John and Christina "Will You" Part 1

I was sitting in the loft above the Creekside Dining Hall at Forest Home Junior Winter Camp. It was Saturday night and we had just finished a full day of craziness with 4th-6th graders. Christopher (camp alias: Phoenix) and I (camp alias: Bam Bam) were sprawled across the couches contemplating foregoing hang out time for bed when Christina (camp alias: Sky) comes in and proceeds to tell me... "So John and I were exploring today during free time and we found this really cool looking run down carnival truck...and I was thinking it might be fun to take some pictures there...is that okay?" Blinking away the sleepiness and trying to manage my spastic excitement about old carnival trucks tucked away in the mountains....I managed a "Sure!" Probably a less enthusiastic response for how excited I actually was.... and that was how we decided to take pictures at the old abandoned carnival truck...who knew Forest Home was hiding such a genius photographic shooting location? I didn't.

If you didn't catch the images from the EPIC Stealth Shoot I did of John's proposal in November, make sure you check it out! 

Now before we get to my favorite shots of the day...I have to warn you...John and Christina are some of the most beautiful people I know (ahem...and handsome...) and they're truly electric together. I can't emphasize the importance of "being into your fiance" in engagement shots enough...it definitely makes the shots SO much better when I get to capture LOVE through my lens! So...with that said...I couldn't just pick a couple good ones. They're all SOOO GOOD! So I apologize in advance for the amount of images I had to blog this time around... I hope you'll forgive me....and I hope your mouse doesn't cramp as you scroll and scroll and scrooolll.

The entire weekend, it rained off and on...was warm...then cold....then sunny....then cloudy. And it didn't let up for the shoot...so I had to constantly adjust my metering and we bounced around different places trying to make the most of the weather and the lighting. We began taking pictures by the truck when suddenly the overcast sky lit up with sunbeams that illuminated the clouds that lingered at about 1500 ft. So being the young and agile people we are ;) we ran to the edge of the cliff and they climbed the mountain of half cut timber for these shots...and they are "SO HOT!" (Christopher's new favorite one-liner)

This is my absolute favorite shot of the day! Blue skies chased by dark clouds... leftover snow packed in the mountains for a background... beautiful lighting... and these two love birds :) (happy sigh...with birds twittering in the background)

For some reason... Vogue seemed to be my inspiration for a lot of these shots by the Truck...

Classic John face...

This happens to be my second favorite picture... aren't they amazing together?

This makes me want to jump up and down... I love it so much. That truck was a great idea huh?! I dig...

For this picture, I told them to give me their best "we're getting married" face...and this is what happened... I almost fell off the rock I was standing on I was laughing so hard...

And naturally adventure finds us when I hang out with these two... the mystery of why Moose and Filly would be chopping wood way up past the Noble's house and leave this sign for all the people who needed to bother them while they cut wood... way up in the middle of nowhere... it's a mystery...

We left the mountain and headed down to Redlands where we had more adventures. This is one of my favorites from the Orchard we walked through...

And for those of you who know Yucaipa, CA well... there's this house on highway 38 with a huge Paul Bunyan statue (among other things) in the front yard and all around the house. John decided he wanted some engagement pictures at the house. I didn't put the majority of them on my blog, but look for them on my Facebook. Love this shot of them looking over the fence into the yard...

I'd like to end with this shot. We all have grown to love John Kohlenberg and his beard... but this awesome woodsman shot marks the end of the "Beard Engagement Shots."

And just to clarify, I labeled this post "John and Christina 'will you' Part 1" because this is only part one of their Engagement Shoot. They wanted to have shots in several different locations, but our schedules only allowed shorter spans of time... so sometime in march, we will continue with their "No Beard Engagement Shots." Stay tuned...