Joel emailed me towards the end of January asking if it was too late notice to fly me out to California for Valentine’s day weekend to photograph his surprise proposal to Brooke at Yosemite National Park. He explained to me that Brooke has been following me on instagram for some time now and is “absolutely in love” with my work and he knew that it would be the cherry on top to have me there photographing this moment for them. Now how the heck am I supposed to pass that up?! So off I went to California, with none other than my husband Jeff as my second shooter (I couldnt leave him all alone on v-day weekend!).
Joel and I, never having met before- texted each other what we were wearing so we knew how to recognize each other. We had our brilliant game plan: “meeting” at the trailhead to Mirror Lake at 5:30, and there Jeff and I would subtly “follow” them through the trail and be ready at any moment for when Joel dropped to a knee. Well, it was a really good plan in theory. Turns out I had zero cell phone service in Yosemite, so when Joel tried to text me and tell me that they had to take a different trail to get to Mirror lake, I never got it. Jeff and I waited for an hour past our meeting time at the trailhead before we finally got a sliver of service to get ahold of Joel. He was already at Mirror Lake! Keep in mind, it’s 6:30 by now. Also keep in mind- the sun set at 6:30. We were losing light- fast. So, in a well composed fashion (yeah right), Jeff and I SPRINTED the mile hike to Mirror Lake- randomly stopping and heaving to catch our breath between the hysterical laughing at how ridiculous we both looked sprinting through the forest with all of our camera gear. Anyway, we finally made it to the Lake, I made eye contact with Joel and gave him the thumbs up while Brooke was looking the other way, and voila! What an experience to be a part of!
