Minh recounts the story of how he and Elaine came to be as we prepared to enjoy some Japanese food for lunch. For a brief moment it seems like Elaine was preparing to interject…but instead, she motion that she is as interested to hear the story from Minh’s point of view as much as we are. Continuing, Minh recounts how he first took noticed of Elaine during lunch in their company’s cafeteria. But it wasn’t until a work project with a mutual coworker opened up the perfect opportunity. What started as work time lunches with three peers strategically gave way to lunches as two and then meetings beyond company time.

What was a tactical strategy for Minh is more an organic growth for Elaine. As Elaine said, “slowly…like 10mph” they grew their relationship over 10 years. From Minh’s point of view, strategy was needed before that organic growth could happen because Elaine had a boss with maternal and protective instincts that needed to be won over first. It’s always great to hear our couples’ story and even better when the other partner hears the first person recount of that story for the first time with us.

Elaine and Minh had a few places in mind for their engagement session, but otherwise was up for anything. One thing that stuck in our mind was Elaine’s comment about wanting a photo upon a cliff, with the wind blowing and the waves crashing below. So we set out looking for cliffs around their home city of San Francisco.

As all San Francisco residence know, it’s always a gamble heading into the city. What looks like beautiful weather in the southern skirts of the city is usually covered with fog and mist as we head closer to the northern bay and the world famous Golden Gate Bridge. The morning of the engagement was no different as we explored the grounds of the Legion of Honor. We knew we wanted something more natural and organic and set about looking for cliffs in the surrounding area, being mindful of Elaine’s request.

The heavy fog gave a majestic view of the bridge’s peaks. A truly heavenly sight.

The heavens further smiled upon us as we watched the fog lifted to give us the clearest San Francisco day I have ever remember seeing.

We loved how the morning sun was reflecting off the walls of the Legion.

Such lovely light and colors.

Elaine and Minh are so cute together. And when they laugh, they laugh with their whole body. We LOVE photographing happy people in love.

But there were many tender moments in between as well. We love it.

We hiked, explored and found an awesome, private location off the beaten path. Minh went off to make sure it was safe first before motioning for Elaine to join him. The view was breathtaking.

My perspective on the left and Ham’s unique view on the right. I love the alternate point of views captured of this moment.

Dreamy…

Elaine and Minh are so cute together.

A short trot up the hillside and we came across the cliff shot we’ve been searching for. The best view of the Golden Gates I have seen and on the clearest day in San Francisco that I have witness. What a lucky opportunity.

We took a drive to the beach that was far below our cliff location for some more photos. I love the movement of this shot.

Elaine and Minh, you guys are so lovely together. The elements align for a majestic view of your city and we had absolutely no parking issues at all which is amazing in itself. We can wait to see you both again shortly to celebrate your wedding. -DH

We had a blast shooting Naomi and Steve’s engagement session on the grounds of the Babe Zaharias golf course and then chased the last rays of the day along the hills of Walnut Ranch. It’s funny because I have vague memories of meeting Naomi when she was much, much younger but it is difficult to recount the details. I do however remember one part of the day clearly, and that was my lunch run to the local taco shop where I had sesos de tacos for the first and last time. (I’ll leave you to google what sesos tacos are.)

Naomi’s family and Ham’s family are such good friends, they call each other cousins. That means Steve is practically one of the family. Naomi has a great laugh and smiled the whole session. And Steve was just a cool cat the whole way. We’ll get to see Naomi and Steve again real soon as they get married later this month.  Can’t wait. Until then, enjoy these photos guys.

We love the way this tree framed Naomi and Steve.

But this tree is certainly cool as well.

Loving how the light made the leaves glow. Matches up well with Naomi’s glowing smile.

I know, when we see a nice backdrop like this, we just have to stop what you’re doing to take a few shots. Steve quickly go into the swing of things.

I love this moment between Naomi and Steve.

The sun was setting fast and made for some awesome backlit shots. Loving the spacing of these palm trees at aptly named Pacific Palms Resort.

Helping Naomi avoid the prickly weeds that protected the entrance to this hillside.

You can just feel the warmth of the light and between the couple.

Naomi having fun working it for the camera. We love it when you guys cut loose and have fun.

No more prickly weeds, just soft…textural grass and flowers.

You find hillsides like these all around southern California. It makes for a great natural backdrop and put you high enough to gather the remaining light of the day. I loved exploring these kinds of hillsides growing up in SoCal.

They say everything that is old is new again and I find that so true in many ways. Among all the things I am passionate about, is the new development of technology, techniques and trends that help us adequately capture the unique story of our couple in a way that is not only fun and in a relaxed nature, but to allow for that capture to be modern, real. But in story telling, it’s the looking back of our experiences and history that add credence to who we are today. In the realm of photography, film has that history and maturity that I always loved and have always compared new technology with.

Digital photography certainly brings with it a lot of advantages and allows for clean, spontaneous capture of an event. However, growing up shooting film cameras, the technology of it’s day, I missed the tactile feedback of the motor advancing the film. Even the smell of the freshly release film from it’s canister invoke a certain feel of nostalgia. This involvement of the senses in creating the image allows me to slow down, refine my vision before making the capture. To top it off, the surprise you get when that roll finally makes it back from the lab and you get to see what you got on it is priceless.

So despite the additional effort to carry along an additional camera body; the hassle of shipping the film in advance so that the x-ray at the airport doesn’t destroy the media. And then finally shipping the exposed roll to a professional lab and waiting to get it back. I decided as a personal project to shoot more film this year. Certainly having a clearer understanding of the advantages to each medium will only allow us to refine our art.

So here’s a few frames that arrived from our pro lab of Tina and Bryan’s recent Engagement in Monterey.