Miya & Devin (Superstition Mountain)

Last weekend we had the great pleasure of doing some engagement photos for two of our favorite people. Miya and Devin have been dating for a while and everyone knew they were getting married, we were just waiting for them to make it official. It finally happened and I was absolutely delighted that Miya asked me to do her engagement and wedding photography.

We went to a new location for this shoot. They wanted to have the Superstition mountains in the background, so we first went over to the Superstition Museum, a quaint little "old west" location on the road to Lost Dutchman State Park, and tried a few things. We discovered that location would be MUCH better during sunrise but still managed a good photo or two. We then went on to Lost Dutchman State Park. That is a location that I visit quite frequently, but normally just for hiking, it was quite fun for me to do portraits at a place that I love so much and know so well. Sunset was definitely the best time to be there.

Miya and Devin were very patient and we had a fun time. I don't think Devin really enjoyed being photographed (very few guys do), but we still managed to get some excellent portraits. Here are some of our favorites:

 First of all - their kids are definitely going to have gorgeous eyes. Can you believe how well the color of their eyes match and how beautiful that color is? That is NOT an enhanced color. They really are that bright.

Both Miya and Devin have a difficult time being serious, so, why not embrace the goofiness? It doesn't make for great engagement photos, but it did allow us to have some fun in between trying to get other less-goofy shots.

Devin had an especially hard time not being weird. As I said, he didn't really seem to like being photographed, but he did his best to have fun and he certainly loves Miya, so it was pretty easy to get good pictures of them.

This is Marci's favorite shot of the day. The look on Miya's face as she is embracing Devin is pretty dang priceless. Plus, Miya is just a beautiful woman, so it's kind of impossible to take a bad photograph of her.

The photos seemed to really pop whenever we were trying to have more fun. I would have liked to be in a location that allowed for more "play" - but when you're surrounded by cholla cactus, you kind of need to be more careful.

This is one of my favorites, I just love the combination of Devin in a "stupid happy, but not too goofy" look and Miya with her beautiful smile - it just works for me.

Here is another shot that emphasizes both of their incredible eyes and their infectious smiles. I also threw in a slightly different edit of the photo just below this one that I moved significantly toward the blue (which is easy to tell in comparison) which really highlights their eyes without making them look creepy.

This is my absolute favorite shot of the day. It was also, oddly enough, the LAST shot of the day. We had a bunch more pictures of them being back-lit by the sunset, but this one just had that perfect combination of happy looks, great color, perfect position....it just all came together for this one shot. I'm very happy with it.

Thanks Miya and Devin for a fun evening, and thank you both for being such good friends.