Sunshine. Hiking. Mountain. Pond. Love. Laughing. Plants. Ducks. Rain. Fast hiking. Soaking. Kiss. Awesome.

I had the chance to meet up with Naomi & Sean at Manito Park in Spokane to take some engagement photos. Most of the time I spend the first part of a session trying to put my subjects at ease & get them ready to be in front of the camera. I think it was the other way around with these guys, but I learned pretty quickly that there are few people who are easier to be around than Naomi & Sean. I had a great time listening to them each give their own funny, & somewhat different versions of their ‘first meeting’ story. They each love to laugh & make each other laugh. Of course I laughed right along with them. It was easy to see why they’re getting married—they already act like an old married couple that have decades of inside jokes saved up.

Not only did they not stop laughing the whole time we were shooting, they were both very easy to photograph & patient while I set up some of the more creative photos.

I can’t wait to shoot their wedding at the Hayden Lake Country Club.

**For the best viewing experience, open up the first photo & use the left & right arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate through the photos.**

I’m pretty excited to post these photos from Lindy & Mark’s engagement session in Manito Park on Spokane’s South Hill. I have a feeling that everybody who meet Lindy & Mark feel like they’re friends instantly—at least that’s how I felt. These two were so easy to work with that we had a great time making these photos. Plus they’re pretty dang cute together.

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I’m excited to post the photos from this session because they are pictures of my cousin & his beautiful fiance. They’re getting married this summer at the LDS Seattle temple, but they made the trip out to spokane for our engagement session in the morning. Then after wrapping up the shoot, they drove back over the mountains. This session took place at Mirabeau Park in Spokane Valley.

On the way to the park we got rained on, but luckily by the time we got out of the car, the rain was gone & we had some beautiful weather in which to shoot.

It’s pretty obvious that these are just two incredibly happy people who deserve nothing less than the joy they have when they’re together—which makes my life easy as the photographer—I just get to capture it.

I love ya Chris, but I have to agree with the rest of your family, you lucked out with this one. And to BriAnna, welcome to the family.

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p.s. The injury of the shoot was face slivers. Yup, I laid my face (as well as the rest of me) down in a bunch of beauty bark for the shots in front of the waterfall.

I’m so excited to post these photos from Emily &  Josh’s engagement session. We hung out in downtown Spokane for a couple of hours & got some pretty stinking cool shots, if I do say so myself. Of course, I had some pretty incredible ‘models’ which made life easy for me.

Before the session Josh called me and told me he finally had the ring and wanted to officially propose during our session. We worked out a game plan where I got a ‘phone call’  and had to walk away for a minute which was his chance to catch Emily off guard with the ring. I’m pretty sure she knew it was coming anyway, but at least now have these photos of this special moment—how cool is that.

Attention guys: If you want ‘spy’ photos of your proposal get in contact with me & I’ll make it happen—By the way, there’s veeeery special pricing for that kind of session.

FYI one of these photos is actually a mixture of 41 different images.

The injury of the day was my crashing on a rock (during the proposal—embarrassing!) and gashing my hand. The camera got some scratches as well, but fortunately it’s built like a rock so no problem there.

Can’t wait for these guys’ wedding next month!

Many thanks to Eric Strate for his help holding the light & getting some additional shots of the proposal from a far off bridge as well as some shots of me working.

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During Easter weekend we headed over to the other side of the mountains & had the pleasure of shooting Sara & Matt’s engagement photos. The weather was iffy at best, but it was still far better than the previous visit we had, where it rained the entire time—at least this time there were times when the sky wasn’t dumping on us.

For this session we drove up to Boulevard Park in Bellingham and were able to get a few shots before the rain started. We warmed up for a few minutes in Woods Coffee (An outstanding place that was packed with people. The hot chocolate was great & I understand the coffee is as well). When it became clear the rain wasn’t stopping we decided to head over to Sara & Matt’s wedding venue, The Bellingham Cruise Terminal to check it out. It’s a very cool space with an amazing view of Puget Sound.

Matt & Sara were so laid back and a pleasure to work with (not surprised at all) and so at ease with each other and me. I think/hope that comes across in the photos.

Click to see…

I have the best job in the world & the best clients in the world. Last week I had the opportunity to hang out with Justin & Nicole and get some photos in the process. These 2 are great. They’re so at ease with each other so open to whatever I wanted to try which makes for great portraits. I’m so excited for their wedding this fall. Plus both Nicole & Justin are from the western side of the state (like me) so of course they’re great (Go Huskies!).

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Last weekend Hallie, Lee Roy & I set out around downtown Spokane to get some portraits for their engagements. These two were so easy to take pictures of that I could have shot them for the entire day—if it didn’t get windy & cold so quickly.

One of the best parts of an engagement session is getting to know the couples whom I ‘ll be photographing on their wedding day & to get those “in front of the camera” jitters out of the way. As you can probably tell, there weren’t too many jitters and we went straight away in to getting great photos. It seemed like we were buds instantly.

I had a blast with these guys. I don’t think we stopped laughing for the entire session. In fact I’d say the only time they weren’t cracking up was when I was forcing them to show their more romantic side (of course, I didn’t have to force them too much).

I can’t wait to shoot their wedding day. I have no doubt it will be an outstanding & beautiful wedding.

Many, many thanks to H + L for trusting me with their special day.

Click the thumbnails to see the photos…