Just as a couple got engaged on a mountain in Canada, nature shot a lightning streak to seemingly give its approval. Although this sounds like something out of a storybook, it really happened—and photographer Danika Camba was there to capture it. The once-in-a-lifetime picture shows the exact moment that Alisa Hemming told her boyfriend Liam Duncan that yes, she would marry him. In the background of their embrace is the white-purple lightning bolt, adding an extra bit of magic to an already joyous occasion.
Duncan booked the photography session with Camba, but wanted to keep the engagement a total surprise. In order to do so, he told Hemming that it was going to be a standard couple’s photography session. “We started on a small trail on the backside of Knox Mountain in Kelowna British Columbia,” Camba tells My Modern Met, “and as we were walking I took a few photos of them and chatted a bit—nothing out of the ordinary of a ‘normal couples photography session.’”
It was raining as they were walking up the mountain, and the group had already seen a couple of flashes of lightning. But they couldn’t turn around. “We were right at the viewpoint already,” Camba explains, “and to Ailsa’s great surprise, her parents (from Vancouver) and her best friends (from Ontario) were standing there!” Duncan then got down on one knee and asked Hemming to marry him; that’s when the thunder rumbled and lightning struck.
The weather wasn’t at the top of Camba’s mind as she was photographing the moment. She was too focused on the proposal itself. “But looking back,” she says, “it makes sense that I got the shot since the lightning was so close, and at that point, I was shooting many frames since it was THE proposal moment, so I’m pretty on the ball and shooting lots during that kind of moment. Sure enough, I scrolled through and checked the back of the camera during all the excitement, and there it was!”
Scroll down to see more of those photos from the charmed photo session—it also included a rainbow!
A lightning bolt struck just as Liam Duncan and his girlfriend Alisa Hemming got engaged.
It sounds like something out of a storybook, but it really happened—and photographer Danika Camba was there to capture it.
The engagement was kept a surprise from Hemming and billed as a regular couple’s photo shoot. Little did she know her friends and family were there to witness the happy moment.
The happy couple even saw a rainbow!
