Wasi contacted me a couple weeks ago and explained to me that he wanted the moment that he proposed to his lady friend captured. He’s from Toronto and she’s from Bangladesh. She was in DC for a cousin’s wedding and it just so happened that he was coming down for a friend’s graduation at the same time. He really appreciated my candid and classic imagery and wanted that same aesthetic for his proposal photos.
Not being a local, he relied on me to come up with a plan of action that would set the stage for a iconic DC proposal. He told me ahead of time that he planned to take her out for a picnic and then wanted to end the day with the proposal. I immediately thought that he should have his picnic on the Washington Monument lawn followed by a proposal with the Washington Monument as the backdrop.
In a effort to not tip Farheen off, I made sure to look as touristy as possible and also brought a long range zoom lens along. Even with the zoom lens, I needed to get closer so I had to improvise a bit. I found a couple of sisters who were taking pictures on the lawn. I told them Wasi’s proposal plan and that I needed to get closer. As soon as they found out about Wasi’s plan they were more than happy to help. I had them stand about 20-30 feet away from Wasi and Farheen so I could use the sisters as cover (there’s a shot of them in front of the monument in the blog). As they made their way down past the reflecting pool I was on the other side of the water. Once again, some strangers were happy to help disguise me (their picture is below as well). On a side note, aside from the actual proposal the willingness of people to help was one of my favorite takeaways of the day :-). Once Wasi and Farheen made their way to the preplanned spot, Wasi got down on one knee, proposed with a beautiful ring from Tiffany’s and the rest is history!
