Editorial Meets Documentary: Ila & Jamal’s Intimate Torrey Pines Beach Session (Part 1)

There’s something about a Torrey Pines beach session that slows everything down. The waves, the breeze, the shifting light, all setting the stage for love to simply be. Ila & Jamal drove down from LA for this intimate evening, and for me, it was also a reunion years in the making.

I’ve known Ila since middle school, and meeting Jamal for the first time felt like picking up where life left off. Between shared stories, laughter, and a little therapy in the sand, we created images that blended editorial elegance with raw documentary honesty.

As a San Diego photographer who captures intimacy for a living, I’m constantly reminded that love shows up in countless forms and this session was proof that sometimes, the most meaningful photos feel less like posing and more like presence.

[ Come back for part 2 where we stretched the evening through blue hour ]