Right before leaving for Alaska, on a lovely and breezy Sunday evening, I had the privilege of taking Jamie and Taylor’s engagement pictures.

I had only met them once before, in a very noisy bar and in costume–at this Milano concert last Halloween. But I kind of felt like I knew them since Jamie grew up with my friend and bandmate Carrie. Carrie happened to tell Jamie that I kinda like taking pictures, Jamie emailed me, I enthusiastically accepted. And that’s the story of how we connected.

Jamie and Taylor hiked up to the Northside of Chicago where I live, and we took the pictures at Hollywood Beach, just minutes from my apartment. It was such fun to get to know my neighborhood from a behind-the-camera perspective.

I climbed up on top of that very lifeguard stand to get some cool angles, but unfortunately a lifeguard across the beach spotted me and began to shout, vigorously blowing his whistle. Then he started running towards me, sand flying.

I was compelled to make a hasty retreat.

Hey, anything for a good picture, man.

The wind in Jamie’s hair created some wonderful drama . . .

. . . though my wild camera settings did cause me to completely blow up the above picture. Don’t tell my Mom, but I kind of like it anyway.

The set of pictures I’m sharing today were the first ones that caught my eye the night after the photo shoot. I couldn’t resist working with a few of the images to see what things were lookin’ like (and to stop myself from worrying about the results) . . .

. . . but I worked on the rest of the 1,000 pictures during the Alaska vacation. And I’ll be sharing some more of their beauty with y’all on Friday.

That’s right. 1,000 pictures. I blame it on the photogenonnity of these two.

So smiley. So positive.

Ah, me. I love a good engagement shoot.