Santa Barbara Proposal: Miramar Beach

Been way too long since I’ve blogged anything, which is kind of a common theme of the few blog posts I’ve done. Hopefully things will finally be different because I definitely want to be showing off some of the awesome sessions I’ve been a part of this year (probably in a really random order based on what session I feel like writing about), and I feel like I’m finally getting to a place where I can have more routine with the blog posts.

Anyway, in case it wasn’t already made clear, this is a belated post of one of my first proposals to kick off 2022! (And only the third proposal I’ve ever shot). I started shooting as a photographer for Local Lens this year and since this shoot have done many more proposals! You’ll be seeing those proposals in future blog posts ;)

Something I’ve started doing with proposals is having the person proposing share their location with me for the day so that I have a better idea of where they are, how close they are to me, how much time I have before they’ll be there, etc. Especially since I normally will have never met the couple before, this helps me spot them and help make sure that I’m set up in the right place to get the proposal shot, especially since plans sometimes go awry.

In this case, the plan was for the couple to get drinks then walk towards the water and enjoy together but they didn’t head down from the place I thought they’d be walking down from. Thankfully, since I had their location, I was able to spot the circle moving across the beach and I was able to stealthily run there in time to grab these photos. Hope some of the other beachgoers had fun watching me drop all my stuff to run across the beach in time.

One nice thing about proposing next to the water is that the waves are loud enough to cover the sound of a camera shutter. Matt’s fiancé had no idea I was even there until he turned and pointed at me! They were really able to truly enjoy the moment together as I stood there capturing all of their emotions. This was where they had one of their first dates together, so the location was especially meaningful to them.

The sunset that day truly was spectacular— these are still some of my favorite photos from the year. There were also a bunch of dogs that kept trying to make their way into the photos as well, which was a fun challenge to navigate. I hope you’ll enjoy looking through these as much as I enjoyed taking them.