Over the years, my shooting style has always been changing. I used to know nothing about color grading or stylizing a picture to look like something other than how it looked like naturally. I drifted towards a summer-warm edit style for most of my early days and have shifted to making it look more natural, but still graded to a certain extent. I was used to shooting in parks or on beaches so that became a norm for my shooting. Then, I happened to stumble upon another photographer on Guam named Patrick from Fruitful Visuals. He is a great guy and a superb photographer (we hired him to be our wedding photographer and we could not be happier) and he told me of a magical location that I never even knew existed.

Going for a drive in the southern area of Guam, you would drive past Windward Hills and towards Apra Heights as if you were going to Santa Rita. Seeing as I lived in Talofofo, this was like 15 minutes away from my house so I took a drive to the location. Luckily, there was a house being constructed nearby the entrance so I parked my car on the side of the road and disembarked. I walked on a short path and was shown a scenery that I have always wanted to shoot in for so many years.

Living on Guam, you grow accustomed to the palm trees and jungles and while I still hold the beauty of the island’s scenery in my heart, as a photographer, it got very tedious and repetitive to shoot at those locations constantly. Not to say I did not enjoy my sessions, but as a creative, I craved for something new; something refreshing that I haven’t experienced many times. I filmed my sister’s wedding in Maryland and seeing those big trees in the fall that weren’t jungles or palm trees, but actual forests made me yearn for those kinds of settings even more.

So back to when I walked on that little trail, I saw trees and wide-open spaces that made it look like I wasn’t even on Guam anymore. The canopy was high above my head, the ground was slightly uneven, and the shade of the trees spread out like a pond. This sight was totally different than what I’ve seen before and it left a mark in my memory. I decided the next time I were to shoot a couple session, it would be here; I just had to wait until the opportunity arrived. And it did.

I shot an engagement session for a lovely couple named Asia and Frank. I was honored to have them call back and say they wanted to hire me for their wedding day. We went about their ceremony at their relative’s house overlooking the beautiful village of Chalan Pago Bay and the weather was perfect. When I asked them where would they like their Bride & Groom session at, they decided to go with my pick and I had just the perfect location for them.

We traveled to the spot that I talked about earlier in this story and it was everything I wanted in a forest session. The pictures felt like we were wandering in an enchanted forest with the shade over us, so we weren’t feeling hot. For any photographer who loves shooting outside in natural light, you know that shooting in open shade is pretty much the best thing to shoot when the sun is still a little high. I took so many dream-like pictures that showed the intimacy and feeling behind a newlywedded couple’s day. To this day, it’s still a wonderful memory of the time I finally broke out of shooting on beaches or parks and finally got to shooting in a forest-like setting. It was a magical moment for me just as magical as it was for the couple and hope you feel the magic in the pictures below!