In the Garden at the Langham Huntington in Pasadena
I had the pleasure of meeting Arsham via email when he contacted me to tell me that he was planning on proposing to his girlfriend, Bahareh in the coming weeks and that he wanted to capture the proposal and then shoot some engagement photos afterwards. He warned me that he wasn’t much for photos, but that Bahareh had mentioned how much she loved candid shots and how cute she thought it was to have that documented.
So, we carefully planned for the day, going so far as having Arsham and his mom scout the perfect location in the Japanese gardens at the amazing Langham Hotel in Pasadena where I could shoot the proposal from the bridge above.
Arsham and I communicated by text leading up to the 4:30pm proposal time. He was worried that she was getting suspicious and he was both nervous and excited, which came across when he snuck out of their hotel room to meet me in person and to finalize last minute details. Then, I scurried up to the bridge, armed myself with my 70-200 lens and sat in wait. There’s a strong possibility that a number of guests thought I was a stalker, as I kept peering over the bridge and I likely looked more than a little questionable sitting there with a pile of equipment.
Then the moment came. The two walked up to the cherry blossom tree next to the little brook and when Bahareh turned around for a second, Arsham got down on one knee and proposed as she turned back around. The answer was a resounding yes and despite Arsham’s concerns leading up, she had no idea that this was coming.
Once Arsham pointed me out, I made my way down to the garden for us to take some more official engagement photos. What followed was a fantastic hour with a couple who don’t take themselves too seriously and couldn’t have been more fun to spend time with. We chatted and laughed as we wandered around the garden taking photos.
I’ve shot a lot of engagements, but there is always something so lovely about working with a couple who has just gotten engaged because the excitement and joy is so fresh.
Below are some favorite images from their session. Everything is shot on a Nikon D810. The proposal was shot using a Nikon 70-200 2.8 and the rest of the session alternated between a Sigma 35mm 1.4 and a Nikon 85mm 1.8.
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