There are some sessions that feel like work, and then there are the ones that feel like you somehow wandered into a memory you’ll keep forever. Makena and Drew’s Yosemite elopement was a day I’ll always remember.
Makena and Drew are Sonora, California locals — just about an hour from Yosemite’s entrance — and the park has always been part of their sense of place. When they reached out about taking photos in Yosemite, it wasn’t about recreating their wedding day or chasing something grand for the sake of it. They wanted images that documented who they are in the world, rooted in a landscape that has shaped them. That kind of intention will always be a yes for me.
I flew to California and road-tripped across the state from San Jose with my sister to meet them, and from our very first moments together, it felt easy. Makena and Drew are endlessly kind, funny, and completely themselves. The kind of couple who makes you forget the camera is even there. We were SO lucky to have a local couple to guide us through the valley that they call home.
Funny enough, everything aligned perfectly that we were shooting their elopement on Makena’s birthday! I couldn’t think of a more perfect way to spend it. We began the day driving down into the park to our first stop, Cathedral Beach, which was basking in broad sunlight and the sacred Merced river moving lazily beside us. From there, we wandered into the meadows beneath Half Dome, where the entire valley opens up and the scale of Yosemite really sinks in. Standing there, with Half Dome rising in the distance, felt grounding in a way that’s hard to put into words — small in the best possible sense.
After having a blast jumping in and out of the car to take some quick snaps off the side of the road, we pulled off along the road near El Capitan, chasing that late-afternoon light as it spilled across the granite. The photos don’t even do the mountains justice in just how massive they were.
As the sun began to dip, we drove higher into the park toward Glacier Point, turning off the road at Tunnel View and hiking up the granite to our own personal vista point. The views were unbelievable. Note to self: Come back to this spot at sunrise, because if we had come there in the morning, we would have had full sunlight of the whole valley. Still this spot was unfathomable. The kind of view that makes conversation trail off because there’s nothing to say except wow.
We ended the evening at Glacier Point, about a 45 minute drive up the mountains from the valley floor. We caught sunset near Half Dome as the light softened and the cliffs glowed. It felt like standing on the edge of something ancient and vast, watching the day quietly come to a close. The photos we took here are so wild and free, it truly felt like a pinch me moment.
After the light faded, we piled back into the car and headed toward Sonora together. The park slipped into darkness as we listened to the “Night of the Grizzlies” National Park After Dark episode, the road winding ahead of us. At one point, I laid my head on my sister’s lap in the backseat and looked up at the stars through the window, feeling completely overwhelmed with gratitude — for this work, for this place, for getting to share moments like this with my sister, and with a couple I now get to call my friends.
This was truly one of my favorite shoots to date. Not just because Yosemite is wildly beautiful (it is), but because Makena and Drew reminded me why I do this in the first place. To document love honestly. To witness people in places that matter to them. To slow down, drive around, laugh a lot, and make something meaningful together.
Some days stick with you. This was one of them.
