When Anastasia reached out to me to do engagement photos for her and Harris, I jumped at the chance. I knew that they were going to want something totally fun and silly. These two are both actors who are very embedded in the Los Angeles comedy and improv scene. I’ve known Anastasia for ten years and she’s definitely met her match in Harris. I couldn’t be more excited about an upcoming wedding. We decided it might be fun to shoot at Paramount Ranch, which is one of the filming locations for HBO’s Westworld and also (if you’re a little more old school) Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman. The site is about an hour outside of downtown Los Angeles in the Santa Monica Mountains. As the name implies, it’s owned by Paramount and is basically just a little makeshift western town nestled into the hills. It’s a great place to hike and I’d always wanted to shoot there, and this was the perfect opportunity to go check it out with a couple who were up for anything.
I knew these two weren’t going to want traditional engagement photos and that there would be a lot of funny moments, and I wasn’t wrong. At one point, Anastasia turned to me and said “oh, we don’t actually need any cute ones. Harris, grab that log and hold it over your head like a caveman and I’ll look confused.” Of course, I couldn’t fully let them get away with no earnest shots, because they are ridiculously cute together. It was pretty easy to snap a bunch of those when then didn’t think I was paying attention.
Both Anastasia and Harris were great sports at handling traipsing around in 100 degree heat and we all deserved an ice cream post shoot. Yes, that is just my way of justifying ice cream. Here are a few favorites from the day:
