Proposal Photos in Sterne Park, Littleton

Proposal photo shoots are always a joy because of the the emotional moments the couples share in front of the camera. On these shoots I know that these are real moments and real emotions that the couple will get to cherish forever! This is about Kyle and Carina’s proposal photo shoot and I will go through the entire process of preparing for and completing the shoot! Scroll to the bottom to see more highlights from their gallery!

Picking the Proposal Location

In this case, Kyle was going to propose to his girlfriend (now fiancé), Carina. For a proposal photo shoot, I capture the moment when he asks her to marry him and the reactions following. After they have had some time to themselves just enjoying the moment, I’ll come up and introduce myself (which usually causes a whole new surprised reaction) and we will do some posed photos. Proposal shoots are a bit different than other types of photography because the proposing part goes relatively quick and requires a lot of coordination.

Sterne Park was picked as the location for the shoot because Kyle and Carina would be going to a dinner reservation at The Melting Pot immediately following the proposal and this was nearby. It is a small park in Littleton, just South of Denver and the pictures online looked nice. Before the day of the proposal, Kyle and I met up at Sterne park to get a game plan together. I had never done a photo shoot at Sterne Park before, so going there to get a lay of the land was an important step. It turns out that Sterne Park is absolutely GEORGEOUS and has a great variety of spots to chose from. The park features a beautiful lake surrounded by trees, a couple of bridges, and a gazebo. There is also an awesome rose garden right across the street with another gazebo. This photo shoot also took place in early October when the leaves were many different shades of yellow orange and red. Basically, this little park is beautiful and you should check it out. Kyle and I landed on a spot on the Northwest corner of the lake where he would position them so that Carina’s back would be to the lake when he popped the question. That way, the background of the pictures would be towards the lake and colorful trees. We also made sure to select a spot where there was shade and there would not be direct sunlight hitting her face since she would be facing kind of East and this would take place in the evening.

Coming Up With a Signal

The last planning step would be for Kyle to have a signal for me to look out for, indicating he was about to drop down to his knee. I always have a signal worked out for proposal photo shoots because I have had proposals in the past where the guy went down on his knee much quicker than I was expecting. I’ve never actually missed a proposal reaction before, but when I get caught off guard like this, I have to either sprint over to them or take the pictures at a non-ideal angle. Having some sort of signal to look out for allows me to lurk in the shadows a bit more (yes it feels super creepy but it’s part of the gig) and when I see the signal, I pull the camera out and move into position. My worst fear is that she notices me ahead of time and it distract her away from this amazing moment. Knowing that there will be a signal before he pops the question lets me hide a bit more effectively while also being confident that I will not miss anything important. The signals are often very simple, for this shoot, Kyle would take a selfie of the two of them in front of the beautiful view. I have had a few guys suggest that the signal be them tying their shoes, which would not be the best call for obvious reasons haha! The selfie was perfect because people take selfies in front of nice views all the time, and taking a selfie was something these two did together normally.

Don’t Be Weird

After the planning is done, everything else is on me. The only thing I needed from Kyle was to send the signal when it was time. After that, just enjoy this beautiful moment and I will do the rest! Before all of that, however, is my least favorite part, hiding and waiting. I arrive to the location for my photoshoots at least 30 minutes before the scheduled time so I can get my bearings and in the right headspace. Remember when I said Sterne was gorgeous? Turns out I’m not the only one who figured this out. When I arrived at the park, there were around 3-4 other photo shoots going on at the park, and this park is not very big. Also turns out that the spot we selected for the proposal was a popular spot for photos in the park. I spent the next 30 minutes sitting alone trying to stay inconspicuous and keeping my fingers crossed that our spot would be clear when Kyle and Carina showed up. Kyle and I did have a plan B if the spot we selected was crowded, but the plan B spot wasn’t as good and I was still holding out hope. For some reason the time spent hiding and waiting for proposals to happen makes me feel like a creep. I am often by myself in a park with a large camera trying to stay unnoticed. I really want to tell random people walking by that I am not here for any nefarious purpose!

Luckily, right around the time Kyle and Carina were supposed to show up, the other photo shoots had migrated to the other side of the lake or the nearby rose garden, we were a go! Kyle had given me a description of the outfits they were wearing ahead of time, so I knew what to look for. Sure enough, I see the two of them walking around the lake towards me, holding hands and chatting. I position the camera so that it wont be visible to them and pretend to be scrolling on my phone so that even if they see me, I’m just some guy sitting in a park. I am just “acting natural” when out of the corner I see his phone come out and them pose for a picture together. It’s game time!

The Moment

I get up and get ready with a hand on my camera, kind of like a cowboy with a hand on his holster just before the shootout. Kyle had a romantic speech prepared for her before he popped the question, which is great! Not only is this super romantic and sweet, but he will have her 100% undivided attention. She will be lost in his eyes and they are the only two people in the world to each other at that point. It’s a truly beautiful moment, and a perfect opportunity for me. I whip out my camera and start firing away, they won’t notice me now! She starts crying as she slowly realizes what is actually happening.

I only knew Kyle and Carina for roughly an hour, but I can feel the strength of their love. She of course said yes and after the proposal, when we were doing posed photos, I had to do very little posing guidance because they were so swept up with each other, I could just be a fly on the wall and capture exactly what I needed! There’s an interaction that happens during proposal shoots more often than you’d think that I think is so funny. It goes like this: he proposes, they are emotional and savoring the moment, after a bit, emotions die down, she gathers her thoughts and the first things she says is, “No wonder you were acting so weird today!” As you probably already guessed, that happened here haha!

At this point, the remainder of the shoot was us walking around the park and doing a mini posed photo shoot. As I said before, these two were so happy and in love, that I gave minimal posing guidance and then let them do their thing! Some couples want to be told exactly what to do and that is totally fine, I am more than happy to do that. Some couples just want to be in the moment and have me there to capture and memorialize it. It is a spectrum between being specifically posed and pure candid and every couple falls somewhere along it.

Here are some of the highlights from their gallery!

Proposing in the Denver Area?

I have photographed many proposals and would love to connect to talk about yours! This moment only happens once and you’ll be happy that you have some amazing pictures of it!