San Diego Engagement Session // Sasha and Steve at Sunset Cliffs

I distinctly remember, more than once actually, getting into trouble for talking to strangers…with consequences ranging from getting “grounded” by my mother to having all of my possessions stolen on a train.

And yet, these days, I ask people to meet me, a complete stranger, sight unseen, and let me take their photos.

Which is really the wrong expression…taking photos. Because it is my hope that I am not taking something from them, but instead we are making a new, beautiful thing together, from a place of sharing emotions, love, and vulnerability.

Even so, given my past experience with strangers, meeting new people takes courage – and I’m sure that the feeling is mutual. But I think that it is a lovely thing that we are willing to put ourselves out there and be known, willing to take a chance on a person or people we have never met.

Although maybe Sasha and Steve weren’t complete strangers – after all, we will see each other again in September at Kristy and Mike’s wedding (to which I am so grateful to my amazing friend Amy for connecting all of us) – but we had never met before and it didn’t change my complete and utter happiness that they were willing to trust me (and mother nature to keep the rain at bay) and meet on the most beautiful cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean for a rather impromptu San Diego engagement session.

Because trusting strangers…sometimes leads to something amazing. It’s lead me to new places I never would have explored otherwise, to breathtaking moments of intimacy and beauty of place and people, to making new friends in faraway cities. I had the best time getting to know Sasha and Steve, walking around with them so close to where Steve spent his college years and where they now feel at home together, where they will tell each other “I do” and “I do, too” as they intertwine their lives on the cliffs, overlooking the sunset and the beautiful blue ocean.