Jenna & Jason’s Beach Engagement Session at Half Moon Bay, CA
Jenna and Jason will host their wedding in the forest, which is so them, but for their engagement session, we wanted to switch it up completely and head to Half Moon Bay instead. I love giving couples that kind of contrast in their experience, forest vibes for the wedding, and then this open, breezy coastline for their engagement photos. It also landed right in the middle for us, them coming up from the Santa Cruz area, and me driving out from San Leandro, so Half Moon Bay just made sense all around.
I actually met Jenna and Jason at a vendor showcase early this spring, and we booked their session for the very next week. It was honestly so nice getting to just talk with them like normal people before the camera ever came out. By the time we met up at the beach, it already felt easy, like hanging out with friends instead of a formal shoot.
We decided on a morning session because the weather was looking iffy for rain that afternoon, and it turned out to be the right call. The beach was so quiet that early, barely anyone around, so we never had to pause or wait for people to clear out of a shot—just us, the coast, and all the time in the world.
Honestly, my favorite part of photographing Jenna and Jason is how in tune they are with each other. They're playful, they're giddy, and they would not stop talking about their wedding day and how good it's all going to feel. That energy makes everything so much easier.
Oh, and at one point, a couple of random dogs just wandered into our session out of nowhere.
Jenna and Jason told me they're not really used to being photographed together, so a lot of what I focused on was just making them feel comfortable first. Once they relaxed into it, we got to build this whole series of images that flowed.
