Nobody Puts Damien in a Corner | Shelby + Damien's Engagement at Marchesi Vineyards
Some of the best things in this work happen sideways. You show up to photograph a wedding, and somewhere in the middle of it, you meet someone who is going to matter to you for the rest of your life. That is how I met Shelby, at her sister Steffanie's wedding, years before this session ever happened.
Since that day, we have been through all of it together. Joy, heartbreak, moves across states and across oceans, major life changes, the kind of growing up that only happens when you have people around who are paying attention. Shelby and Steffanie are blood family. The rest of us just got lucky.
So when Shelby got engaged to Damien, there was no question who was going to photograph it.
We started at Marchesi Vineyards in Hood River, a gorgeous family-owned winery tucked into the Columbia River Gorge with vineyard rows that seem to go on forever and mountains sitting wide and patient in the distance. We wandered, we laughed, we did the thing where you pretend you are not being photographed and then forget entirely. Shelby's flower crown and that tropical-print dress against the summer green of the vines, Damien's enormous smile, the two of them sitting in the sunflower field at golden hour completely at ease: this is what engagement sessions are supposed to feel like.
We moved to the waterfront as the light dropped, and the Columbia gave us everything: a wide-open sky, a bridge in the background, rocks to sit on, water to stand in, and that particular stillness that a big river has near dusk. And then we did the lift. You know the one. Dirty Dancing. The climactic moment where the music swells, and someone gets hoisted overhead against a sunset. We did it gender-swapped: Shelby lifting Damien, arms outstretched, completely horizontal, with just a little help from Photoshop to seal the deal. It is one of my favorite images I have ever made, and I will not apologize for it.
Shelby and Damien's story did not end at this engagement session. Life had a few more chapters planned first: living in Australia, a global pandemic, a delay that tested everyone's patience and none of their commitment. But they got there. A few years later, they finally made it to their wedding day at Mt. View Orchards in Hood River, and it was worth every single day of the wait. Chosen family shows up. Every time.
