A couple weeks before Renae & George’s engagement session, George called to run a crazy idea by me: What if we loaded the large wooden bench that he proposed on into the back of his truck and drove it at night to the First Street bridge, so they could sit on it for a picture with the Los Angeles skyline behind them?

“I love this idea,” I said.

Anytime I get to try something wacky is a good day for me, but what I didn’t know was that George was actually suggesting that we set the bench *in* the lanes of traffic for the photo. That’s too wacky for even me; we compromised and placed the bench on the sidewalk.

The bench incident is just one in a long series of adventures I’ve had with George, one of my closest friends and an old bandmate. He and Renae came to my wedding to Amber as one of their first roadtrips as a couple, so Amber and I were thrilled to make a roadtrip to Los Angeles to see them and shoot their engagement photos. What followed was three days of great conversation, delicious food and amazing locations.

We went to a series of iconic and lesser-known spots for their Los Angeles engagement session: Union Station, Cesar Chavez Avenue, Griffith Park, Plaza de la Raza, and even Renae’s father’s backyard garden, a lovingly well-tended oasis of green. We brought their dog Nico along for much of it, and he made his way into a number of the pictures — including one where we posed him as the driver in Renae’s classic car.

To say this weekend was fun is a huge understatement. Check out the photos and you’ll see.