engagement shoot. The Palace of Fine arts has towering masses of architectural brilliance along with a pond, trees, water features and expansive grass lawns. It’s a popular tourist spot, so making a shoot feel like nobody else is around can be a real challenge! Next up we went to Baker Beach, where you’re practically guaranteed to see amazing views of the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance, and old naked dudes even closer. Yep, it’s a nudist beach so there’s that to contend with. But these two braves the weirdness of this town and we got some stellar romantic photos at both locations. Enjoy.

Redwoods Engagement Session @ Nisene Marks, Aptos, CA

Redwoods Engagement Session @ Nisene Marks, Aptos, CA

This was a fun engagement session with a mix of natural light and off-camera lighting throughout the whole shoot. Nisene can be a pretty dark redwood forest, offering up moody, gritty photos; but if you make the extra effort to bring light into the equation, some truly creative awesomeness can be had. Below is a selection of my favorite photos from the shoot, enjoy!

Santa Cruz Engagement Session (+Family) at Natural Bridges

Santa Cruz Engagement Session (+Family) at Natural Bridges

Weddings often unite more than two individuals; sometimes they create a whole new family. That’s why an engagement session is sometimes something a little more, and I’m absolutely here for it! While it may be a little embarrassing for the kids to see the grownups, well, grownupping – it’s always a fun, rambunctious experience for all. Emily and Matt are tying the knot later this year, but we were able to fit in an amazing session between these crazy winter storms we’ve been having. We started at the rear entrance to Natural Bridges to get that woodsy feel, then followed some back trails before finally making it to the beach, where we were treated with a breathtaking sunset. Enjoy a few of my faves below!

Marriage Proposal / Engagement Photo Shoot at Panther Beach, Santa Cruz

Marriage Proposal / Engagement Photo Shoot at Panther Beach, Santa Cruz

Aside from weddings, I probably put the most effort into helping plan surprise proposals for romantic guys who really want to make this moment special for their girls. From detailed and diagrammed satellite imagery outlining the target area for where I’ll be waiting, to making sure I receive a selfie of the couple so I don’t accidentally “stalk” the wrong couple, I go to great lengths to ensure all the randomness of nature and life don’t prevent me from capturing the moment, then expanding that moment into many moments, guided by my experience and natural feel for this sort of thing.

Even though we had a surprise river bisecting the beach, even though the tide (and waves) were so high that we couldn’t explore half the beach, even though it was a Sunday afternoon and we had a ton of partying teens cheering the couple on – everything came together in a magical way that I hope was everything Shamik imagined it could be. Here’s the highlights of our short time together, I hope you enjoy them.