We are SO excited to share our Santa Barbara engagement photos!! All truth be told, as photographers, we had our wedding photographer selected before we even decided to get married! Selecting our wedding photographer was a piece of cake. We have known Dan (our favorite El Paso wedding photographer) at Dan Dalstra Photography for a few years and were always drawn to his work. He became a dear friend when he reached out to us and supported our relationship. We officially met him at a photographers conference in Las Vegas in 2012 where he gave a very memorable demonstration about photographing a wedding reception. He proceeded to dance around the couple who was modeling making mildly obscene gestures and shaking his hips from side to side in over the top silly dance moves. Obviously, the whole demonstration was a complete joke and we found it refreshing that he was able to poke fun at himself. From there our friendship has grown full speed ahead and we often joke around about joining forces to become R2-D2 Studio. How funny would that be?!. In thinking of a wedding photographer, we knew we wanted someone who was in our same type of style of shooting and in our opinion, he shoots a lot like us. So, when we officially decided to have a wedding, Dan was the first vendor we knew we had to have. In fact, so much so, that we booked dates around his availability! There is something special about Dan as a person and as a wedding photographer…..He is genuine, kind, creative, edgy, doesn’t take himself too seriously, which we LOVE, and ultimately he captures real life. Oh and he can ROCK some detail shots!!
We hope you enjoy checking out some of our favs – and if this isn’t enough, you can check out our official Santa Barbara engagement photos HERE.
So, we were in Santa Barbara for another photography conference and Dan happened to be going as well. The beach really IS important to us (in fact HINT HINT-it’s part of our wedding) so there was no better way to capture us then on the beaches in SB.
Robin has had this fear of public kissing (which I, Renee, made Dan very aware of) so after 2 minutes of our session he said “let’s just get this out of the way-Kiss” and that’s all it took. We busted up laughing & then kissed….
We headed down to the pier where Dan placed us in the most amazing light and shot these amazing photos. Some of my favs!
This photo is Dan’s creative genius coming out. Even we were like, what?!? We went with it and love them. This is what happens when you trust your photographer!
These are some of Robin’s favorites of the bunch. They are candid and highlight the beautiful SB mountains.
This spot was one I , Renee, saw when we first got out of our cars. I knew I had to have a photo here and this is now my FB pic 
It was a little intimidating for us to be on the other side of the camera but well worth it. We have fallen even more in love with Dan and are 110% confident with our choice to have him shoot our wedding. Let me just say this….when you have vendors who care, it makes your wedding day a totally different experience!
Now leave Dan some love in the comments below and check more of our Santa Barbara engagement photos out here!
Next week-we will reveal our venue, where it is, and how we chose it. We think you will LOVE it!
Until then,
XOXO R & R
Phoenix wedding photographers with Mad Skills
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