Tahoe has been one of my favorite places in the world ever since college. It wasn’t just that Tahoe was the place where all the ski trips were held (you know, back when there was actually good snow, haha!). We also would just jump in the car and head up to Tahoe to escape the stress of Stanford. To me, Tahoe is the perfect getaway… the place I would go to just immerse myself in nature. So when Anita Martin asked me if I wanted to second shoot for her in Tahoe, I jumped at the chance! I decided to make a trip out of it because Tahoe is a good four hour drive away from where we live. Luckily, Sam was free, so we reserved a site at Meeks Bay campground. The plan was to camp after the wedding and then spend a few hours in the morning doing a hike or playing on the beach.

Our plan ended up working out perfectly! We left Saturday morning and got into Tahoe right around 1. The wedding was absolutely gorgeous and the bride and groom were stunning. I can’t wait to share the photos with you all later, because there was so much love and happiness. This was one of the last photos I took that night before Sam picked me up.

I was absolutely exhausted, so it was a good thing Sam had already set up our tent!  We tried to do a bit of a puzzle together, but I was so tired I pretty much fell asleep on him. We woke up early the next morning to a gorgeous sunny day with beautiful clouds. It was a little chilly, so we bundled up in big sweaters and started breakfast–potato hash and hot apple cider.

Since Sam had spent the previous day reading on the beach, we decided to go on a hike instead. After a couple hours of somewhat intensive hiking during which I mayyy have told Sam I was going to die several times, we made it to this gorgeous lake. I had carried my tripod with me the entire time so I /had/ to take a self portrait! Here is Sam being my stand-in for focus.

And then one of the most horrifying things happened as I was moving to join Sam for a photo… my camera fell flat onto the lens and took this photo.

I literally cried.

But luckily, it looked like there were just a few scratches on the front element that didn’t affect image quality.

Even the clouds on the drive back were absolutely stunning… as was the sun shining through the fog.

The last stop of the night was at my grandma’s house where we took a couple quick photos of the blood moon before heading home. It was such an amazing weekend!