Palm Springs Archives

We almost postponed Olivia & Ricky’s desert engagement because of high heat warnings. After some back and forth discussion, we decided to brave conditions anyway and met in Joshua Tree National Park. Unsurprisingly, the park decided to greet us with perfect spring weather. Shame on you, weather man.

As we piled into the car together, the golden light peeked around the valley. Our first stop was the massive granite boulders right off the main road. From there, we ventured deep into rocky crevices and stumbled across late blooming aloe vera plants. The sun beaming through the rocks cast a beautiful halo on everything it touched. In that fleeting moment of beauty, I received my first Joshua Tree bug bite. Ouch.

Epic Sunset at Keys View Lookout

We hopped back in the car and sped towards the rolling fields of wheat in the center of the park. The light wasn’t waiting on us, so we casually sprinted to the closest giant Joshua Tree. Sadly, we only had time for a few stolen dance moves before the sun dipped behind the mountains.

Finally, our last pit stop of the evening was Keys View, an iconic scenic vista overlooking all of Coachella Valley. Somehow, we made it just in time to watch the heaven’s glorious sunset finale. The rainbow sherbert ice cream sky moved this desert engagement up a few notches in my book. We watched in awe as the bright sky transcended into dusk, illuminating the city lights below. I kept shooting until there was no more light to shoot in.

Now that’s how you end an engagement session on a high note. Sit back and enjoy this golden desert adventure.

If you liked this session, you can also check out Amitis & Nico’s Joshua Tree engagement or Austin & Kailee’s Sand Dunes Engagement in Glamis!

Joshua Tree National Park always leaves me starry eyed and I love taking couples here. The weather is wildly unpredictable and I somehow manage to stumble across a new location with each visit. Not to mention the sunsets out here are pretty spectacular.

It was overcast when I met Amitis and Nico here in April for their engagement session. These two are originally from Southern California, but currently living together in New York. They’ve been engaged for over a year now and were craving a change of scenery outside of the city. Amitis reached out to me a few weeks before a planned trip to Los Angeles for a friend’s wedding and our schedules happened to line up

Spring blooms galore in Joshua Tree

We met at the park entrance just before golden hour to carpool together. Our first stop was the massive, prehistoric boulders along the main road. The winter rains brought heaps of wildflower blooms to life all over the desert floor. Nico helped me precariously perch Amitis’s yellow sapphire ring on one of the vibrant red cactus flowers.

The sun made its first appearance that day as we made our way out of the rock maze. Amitis and Nico quickly changed outfits in the car and we hightailed it into the field of tall Joshua Trees across the road. We frolicked around, goofy as can be, as the golden light peaked over the mountain. Then it was back to the car for one last stop…

Golden Fields of Joshua Trees & Keys View

The sunset at Keys View that evening is indescribable and easily one of my top five favorites (This sunset at the dunes is also on my list). The colors in the sky were something out of a science fiction movie. We clambered all over the rocks to shoot from every perspective, and kept shooting long after sunset. The city lights in the Coachella Valley sparkled below us. We were all smiles driving back out through the gates.