Maureen and Mark | A Machu Picchu Prenup

I knew that writing about this shoot would be a tall order. Much more because we experienced the highs of highs and the lows of lows in the 11 days we were all together during this trip. But let me try to simplify it by saying that this is our most epic shoot to date and the yet the most difficult.

It was my ultimate dream to be shoot in Peru and Bolivia. Machu Picchu and Salar de Uyuni are the top two items on my buckets list of dream destinations. I was hopeful that with the advent of my bookings getting more and more far and exotic, it would only be a couple of years before someone will take me to shoot there. Little did I know that it will happen much much sooner.

Maureen and Mark, asked me the question almost all people ask me, ‘where would be the best place to have a shoot?’ And my answer all the time is that it is relative to what the limitations that are present. But just for inspiration, I showed them my recently-concluded shoot in Paris so they have an idea. Then they asked me what would be as amazing as that but different. I told about the most breathtaking places in the world where almost no one has shot before and then and there, we got ourselves a trip of a lifetime to go to South America.

There are so many anecdotes about this entire shoot and that’s why I decided to split the feature into four different posts! These plus a full-length behind-the-scenes feature honestly still don’t seem enough to represent and share what we saw, learned, and felt but I hope that they inspire the appreciation and awe to people like Maureen and Mark. Together with Mark Qua (our make-up artist) and my team of Paolo Nierves and William Orsua, the extraordinary was achieved.

Part one of this series features all our photos from this Machu Picchu pre-wedding. The place is very remote, aside from the usual small planes, a train and a bus ride are required and are the only way to get to the summit (unless you hike for a few days). Because we knew how strict the place is with photography, we planned to go there in two separate days and it helped a lot. We were able to shoot in two separate areas which provided an excellent representation of the place both inside and out and both close and from afar. This also allowed us to gauge what types of activities the guards would allow and adjusted accordingly.

We don’t think that there is a pre-wedding shoot that has been executed in Machu Picchu of this scale before. Apart from the usual shots of it that you see in social media and travel blogs, we hope you enjoy seeing this particular wonder of the world in a unique and in a beautifully intense way.