Photographer?Valerie Contreras was taking a stroll on the beach at Sutro Baths, San Francisco, camera in hand, when she came upon was she suspected was a life-changing moment for the couple before her.
She had a feeling a proposal was about to happen and so she quickly readied her camera. The photos she took though revealed only half the story. After the photos were taken and Contreras took to Twitter to ask for help with finding the couple. What followed is a true testament to the power of the internet.??
"I would really love to send them all the photos I was able to get from their special moment," she wrote in another tweet.?
Luckily for all involved, it wasn't long before the Internet did its job well and found the couple.
She thanked her Twitter peeps with these sweet words: "You all are... powerful humans."
"Okay so here¡¯s more to the backstory.. the sutro baths is a popular area on the bay of San Francisco. Lots of photography goes on here. I have a zoom lense and was pretty far away and that¡¯s how I captured these photos," she wrote talking about the story behind this sweet moment.
She explained: '"They were having an intimate moment and it¡¯s not something I wanted to go on and approach them right in the middle of. I literally thought in my head, ¡°well I¡¯ll just have Twitter help me.¡±'??
Her tweet has been retweeted 94.5k times and liked 694.4k times. 'This is something I would do. I bet they were so excited to have pics!! You¡¯re a very kind person,' wrote one user congratulating Contreras. 'You should start a business of candid photos or photos you take of unsuspecting people who you find through twitter. It would make a great photography book,' wrote another.?
There were other comments too with some going as far as calling this unwanted. 'They had photos from the photographer they hired and paid, this one just took photos over their shoulder and took it viral acting like it was such a nice thing for the couple,' said one user calling it "fraud."
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Contreras also shared the photos on her Instagram where she explained her side of the story in detail. 'Some people are confused with the situation with different photos. When I shot these photos my intentions were to do a good deed for this couple and later found out they had a photographer that did an amazing job!! The couple was still super happy to receive more photos from a different perspective and this story is bringing happiness to many others on the internet."
What are your thoughts?