Of all the proposals I’ve photographed, this one ranked right up there with the most nerve-wracking but also the most exciting!
First of all, Austin is a special person in our family, and I’ve known him since WAY before he was born and was actually at the hospital when he WAS born. When he asked me to show up last night on the beach when he proposed to Mikayla, I was up for it!
He sent me a map, so I felt like I was good. I could definitely find them with a map, I thought, and I would be there right on schedule. I was early. I made videos of the sky and my progress across the sand and sent them to his mom and grandma. And my mom and dad. Okay, and my sister. And our other friend. Anyway.
Finally, it was time for me to find them, and they were nowhere.
Honestly, I was sweating it! I walked from lifeguard tower to lifeguard tower, checking out all the cute couples, and NOTHING. I started wondering if Austin had grown a beard or something . . . worrying I wouldn’t recognize him if I saw him! Eventually he emailed me (because we didn’t think to exchange text numbers) and said, “We’re by a big ditch.” I recalled passing a ditch, so I headed back that way, and lo and behold . . . there they were.
I stumbled upon them and did my very best acting job of being surprised to see them there. I also lied and pretended to have a brand new lens that I was just testing out. Without a subject, you know. On the beach at sunset. Hm.
I took some starter photos like this:

Then I said (wink, wink), “Austin, do you have any poses you’d like to do?”
He did not.
Turns out the ring was not on his person and was hiding in a bag on the towel they had been sitting on. I guess he didn’t expect me to make them stand up and model.
I figured this out and had them sit back down on the towel for some “looking out to sea” images. When I was certain Austin had what he needed, we stood back up and I took pictures of Mikayla by herself for a bit.
That’s when things got serious.





















And that’s it! From our first image to the very last one before we all headed out to Miguel’s for chips and white sauce, NINE MINUTES elapsed. Turns out it’s pretty easy to photograph a proposal when the sky and tides are perfect and your subjects are in love. Congratulations Austin & Mikayla!! I’m so excited for you both!!










