I’ve known Adrian for a long time now, since shortly after I moved to Arizona when I was 24. We spent a lot of time together in our mid 20s, skateboarding in tempe and playing Pokemon go at Kiwanis park and seeing movies and spending way too much money on ramen at Shady Park. He made me a spicy Korean red chili tofu dish for my birthday one year when nobody else did anything for me. Needless to say, we’ve known each other well for a long time. Like all adults we’ll go some time without speaking to each other as life happens, but we’ve been good friends for years and years now.

I first met his partner, Rodrigo, when the 3 of us went on a hike in Sedona together a couple years ago in 2021 I believe it was. We realized we drive the same exact car with the same year and model and everything, which was pretty funny. It was a fun time, and I was happy to see that Adrian had found someone that not only made him happy but seemed like a great guy who treats him well.

I’ve had some LGBTQ+ friends in the past tell me stories of how they would reach out to photographers and get denied a shoot for being a queer couple, and the discrimination felt creating fear to reach out to any photographers at all. So when Adrian asked me if I would shoot some photos to commemorate his engagement to his wonderful partner, I was so excited to be part of such a sweet memory for the two of them.

We went out to one of my favorite spots to shoot photos, and found ourselves a nice spot to take some cute photos. This is a really popular spot for photos, but for good reason. The light always hits, the location is beautiful, to the point it’s harder to take a bad photo than a good one. I am super happy with the session we had, and I’m happy to have given these newlyweds a really wholesome and cute photo set for them to always look back on.