Chase + Nicole
A Cannon Beach Engagement
Venue: Cannon Beach and Elk Flats
Season: summer| Guests: 2 | Duration 1.5 hours
Chase + Nicole’s Queer Engagement Session at Cannon Beach, Oregon
There’s something about the Oregon Coast that makes an engagement session feel a little more magical. The wide-open beaches, rugged coastline, and constantly changing light make Cannon Beach one of my favorite places to photograph couples.
Chase and Nicole met in Seattle, and it didn’t take long for them to realize they had found something special. By their second date, they both knew this was the real deal. The kind of connection that feels easy and certain, like you’ve somehow known each other much longer than you actually have.
For their engagement photos, we headed south from Washington to Cannon Beach, Oregon, where the coastline, open sand, and iconic Haystack Rock created the perfect backdrop for their story.
A Seattle Love Story on the Oregon Coast
I wanted their session to feel like more than just showing up at the beach and taking photos, so I set up a little intimate beach picnic just for the two of them, complete with red roses and champagne. It was simple, romantic, and gave Chase and Nicole a chance to settle in, pop some champagne, and actually enjoy the evening together.
Those are always some of my favorite moments to photograph—the ones where a session starts to feel less like a photoshoot and more like a date.
From there, we wandered the beach, let the wind do whatever it wanted, and focused less on perfectly posed photographs and more on documenting the way Chase and Nicole naturally are together.
There was so much laughter, affection, and that unmistakable comfort between two people who know they’ve found their person.
Cannon Beach has a way of slowing everything down. With the ocean stretching out behind them, champagne in hand, red roses tucked into the sand, and the evening light changing by the minute, Chase and Nicole were able to simply be together while I documented all of those little in-between moments.
Queer Engagement Photos at Cannon Beach
Cannon Beach is one of my favorite places for engagement sessions because it never looks exactly the same twice. The tides change, the fog rolls in and out, the light shifts across the water, and the weather has a personality of its own.
For Chase and Nicole, all of those little imperfections made the evening feel even more like them.
Their photos feel romantic without being overly posed, playful without being forced, and a little wild around the edges—the exact kind of imagery I want couples to look back on years from now and remember not only what this season of their lives looked like, but what it felt like.
That’s especially important to me when photographing queer couples. Your engagement photos should never feel like they were pulled from someone else’s template. They should feel comfortable, natural, and completely yours.
Planning an Intimate Cannon Beach Engagement Session
If you’re dreaming about engagement photos at Cannon Beach, there are so many ways to make the experience personal. Adding something as simple as a picnic, flowers, champagne, or a few details that mean something to you can turn your engagement photos into an actual experience together.
And there’s so much more to explore around Cannon Beach than Haystack Rock alone. The surrounding coastline is filled with dramatic cliffs, quiet stretches of sand, grassy overlooks, forests, and hidden little pockets that make it possible to create a session that feels more like an adventure together than a traditional photoshoot.
Come ready to walk barefoot in the sand, get a little windswept, drink some champagne, cuddle up when the temperature drops, and let the coast decide what kind of evening it wants to give us.
Chase and Nicole, thank you for letting me document this chapter of your story. 🤍
Looking for a queer-friendly Cannon Beach engagement photographer? Wild Pines Photography photographs LGBTQ+ couples, engagements, proposals, elopements, and weddings throughout Cannon Beach, the Oregon Coast, and the Pacific Northwest with a candid, documentary, and film-inspired approach.
