I don’t really remember when was the last time I was nervous taking a photo. As a matter of fact, I don’t think I had ever been nervous doing it… until last Friday!!

I met Matthew a couple of months ago and soon after I told him what I do he asked me if I was willing to take photos of him proposing to his girlfriend. As soon as I heard this I jumped and said of course!!! That’s a terrific idea…. love it.

Little that I knew that I was going to be the paparazzi of the day! I don’t know how these guys do it, but they really have courage. Why was I nervous, well because I was taking pictures of this woman (who I didn’t know) and I had to make sure that she didn’t know that I was doing this.

My friend Rachel helped me out that day and we worked in tandem. “The spy team”

The plan was the following: Matthew asked Alexa to meet him at the stairs of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. I believe they were planning on going to some performance, so that she would dress appropriately 😉 He asked us to take some photos of her waiting for him and then document him approaching, proposing and then leaving. Alexa was not supposed to know that we were doing this.

So the first challenge was to find the “suspect”. Matthew had emailed me a photo of the two of them, and that was my only reference. We spotted one woman that looked like her, but I was still not sure if it was her. We had to do some cross check before we started working

Once we identified her it was such a nerve racking experience for me because we were walking around her as if we were tourists taking photos of the church. I’m sure she didn’t notice, but I was thinking the entire time… so what if she finds out? oh noo… please.

A few minutes later Matthew showed up with a flower in his hand and with a smile form cheek to cheek. He sat down on the stairs with her for a couple of minutes and then … shabam… he pulled out the ring. You could see the excitement in her face…. it is something that you cannot reproduce.

After a few minutes of chatting, they stood up and left… Hugging and kissing.

After they left Rachel and I were packing our gear when all of a sudden, right behind us, was another guy proposing to his girlfriend. I couldn’t believe it… and told Rachel… Get your camera out!
We took a couple of photos of them as well…

What a Friday!!