We left Seattle fairly early in the morning and drove out an hour or so to this beautiful lake off of Interstate 90.
Teslim had relayed the idea that he and Chibuzo wanted to bring their traditional attire from their African country and be photographed in a classic PNW setting. So I suggested this lake and without hesitation, they were up for it.
What a beautiful day this was with no one around.
Sleep deprived and all, we had so much fun exploring the South island the first day. Chak, Luna, and I left early before the sun rises to make sure we were one of the first people at Skogafoss, which arguably is the most popular waterfalls in Iceland. There were a few people at Skogafoss so we kinda had the whole place to ourselves and were able to do all of the photos we wanted to get. We then explored Iceland’s iconic Black Sand Beach just right before Vik. This place was so wild, I had never seen anything quite like it. The rain hit us hard so we decided to head back to Reykjavik for the night.
For the second day, we explored the Northwest part of Iceland. The same thing went for the second day, we left before sunrise so we can make another stop at a popular place, Kirkjufell. On the way there we found really cool places to stop and take photos. I mean, the whole drive, we could’ve stopped anywhere along these Icelandic roads to take photos. It was too beautiful. We spent the whole day pretty much walking around Kirkjufell and taking photos then we kept on going west towards the coast but we eventually ran out of time. In Iceland, it’s so easy to lose track of time because everywhere we go was beautiful.
What a wild experience.
Whidbey Island is one of the islands in Washington that people really love. Especially for weddings, there are many beautiful venues on Whidbey.
All of my time photographing weddings, I’ve been fortunate enough to photograph a lot of my good friends’ weddings, Amie was one of them. And this wedding was super beautiful! Not only the venue was beautiful but these two people, Amie and Nick, are truly just amazing people.
This was one of the more emotional weddings I’ve photographed as they wanted to read their vows to each other during their first look. It was hard to photograph when both of you eyes were watery from the tears, haha.
How fun this was celebrating two genuinely lovely people and be able to photograph their wedding. What an honor!
Diablo Lake in the North Cascades is one of those places that just blow your mind and would be the perfect place for the adventurous hearts. It's a 2.5-hour drive from Seattle, so it was not the easiest place to get to but very doable!
When I first met Tom and Lisa, I fell in love with them right away. Seeing how adventurous they are and they were so down with my crazy idea (keep scrolling, you will see later in this post). What a morning this was… the sunrise was perfect, the morning breeze was not too cold, and these two are just gems.
If you have not been to Diablo Lake and explore around North Cascades National Park. I highly recommend it. It’s one of my favorite places in Washington!
It was a cloudy morning when photographing these two East Coast lovebirds. This was Claire and Koran's first day spent in the PNW. So I obviously had to show off right away and take them to the Big Four Ice Caves, WA.
These two glow with love and care for each other. Their laughter and kindness towards each other are highly contagious. These two only spent a few days here in the Pacific Northwest, so I felt honored that they chose to spend this particular morning with me.
We wanted to explore all of Seattle one day! We started the day in sunny Downtown Seattle, with a little breakfast at Matt and Kate's favorite brunch place all the way to Rattlesnake Ledge, one of the most iconic places in Washington.
The weather was predicted to be cloudy with a good chance of rain but the sun suddenly came out and it was good sunny Seattle day. We then walked around downtown for a bit and ended up finding a street sign with their future last name: Thomas St.
Continually, we made our way to a Greenhouse in Volunteer Park. The kind lady who was working at the Greenhouse let us do little photoshoot in there for 10 mins. Whenever I hang out with these two, we always end up finding the most fun spots to shoot. As it's so easy to photograph them, because they are just so genuinely in love with each other. Soon after, we decided to drive east to North Bend to hike Rattlesnake Ledge. And from there the weather turned crazy.
As soon as we made it to the trailhead, it started to hail. Yes, hail! In the middle of spring in Seattle. It was wild. It hailed for about 30 minutes as we commenced our hike up to Rattlesnake Ledge. As we made it to the top, Matt and Kate did not care about the weather whatsoever. I love this about them. I love photographing adventurous couples who are just down for anything, rain or shine, and they are just 200% in love with each other.
Lots of these photos below are candid and unposed. This is my preferred way of photographing my couples. Candid and in love.
Love these two so much.
This was my first time in McMinnville, Oregon. It’s a smaller town than I anticipated but I love the community and intimate feel of the area. Not to mention that there are good wineries around and near by the town itself. One of them was this venue, Youngberg Hill Wineries. Super classy and beautiful and an all-around great venue.
I had the honor and privilege to photograph two beautiful friends that I admire so much. Cody and Kelly are one of those couple that radiate joy wherever they go, and this vibe was thoroughly present throughout the entire day.
Right after Kelly got in her wedding dress, she wanted to do a first look with her dad and two brothers. This was a very special moment. You can clearly see that family is everything to them.
Cody and Kelly decided to not do a first look until the wedding where Cody saw Kelly for the first time as she was making her way down the aisle. But throughout the morning they were able to talk to each other via handwritten notes and prayers they have for each other. This was one of the sweeter and intimate moments I’ve had the chance to photograph.
I love everything about this day. We laughed, cried, and danced through the night.
Getting up at 4 a.m. to make the 3.5-hour drive North is so worth it. Artist Point in Mt. Baker is one of those places that feels like you're in a dream. Michael and Jess are one of those adventurous couples that are always down for my crazy idea. I'm so glad they were so down to do this.
I love the way Michael and Jess show their love to each other. The way they embrace and share this sunrise moment with each other was very inspiring. Their love for each other is for sure contagious. Both are genuinely super kind and lovely people. I am big fan of these two.
The whole place was calm and quiet. We had it all to ourselves. That's the beauty coming to Artist Point at sunrise on a Tuesday morning. Mt. Shuksan came out and Baker decided to come a little bit after due to the morning fog, we couldn’t have asked for a better morning.
A few weeks prior, I phoned Minh and Trang to suggest an early morning, sunrise engagement session at Lake Cushman. With no hesitation, they said, “Hell yeah!”
I went to high school with Minh but I was closer to Minh’s older brother, Oak. I knew a little bit about Minh but didn’t know too much about him. So before this engagement session, I wanted to make the effort to get to know Minh and Trang’s story… how they met, and eventually led to their proposal story. After talking to them and learning about their story, I wanted to be able to capture who they are and how much they mean to each other.
We arrived at Lake Cushman 10 minutes before the sunrise and right off the bat, Minh and Trang were just so easy to photograph. They held and kissed each other so flawlessly and keep in mind that it was frigid cold that morning. We later ventured towards the Southeast corner part of the Olympic National Park to find this suspension bridge. What a day this was. And oh, to end this day, they had made Banh Mi for our ride back to Seattle. You bet it was the best Banh Mi I’ve ever had!
This session felt very PNW and very Minh + Trang. I loved every second of my time photographing these two lovebirds.
