There are two crucial life lessons to glean from this arresting engagement album: perseverance and making time count. Just as these values will apply to their union as man and wife, this couple experience it first-hand in a challenging but rewarding 2-part engagement portrait series shot amidst extraordinary landscapes in Peru and Bolivia.
 
They engaged Manila-based Oly Ruiz of Metrophoto, whose vast experience with destination photography would be imperative to the success of the task. Together, they planned for a 3-day shoot in spectacular locations like Salar de Uyuni, the world’s largest salt flat (a lake gone dry), and Laguna Hedionda, a saline lake in the Andean Altiplano that is notable for having pink and white flamingos.

What an outstanding job by Oly Ruiz of Metrophoto! These shots are the second part in a bridal portraits series taken across Bolivia, so head on over to check out Part 1, which was shot in Peru. Thanks for these amazing photos, Metrophoto!

In Salar de Uyuni, we see at the train cemetery the broken relic of an aged locomotive sitting on a lonely track. Around them, vast plains stretch for miles into the horizon. In Laguna Hedionda, colonies of flamingos stand in flamboyant display across the savannah. The otherworldly views here are stunning to the core.

Extremely challenging, however, was the dry and frigid air of late winter in the open. A 3-day private tour transported the little troupe around Salar. Spirited though they were, their energy waned quickly in the inhospitable cold. “The place was so vast we could not even attempt our shortlist as the altitude came down hard on us. We shot what we could,” Ruiz remembers.

The couple and crew suffered from altitude sickness, and in spite of the scorching sun, the air remained bitingly cold. “The fiancé suffered so much sunburn it made things even more difficult because we were there to shoot beauty,” said Ruiz. Their salvation was the mind-bogglingly beautiful scenes all around. What began as a 3-day tour-shoot ended earlier by a day, but mercifully they had plenty to work with. “In a place as amazing as this and a couple as strong as them, we didn’t need to spend so much time shooting. Those places did the work for us.”

MAUREEN & MARK {South America}

Photography by Oly Ruiz of Metrophoto / Hair and Makeup by Mark Qua / Location Salar de Uyuni and Laguna Hedionda, Bolivia

{Read more about this in the magazine}