Cinematic Engagement Photos | Morro Bay, CA
Another stunner of an engagement session in our second home of San Luis Obispo!
And this one featured two of my favorite locations on the Central Coast— Bishop Peak and Morro Bay. I love the two moods we are able to capture when we split an engagement session between these two spots— you really get the more country, rolling hill vibe of SLO matched with the coastal nature of the area— only twenty minutes apart from each other, too! Along with the two moods, I feel as though we almost held this session on two separate days (if you know the microclimates in this area, you KNOW), not in the same two hour span. I love the way these so tangibly capture Rachel and Sumner’s personalities and love for each other! Keep reading to learn how we made this happen, and in such a gorgeous, cinematic way!
We’re really spoiled with the couples we get to photograph, especially our wedding clients. At this point, I can’t give credit to anything but God for putting our business in front of these people and then convincing them they need to work with us. The fact that people all over the country are now finding us (every time I type that, I sit for a few seconds in awe) and then booking with us blows my mind. God is good. So yeah, we are so immensely (I don’t have enough words to say how) grateful Rachel and Sumner stumbled upon our work and made the initial inquiry and then decided we were worth their investment. This really feels like a match made in heaven (because it was lol) and yet another sweet couple we get to sit back in awe with and say “I can’t believe we get to work together.” Case in point of this serendipitous now friendship— we ran into Rachel and Sumner at Firestone mere minutes before their session. Great minds think alike 🤝.
So onto their engagement session— We began at my favorite, now becoming iconic mountain meadow overlooking Bishop Peak. We probably have at least one session here every time we return to San Luis Obispo (for good reason). Typically, the engagement session is our first time meeting our couples in person after they book us (unless we accidentally have the same lunch plans before the photos, of course). I like to give them a few minutes to get comfortable with us, so we try to break the small talk barriers as quickly as possible. The walk (hike) up to the meadow at this location in particular is perfect for this. Then we begin the session. I start with a few different prompts to get them warmed up, usually picking a few different “styles” of prompt to determine which kind the couple responds to best. Not every couple is the same, and their engagement photos shouldn’t be, either. Just because editorial or cinematic looking photos are “popular” on Instagram these days, doesn’t mean every couple will respond well to that kind of photo. Photographers reading this— be emotionally intelligent 🤠🤌🏼.
Rachel and Sumner were giving off super extroverted, goofy, giggly vibes, and responded especially well to the movement-heavy prompts I gave them, so we naturally gravitated toward hammering on those for most of the rest of our time together. I AM SO HAPPY WITH HOW THESE PHOTOS TURNED OUT!!!!!
It really helps when you click immediately with the people standing in front of your camera, so I do have to say that was a huge part of why these were such a smashing success. You’ll notice the meadow we started in was looking a bit more ~ dead ~ than usual, but I am so happy with how Rachel and Sumner’s very tangible love for one another and enthusiasm for this moment made these photos feel so ~ alive. ~ I played around a bunch with different depths of field, and more close up, detail oriented compositions in this portion of the session. I also really love how rich the colors look in these, even with the overcast skies (my entire 2024 portfolio is a love letter to the Canon R6, I’m pretty sure).
Once we had enough frolicking on the mountainside, we headed to the coast, to my favorite place in SLO County. Morro Rock stuns me every time. Morro’s soft beach dunes add to the magic of the place. If you’ve read this blog or any related Instagram captions of mine, you know this. Morro Bay can be hit or miss with the fog, but if you catch it on a good day, it is something else. I was not feeling too confident about it as we drove out to the beach, with the uncharacteristic overcast October day. The clouds only lasted a little while though. We played around in the dunes and with the texture of the beach grass a bit, and then we were treated to one of the most colorful sunsets I have ever seen in my life (not an exaggeration)! Sometimes, on the Central Coast, below the layer of fog/clouds, the sun will poke through right before it dips into the ocean. Joseph and I call this the golden flashlight effect, because the light is so warm and so bright for a brief few moments before the sun sets for the night. This was a golden flashlight night.
This was the end of the session, and Rachel and Sumner were feeling very comfortable with me at this point (YAY!!!!!!). I loved the way they loved the movement prompts I’d given them so far, so I decided to take them down to the shoreline and really open up the playbook. We chased birds, we ran through the very cold water, we watched the way the golden flashlight lit up the mountains up in San Simeon in a shade of purple I’ve never seen before. We took in the magic of that last little bit of sunlight. I turned my shutter speed down a little and captured some motion blur. The last five minutes of this engagement session produced some of my favorite images I’ve ever taken. I really tried to lean into the color and unique lighting with my editing too (more love letter to the Canon R6).
This engagement session was a dream, and the best way to close out our 2024 San Luis Obispo wedding/engagement/miscellaneous other session season. We get to travel back to the Central Coast to photograph Rachel and Sumner’s wedding next summer, and we could not be more honored. I hope you love their engagement photos as much as we do!
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We’re Katie & Joseph, destination wedding photographers.
We love our job because we get a unique, intimate, deep dive into a couple’s life that not many others get to see. We make close friendships with our couples, and these days, often end up working with them from their proposal, to their wedding, and in all the milestones that come after.
We are big fans of documenting wedding days in an unposed, raw, genuine, and honest way that allows our couples to maximize their experience on their day while also receiving a gallery full of stunning images that communicate how it felt to be there.
Though we’re based in Arizona, we’ll travel anywhere, like our second home of San Luis Obispo, for a good love story (and dance party). We invite you to follow the links below to learn more about us and our services, and to get in contact with us!
