Sam + Daniel / La Jolla Windansea Beach Session (California)

Samantha and Daniel’s session came about after researching local San Diego Photographers to capture my partner and I for an anniversary session while vacationing in SoCal. But I also was dying to offer someone a free session and soak up all the beauty goodness SoCal has to offer, as I cannot simply rest while on vacation. And because Sam is such a sweetheart, she offered a swap. Not only are the photos I took of her and her husband one of my favourite sessions of all time, but now I also have beautiful anniversary photos I’ll cherish forever.

For this session I let the local photographer suggest some locations, and Sam knew Windansea beach would be a great opportunity for both of us. The one thing you can’t tell from these photos is that is was not a warm day. Our extremities were pretty nearly ice cold for most of the shoot and It was a million percent worth it lol. The benefit to shooting during a chillier ‘off season’ (as if California ever really gets an off season though) is that the beach was presumably much less busy than it would be in the summer. Less Photoshopping pedestrians out for me!

The topography of this beach was truly stunning. Sure, we have tons of beautiful beaches in Southern Ontario, but not like this. I mean, duh, because they’re not the ocean. The combination of thrashing waves, smooth sand, palm trees, and the cavernous rock formations were incredible. There was no bad angles. There was bad spots to stand, due to the slight slipperiness of the rocks, which we learned the hard way, but that’s a small price to pay.

Photographing photographers seems daunting but almost always ends up yielding the greatest images. I’ll be sharing these over and over forever. Now, someone invite me back!