Getting the Proposal on Film

Calvina Photography

Everybody hires a wedding photographer. But Sacramento resident Isaac Steiner went one better: He hired a proposal photographer. When he decided to pop the question to his girlfriend, Alison George, Steiner arranged for Calvina Nguyen of Calvina Photography to be on hand to snap candid shots of the happy couple before, during and after the proposal. The plan required a bit of subterfuge: On March 28, Steiner met his girlfriend at High-Hand Nursery in Loomis for what she thought was a family lunch. Before the meal, they strolled through a picturesque warehouse filled with ceramic pots. Nguyen, who was already there, told an unsuspecting George that she was taking photos for the nursery’s website. When Steiner knelt down, produced a ring and asked George to marry him, Nguyen got the moment on film. Her photos capture the joy, surprise and intimacy of the proposal and its aftermath: In one picture, Steiner is literally jumping in the air with glee. Steiner doesn’t know why more men don’t hire a photographer to memorialize the proposal. “If there’s one moment I’d want captured on film, it’s that one,” he says. Meanwhile, the proposal photos turned out so well, Nguyen now has a follow-up gig, photographing the couple’s Aug. 20 wedding.

Posted by by Marybeth Bizjak on Wednesday, May 26, 2010