Proposals on the Cornish coast

Most of the proposals I photograph happen on a beach at first light or on a clifftop as the sun drops behind the moor. The plan is nearly always the same: you tell me roughly where and when, I get there early, and I stay far enough away that nobody looking around sees a photographer.

I shoot from a distance with a long lens, so the pictures are of the two of you and the coast — not of someone posing. You get the walk down, the moment she realises what is happening, the hands over the face, the hug that goes on far too long. Afterwards, once the shaking has stopped, we usually wander for twenty minutes and take a few proper pictures of you both, ring and all.

West Cornwall makes it easy. Wide empty sand at low tide with the weather rolling in, gorse and granite above Porthcurno, the headlands going gold just before sunset. Bad weather is not a problem — some of my favourite frames are the stormy ones, two small figures on a huge wet beach with the light breaking through.

A few practical notes. Pick a spot you would go to anyway, and give yourselves a reason to be there. Tell me your rough timing rather than an exact minute — proposals run late and that is fine. Keep the ring in a coat pocket, not a trouser pocket. And if you want to keep it completely secret, I will meet you afterwards to say hello rather than before.

Sessions like this are usually an hour, and I send the pictures within a week so you have something to share when you tell everyone. If you are planning one, message me with the date and the stretch of coast you have in mind.