Palm Springs Mountain Engagement Photos

Mountain Engagement Photos on the Pacific Crest Trail

Palm Springs Engagement Photos

Oh, February 2020! You were a different time. This was my last photo session before the world went topsy turvy. These two flew out from Chicago to Palm Springs for their engagement pics. We weighed the pros and cons of different places around Palm Springs. Palm Springs is a spot that held a special place for them from when Ahmed lived in LA and Erica lived in Chicago- and they wanted a place for their mountain engagement photos that felt a little bit desert but was also private and special.

Enter: the Pacific Crest Trail. I found this entry point to the PCT and knew it would be easily accessible for out 5:00am start time (which they were such troopers for!) and Erica, being a big fan of the book Wild by Cheryl Strayed, liked the idea of the PCT being their mountain engagement photo location shoot. It was a stone’s throw from Palm Springs but also something of a hidden spot, so it was a perfect fit.

Fun fact time: The Pacific Crest Trail is a massive through hike running 2,650 miles from Mexico to Canada through incredible desert, mountain, and forest scenery. It takes over three months to hike the whole thing and is truly a marvel (and something that is personally on my list of things I’d love to do.) So the chance to glimpse even a tiny portion of this trail? For a rad as hell photo shoot? So cool.

It was *such* a lovely morning. It was mostly overcast, except for a tiny sliver of sun making an appearance at the very beginning of the shoot. And I can’t think of two better people to spend a very early morning with in the desert for their mountain engagement photos. So connected, so chill- really feel so lucky to have been a little part of their story 🙂

So they had their Palm Springs relaxation and mountain adventure- just in time, too!

A fan of the SoCal Desert? Lover of Palm Springs? Then check out this sweet Joshua Tree Elopement.

And some *super* lovely words from the couple:

“I would recommend Aimee Flynn 1000 x’s over. The whole process was very smooth start to finish and exceeded my expectations. Thanks to Aimee the planning process was effortless on our part.

Aimee goes through all the trouble to find out what your goals are i.e. purpose of the shoot, style you are looking for, location scouting, etc. She put together several information packets which included different locations she researched, what we should wear, time of day, park facilities, everything! All we had to do was decide on the location and time. She was super responsive with communication usually replying to our emails within 48 hours (typically within the 24).

Since she did a lot of the leg work for us beforehand it allowed me to just be excited for the shoot instead of stressed out trying to scout out locations, decide what to wear, worry about permits and such.

Once the day of the actual shoot came my expectations were well exceeded. Aimee provided detailed directions to our location, came prepared with anything you could think of: nutrition bars, cold brew coffee, first aid kit, hand-warmers, etc. Her real talents though, lie within the photo taking process itself. Before we even took a picture, she gave us an exercise as a couple to just center on each other, connect to the love that we shared for one another. It made taking the photos such a joy. I had a blast. Aimee never had us do anything that felt unnatural, quite the contrary, she was able to draw out the natural quirks of our relationship and capture them so beautifully. My fiancée love/hates when I pick her up so naturally Aimee had me pick her up and it’s one of my favorite shots because when I look at it I see the essence of us.

We received our images in a timely fashion and they blew my mind. The way she captured the landscape and the intimate moments between us took my breath away. I speechless but quite grateful. She sent us a special link where you can download all the pictures right then and there. There were so many great shots my favorite changes from day to day.

Working with her was such a joy. She’s fun, creative, quirky yet so organized. I never laughed so much on shoot before and it felt less like a photo session and more like a date-night with my fiancée. Kudos to Aimee for making us feel THAT comfortable in front of a lens. I can’t recommend her enough. You will not be disappointed!”