Asa and Emily are the kind of couple who feel like a good time the second you meet them. The kind who would absolutely choose a dive bar over anything fancy and mean it. 

They told me early on they didn’t want anything that felt overly planned or posed. They just wanted their engagement session to feel like them. So we built their Alaska engagement session around what they’d actually do on a free afternoon in Homer.

We started at The Salty Dawg Saloon.

Starting at The Salty Dawg Saloon in Homer, Alaska

We met up early in the afternoon, before things got busy. It gave us space to move around, play a few games of pool, and settle in without feeling like we were on display.

There’s something about that place. From the stickers, the worn wood, and the light coming in through the windows that already feels like a story. We didn’t have to force anything.

They grabbed a couple drinks, leaned into each other between shots, laughed when things didn’t go as planned. It felt less like a session and more like just hanging out… with me tagging along, of course.

Beach Engagement Photos at Mariner Park with Their Dog, Penny

After the Dawg, we headed to Mariner Park.

If you’ve ever been to Homer, you know how quickly the energy shifts when you get out by the water. The mountains open up, the beach stretches out forever, and everything just slows down a little.

This is where Penny came into their engagement session..

She ran ahead of us, circled back, and kept things just chaotic enough that no one had time to overthink anything. Which, honestly, is kind of ideal for those candid portraits..

Asa and Emily walked the shoreline, stopped when something caught their attention, leaned into each other when the wind picked up. Some moments were playful. Some were quieter. None of it felt staged.

It was a day of just them being together in a place they love.

A Local Favorite: Down East Saloon Engagement Photos

We ended the afternoon at The Down East Saloon, one of their go-to spots in Homer.

By the time we got there, the place had filled in with a handful of regulars who were very aware that something was going on (and very excited about it).

At one point, someone pulled out the piano. We ended up on the stage. The disco ball got turned on!

It was a little chaotic, a little loud, and somehow still completely natural for them.

And that’s the thing about building an engagement session around real places you already love. You don’t have to “act” like yourselves because you already are in a safe place to just be. 

Why Multi-Location Engagement Sessions Just Work

Because Asa and Emily booked my High Tide Package, we weren’t trying to cram everything into one spot or rush through a timeline.

We had time to:

• Start slow and let them warm up naturally
• Move between places that actually mean something to them
• Shift from playful → quiet → full-on dive bar energy without forcing it
• Include Penny (which made everything better)
• Change outfits and reset the pace when we needed to

By the end of it, their gallery didn’t feel repetitive. It felt like a full afternoon—start to finish and documented the way it actually unfolded.

Planning Your Own Homer Alaska Engagement Photos

If you’re planning engagement photos in Homer, you don’t have to limit yourself to one location or one version of your relationship.

Some of my favorite sessions are built around a few simple questions:

• Where do you already love spending time together?
• What would a really good day off look like for you?
• Do you want it to feel slow, playful, a little chaotic… or all of it?

From there, we can shape something that feels natural instead of scripted.

That might look like starting at a bar, heading to the beach, grabbing coffee on the Spit, or just walking somewhere you’ve been a hundred times before.

The goal isn’t to make it look perfect, it’s to make it feel like something you’d actually want to remember.