Alex and Mike's engagement session on Asbury Park's shores - where classical romance meets the timeless pull of the ocean

Alex & Mike during golden hour on the jetty rocks - Asbury Park's rugged coastline at its most romantic

I've always thought there's something mythological about couples photographed by the sea. Maybe it's the ancient pull of water, the way humans have always been drawn to coastlines, the way every culture has stories about what lives beneath the waves. Alex in her olive dress against those dark rocks, Mike's hand steady on her waist - there was something timeless about it, something that could have been photographed a hundred years ago or a hundred years from now. The ocean doesn't care about trends or aesthetics. It just is. And when you photograph people against it, they become part of that permanence.

Asbury Park's iconic Convention Hall overlooking the beach where Alex and Mike first met

There's something about the Jersey Shore that exists outside of reality television and summer tourist crowds. Asbury Park in particular holds a kind of magic - Bruce Springsteen magic, if you will - that belongs to the people who actually live here, who know the boardwalk in every season, who understand that the ocean isn't just a backdrop but a presence. Alex and Mike are those people. Alex's mother orchestrated it, inviting Mike without telling him Alex would be there. Sparks flew immediately. They were both beach lovers, both drawn to the water, both rooted in this particular stretch of New Jersey coastline. For their engagement session, there was nowhere else that made sense.

Barefoot on the rocks where the ocean meets the shore - pure Asbury Park magic

The afternoon light in Asbury Park has a particular quality in late summer. It's softer than you'd expect, filtered through ocean haze and the salt air. We started on the boardwalk where the iconic Convention Hall looms over the beach, that massive beaux-arts structure that's survived hurricanes and decades of changing tides. The boardwalk was alive with people - families eating ice cream, teenagers on bikes, couples strolling hand in hand. Alex and Mike moved through it all with ease, their nervous energy from earlier dissolving into something more natural. There's a comfort that comes from being photographed in a place you know intimately, where you don't have to perform being yourself because you already are.

Alex and Mike on the Asbury Park boardwalk - where the Jersey Shore meets timeless summer romance

But the real magic happened when we made our way down to the jetty. The rocks there are dark and volcanic-looking, creating this dramatic contrast against the pale sand and blue-green water. At low tide, tidal pools form in the crevices, little ecosystems of their own. Alex kicked off her shoes immediately - those rocks are treacherous in heels - and Mike followed suit. There's something about being barefoot on rocks by the ocean that strips away pretense. You have to pay attention to where you're stepping, you have to hold on to each other for balance, you have to be present. The camera-shyness Alex had worried about simply evaporated. She wasn't thinking about being photographed anymore; she was just navigating the rocks with Mike, laughing when the waves came in closer than expected, settling into the rhythm of the ocean.

Navigating the jetty together - a perfect metaphor captured in black and white

I've always thought there's something mythological about couples photographed by the sea. Maybe it's the ancient pull of water, the way humans have always been drawn to coastlines, the way every culture has stories about what lives beneath the waves. Alex in her olive dress against those dark rocks reminded me equally of a mermaid and Botticelli's Birth of Venus - that same quality of emerging from the ocean, of belonging to it. Mike's hand steady on her waist, grounding her to the earth while she seemed to float between worlds. There was something timeless about it, something that could have been photographed a hundred years ago or a hundred years from now. The ocean doesn't care about trends or aesthetics. It just is. And when you photograph people against it, they become part of that permanence.

As the sun started its descent, the light turned golden and warm, that brief perfect window before sunset when everything glows. We moved from the jetty back to the open beach. Convention Hall rose behind them, that grand old building that's been watching over Asbury Park since 1930, through prohibition and rock and roll and revival. The beach was emptying out, just a few stragglers left. Alex and Mike walked along the water's edge, waves lapping at their feet, completely at ease now. This was their beach, their town, their story.

Walking into their future on the sands of Asbury Park

What makes Asbury Park such a perfect location for engagement photography isn't just the iconic architecture or the beautiful beaches - though those certainly help. It's that the place has soul. It's been through cycles of boom and decay and renaissance. It's gritty and beautiful at once. The boardwalk still has that old-school Jersey Shore charm, but it's mixed with new restaurants and music venues and an arts scene that draws creative people from all over. For couples like Alex and Mike who are rooted here, who built their relationship in this place, the photographs carry all of that history and texture. You're not just capturing two people in love; you're capturing them in their context, their landscape, their home.

By the time we finished, Alex wasn't nervous anymore. She'd forgotten to be. That's what happens when you photograph people in a place they love, doing something as simple as walking on a beach they've walked a thousand times before. The engagement session did exactly what it was meant to do - it built trust, it helped them understand how I work, it showed them they could be themselves in front of the camera. More importantly, it gave them images of this moment in their lives, newly engaged, standing at the edge of the ocean in the place where their story began. Little did we know that when their wedding day came, we'd return to the water again. But that's a story for another time.

Alex and Mike returned to the water for their wedding at Little Egg Harbor Yacht Club on Long Beach Island. View the complete wedding gallery here.