As a fan of documentary photography, planning an adventure engagement session seems like a no-brainer for the couples that I love to work with because who wants to stand properly and pose for the camera anyways? If the traditional engagement session is not for you and you’re more about spending quality time outdoors, here are 6 tips for planning your own hiking adventure engagement session in Oregon.
6 Hiking Adventure Engagement Session Tips
Before you spontaneously book your adventure engagement session, here are 6 tips to help you plan a unique hiking adventure engagement session along the Oregon coast.
1. Choose a Meaningful Location > The Most Photographed Spots
Oregon has so many incredible destinations to choose from and before you decide on a spot that is considered “iconic”, I always recommend choosing a place that carries more weight than its popularity online—no hate to Cannon Beach…buut.
For example, Kati and Josh love the hike down to the beach at Devil’s Punchbowl and try to find fossils along the shore. Documenting their session here added so much familiarity because they already have activities that they would do here on a date night.
2. Mother Nature Is Unpredictable Along the Oregon Coast
Now, I love a plan as much as the next person, but what I have come to realize about Mother Nature in Oregon is that you simply must prepare for the unexpected. Whether that be insane fog that no one imagined was possible to powerful winds, you really won’t know what to expect until the day of and moments leading up to your destination. Have a plan B, C, and D when planning your session along the coast to ensure you don’t show up to your session frazzled trying to come up with a gameplan on the spot.
3. Dress with Comfort In Mind
I know this is probably a given, but seriously, dress for comfort. If you want to wear something whimsical. I recommend packing it separately with plans to change once we get to where we’re going. The rocks can be incredibly slippery if we’re hiking somewhere with water, the terrain can be rough and not comfortable for cute shoes, and if you’re not wanting to get your actual outfit dirty, the adventurous side of Oregon will probably not be your friend.
4. Pick a Mini Adventure For Your Session
This could be a fun expedition that makes your hiking adventure session scavenger-coded. Some ideas could look like “find 3 hidden waterfalls”, “first one to find 4 different ecosystems”, or “who finds the most fossils”. When you create an activity around your session, the focus no longer becomes “we’re taking photos for save-the-dates” and more about “we’re just having fun together” and dare I say that’s when the most epic photos happen?!
5. Choose Your Route Based on the Tide Window
Because the low/high tide window adjusts throughout the day, it could be a fun idea to plan your session around the tide shift to get different perspectives of the area. You can find more info about the tides here.
6. Plan Your Adventure Hike with State Park Maps & AllTrails vs. Google Maps
One of my favorite parts about using a state park map > Google is the amount of off-the-record spots Google doesn’t even touch. This could be a great way to explore an already familiar spot in a different way to check out some other neat locations that you hadn’t ever heard of or visited before.
Plus, AllTrails has a community feature that shows off-the-beaten paths which can be really fun to explore as well!
Ready to Plan Your Own Adventure Session Along the Oregon Coast?
Hi, I’m Raven and I love the untraditional. Whether that means doing the opposite of the norm for the sake of doing the opposite or genuinely having values that don’t fall within the spectrum of “typical”, I’m all for it and have a feeling you might be the kind of couple that I love documenting if that’s your vibe too! See more of my work here or inquire about your adventure session here.
