Couples photos in Cabo San Lucas don't need a big occasion. This is a session from the archive, photographed at Playa Monumentos in 2019, and it shows exactly how a relaxed couples session here feels. Last updated: October 2026.
Most couples who book us for couples photos in Cabo San Lucas are here for one of three reasons: an anniversary, a honeymoon, or a week of doing absolutely nothing. This session was one of them. We met at Playa Monumentos, on the Sea of Cortez side of town, at the start of the corridor, in the late afternoon, walked the sandy path down toward the water, and photographed them the way we photograph most couples: talking, moving, laughing, and mostly forgetting the camera was there.
The short version: pick a beach with texture, come at golden hour, wear something you can walk in, and let the session feel like part of your trip instead of a production. That is the whole method, and the photos below show how it looks.
| Where | Playa Monumentos (Monuments Beach), Sea of Cortez side of Cabo San Lucas, at the start of the Tourist Corridor |
| When this one happened | 2019, late afternoon. Sessions today follow the same light, just with a plan built around your dates. |
| Best light | Golden hour, the last hour or so before sunset |
| What they wore | A white shirt and olive shorts for him, a red floral dress for her. One bold piece is plenty. |
| Good to know | It is a surf beach, so we stay on the sand and the rocks and keep clear of the water. Barefoot is welcome. |
| Pairs with | A proposal, an elopement, or the wedding itself, if that is next on the calendar |
A couples session on the Sea of Cortez side
Playa Monumentos, known in English as Monuments Beach, is the rocky stretch of coastline just outside Cabo San Lucas where the desert runs into the Sea of Cortez. The granite boulders give the photos their texture, the beach is usually quieter than Medano, and when you look back along the water, the Arch and Land's End sit on the horizon.
It is the same beach I wrote about in my guide to engagement photos at Playa Monumentos, and it works just as well for a couples session with no ring involved. If you are mapping out your trip, the official Los Cabos tourism site is a good place to start.
The walk, the sand, the last light
The session started on the path. There is a sandy trail lined with trees that leads down to the beach at Monumentos, and it does something useful: it gives you twenty minutes to get comfortable before the water is even in frame. By the time we stepped onto the sand, the nerves were gone and the light was getting good.
Out on the beach we kept things simple. Some frames of the two of them walking, some close portraits, and then, because it was their idea more than mine, he picked her up and spun her toward the water with the Arch behind them. That frame is the cover of this post for a reason. The best photos from a couples session almost always happen mid-movement, when nobody is thinking about the camera.
We finished sitting on the sand as the sun dropped, which is when the beach gets that warm, quiet color that makes people understand why we schedule everything around it.
When to go
Golden hour is the answer for almost every couples session in Cabo. The last hour before sunset softens skin, warms the sand, and turns the rocks on this coastline a deep gold. If you want the beach to yourselves, sunrise is the quiet alternative: cool light, an almost empty beach, and usually nobody around.
If you want to understand how the light moves through an afternoon here, I broke it down in my golden hour timeline guide.
What to wear (the short version)
Her red dress is a good example of the one rule that matters: wear something you can actually walk and laugh in, and let one piece carry the color. Light tones photograph beautifully against sand and stone, and a bold print adds pop without looking like a costume. Bring flat shoes for the path and the rocks, and plan on ending barefoot.
There is a fuller list in my guide to what to wear for beach photos in Cabo.
How the session flows
Nobody has to know how to pose. We walk, we talk, and I direct lightly when it helps: where to stand, which way the light is coming, when to look at each other instead of me. The couples who claim they are awkward in photos usually say that until about twenty minutes in, and then the session takes over.
I wrote more about that in what to do when your partner hates posing.
Anniversaries, honeymoons, and no occasion at all
Some of our favorite sessions have no event behind them at all. An anniversary trip, a honeymoon, a babymoon, or a Tuesday in Cabo that deserved better than phone photos. After fourteen years photographing this coast, we have shot couples at every stage: the proposal, the wedding, the first anniversary, and the family that came after.
If you like the idea of a session during your trip, tell us your dates and we will build it around the best light of the week. You can see more of our couples photography in Cabo San Lucas, and if a wedding is next, take a look at our destination wedding coverage.
"The couples who love their photos are almost never the ones who came ready to pose. They are the ones who came ready to walk, talk and laugh."
Your couples session in Cabo
We are Ana and Frank, a husband-and-wife team based in Cabo San Lucas. Every image in this post was made on the Sea of Cortez side of town, and it is still the coastline we recommend first when a couple asks where to shoot. Tell us when you are here and we will tell you exactly where to be, and when the light will be right.
