Surprise proposals

December surprise proposal in Paradise Valley

Travis called me last week and inquired about my surprise proposal photography. The funny thing is, I was sitting in my car in Bozeman during a snow storm when I took his call. I was counting down the minutes before I hiked up the hill to lie in wait for my last secret assignment. Fast forward one week to the day and here we go again.

This event was every bit as much of a surprise. Madison’s reaction was priceless… it was ‘shock and awe’ all over again. The location was spectacular with the mountainous backdrop behind the Sage Lodge . Then we hit the road and roamed around the Paradise Valley making images of the moments they will never forget. The evening was complete with a gorgeous sunset on a perch below the peaks at Chico Hot Springs resort!

Cheers to love! Cheers to Travis and Madison!!!

Here’s the way it went down!

Surprise Proposal in Bozeman

Seven weeks ago I received an inquiry from Sid about his plan to propose to his lady friend Marisa in Bozeman. We struck up a conversation about his grand plan and over the weeks we refined it to fit his vision of his big surprise. I suggested a spot that was fairly public so I would have some anonymity among other’s out walking and enjoying Peets Hill. And as fate would have it, the day was snowy and cold and the plan went without a hitch. She was absolutely shocked!!!

Afterwards we went in search of open space and scenery in Paradise Valley. The entire valley was socked in with low lying clouds and then came the snow. It was a glorious day for a marriage proposal!

Enjoy the view!

A large bald eagle did a fly by as we were shooting by the river. ‘auspicious’
All bundled up and ‘engaged’ CONGRATULATIONS TO SID AND MARISA!

Yellowstone Proposal in fall colors

This adventure all started with an inquisitive email about 4 weeks ago. Dustin was exploring the possibilities of proposing to his girl friend in Yellowstone Park in October. This time of year housing and other businesses in the park begin to shut down their services. Dustin and Sarah are in residency in the process of becoming Physician Assistants and spending a period of time in Montana studying and practicing in a nearby clinic. Dustin thought it to be the perfect time to surprise Sarah in our country’s first and most magnificent national park. And… that’s exactly what he did.

Dustin had many insightful questions about how this works and what his options were. Then there came the issue of fitting their schedule into mine and also with respect to the quickly changing weather!

Finally last Thursday we nailed down all the details and the plan was put into action. On Saturday I positioned myself unbeknownst to the bride to be, at one of my favorite and spectacular locations and awaited their arrival at the planned time. The viewing platform had a dozen or so people who had made the trek down the steep trail to see the falls up close and personal! When Dustin and Sarah arrived there were 15 or so people milling around and taking pictures of each other in front of the falls. When Dustin saw his chance he coaxed Sarah toward the rail. When he start talking to her closely, everyone on the platform went quiet and watched intently, and when he proposed folks cheered and clapped shouted encouragements with joy! It was crazy good!!!

So the rest of the story and a witness to their love for each other is right here, captured in these photos.

Dustin, thanks for finding me! It was a pleasure to shoot for you two!

Thanks to Dustin for making this image of me…
IN MY HAPPY PLACE!

Yellowstone Proposal – sweet!

It’s been a busy couple of weeks and once again I found myself driving early in the morning into our nations Yellowstone National Park. Hunter and I planned the logistics so as to meet at Artists Point for the proposal and this was the historic day for Hunter and Emilie.

Cruising through Paradise Valley at 5:45 am, the sunrise was radiating pink light over the entire valley. Whoa! I had to stop and grab the visual treat.

In a word… SWEET! I so enjoyed capturing the proposal and running around making adventurous photos with them. Enjoy the view!

Yellowstone Proposal – continued

After getting chased out of Yellowstone National Park by circumstances outside of my control, namely a Bison traffic jam and wildly powerful weather that took an hour out of my photo shoot with this fine couple. Days later we met in the gorgeous Paradise Valley in Montana… I like to call it my backyard studio. Images of joy above the mighty Yellowstone River and on an overlook above the valley with Champagne, giggles, happiness, hugs and kisses! Then just when we thought we were done with the photo shoot the sky exploded and we found a river access that made the perfect place to make some fast images and call it a day! Quite a day indeed!

Nishaad and Alexa, the pleasure was mine… enjoy the view!

Yellowstone Proposal – dramatic

Yesterday was a dramatic day in Yellowstone National Park. As I entered from the north and as I ascended in altitude I could see the dark cloud bank building in the west. A raincoat and umbrella were included in my gear bag today along with multiple cameras. Off the road and down the hillside I walked and hovered in an area beside the massive Yellowstone River. Clouds gathered and soon lightening was dancing above my head in the dark clouds. Then the rain came, the lightening struck across the river from me and it was close enough that I ran up the hill and took cover in my car! As soon as the weather lightened up a bit, I hiked back down to my position and hoped that my client was not put off by the weather. Then, as planned Nishaad and Alexa came walking down the hill toward the general vicinity. Occupying myself with photographing the sky, and whatever else I could find, I tried to look like any other YNP photog! Then Nishaad made his move.

After the surprise, the tears of joy and happy hearts… we planned our next location and took to the very busy road only to be stopped dead in our tracks by a buffalo traffic jam. A herd of Bison decided to mover across the road and we were stuck for 20 minutes and things were not moving. This made it impossible to reach the Yellowstone Lake before sunset as planned.

So we turned back and opted to shoot briefly along side the road and made plans to continue our shoot on another day in the scenic Paradise Valley.

This story will be continued in about a week. Cheers to my newly engaged friends!

So, I packed up my gear and made plans with these two beautiful souls to meet with them in another place for more engagement photo fun.

The drive home toward the north was covered with a sky that was threatening a STORM. Then the visual drama kept building and I just had to stop and watch and photograph this supernatural looking display! Wow.. this one is going on a wall somewhere!