Helena and Richard share a love for the outdoors, especially exploring the beautiful California coastline together, and they even got engaged near Big Sur. When it came time for their engagement photos, they decided to trade ocean views for the golden hills of Monte Bello Open Space Preserve, tucked away in the Santa Cruz Mountains. [ read more … ]

Jeremy & Lydia’s evening in the Santa Cruz Mountains had all the magic: rolling grassy hills, a sea of fog in the distance, and the kind of light that turns everything to gold. They set out as a group of three — Lydia’s sister joined “for a quick hike” — and meandered along the ridge until the views opened wide over the foothills and forest. [ read more … ]

Clare thought the proposal was going to happen in Yosemite during the big trip coming up right after this day… but Ryan had been quietly hatching the real proposal plan long before this day rolled around.

Ryan had let us in on the secret over three months ago to lock in a golden-hour proposal at the Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve, a quiet local trail he knew from his cycling routes. [ read more … ]

As an outdoorsy couple, Hong and Ben wanted to be sure to capture nature in their engagement photos, and the Russian Ridge Open Space ended up being a perfect place for that. We aimed to capture them surrounded by beautiful landscapes and a big blue sky, and that’s exactly what we got! [ read more … ]

Sometimes, you just have to go for it. We rescheduled Erica & Andrew’s pre-wedding shoot very, very last-minute because our original date was looking super rainy. Then on my drive over to the Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve, I was greeted by seemingly impenetrable fog… but in the ten minutes that it took Erica & Andrew to arrive, the fog started to roll out! I’m super glad we went for it because the results are fantastic! [ read more … ]