Bonneville Salt Flats Engagement Session

Nov 15

There was a bit of spontaneity with this one, and I think that’s why I love it so much.

Mara & Chris are recent Salt Lake City transplants. Having come from semi-corporate jobs in Boston to the wide open space in Utah is a pretty drastic change for them, one they are embracing with ease. When they originally reached out, we planned to shoot in the mountains East of Salt Lake during the peak aspen color weekend in October, but an early season snowstorm hit that week and all the aspen trees lost their leaves. We met Mara & Chris at a bakery prior to their shoot and told them the aspen trees probably weren’t an option. We showed them photos of the Bonneville Salt Flats, and to my excitement, they were stoked on the idea.

Chris moved from Boston with his job at an Ivy League school, so when he started researching the geography of the Salt Flats, I wasn’t surprised. During our hour long drive there, he recited facts about why the water collects the way it does, why it leaves a salt deposit, why its incredibly flat and vast. It was fascinating.

When we arrived, we were all pretty blown away by just how huge the place was. Its a wild landscape—one that makes you wonder why and how, and makes you feel small in comparison. Aside from the wide open views, the way the tiny salt crystals form patterns was pretty mind-blowing. And even in the midst of the vastness that is the desert in the West, Mara & Chris’s candid affection for each other wasn’t lost among it.

We can’t wait to shoot their wedding in Utah next summer.