- Melanie Jackson Stinson took a picture of a couple getting engaged at Yosemite National Park in 2009.
- She took down the man's email at the time, but subsequently lost it and was never able to find the couple.
- Over 10 years later, she posted the photo on Facebook in the hope of finally sharing the moment with them.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
Kentucky native Melanie Jackson Stinson was visiting California's Yosemite National Park in June 2009 when she happened upon an unexpected sight.
"We just happened to be there visiting Yosemite and had done some hiking, and we looked and saw this couple getting engaged," she told Insider. "It was such a nice background, and it was really sweet, and I took a picture."
In the years before casual iPhone photography, spontaneously capturing the moment a couple got engaged was an even more impressive feat.
"Now, people get engaged and you have people there to take pictures for social media, and it just wasn't as big of a deal then," she said. "When my husband and I got engaged in 1990, you didn't even think about having a camera then or taking a picture of it, you just got engaged. I think even in 2009 it wasn't like it is now where it's more of an event."
After capturing the successful proposal, Stinson asked the man for his email address, intending to send him the photo after she had downloaded it from her point-and-shoot camera. But when she got home from her trip, his email was nowhere to be found.
"You know how it is when you get home from a vacation," she said. "You're just trying to get ready to go back to work and everything's crazy."
Stinson was recently clearing space on an old laptop when she came across the engagement photo again and realized she'd never made contact with the couple. Even though 10 years have passed, she figured they're still out there somewhere.
"I thought, you know, with social media like it is today, I bet I can find these people now even though I lost his address," she said. "I'm just going to give it a try. I think there's as good a chance as any that we can find them. I just thought it was a really sweet little picture and that they might like to have it."
Stinson doesn't remember the couple's names, where they were from, or where in Yosemite she took the picture. All she knows is that it was in June 2009. She posted the photo to her Facebook page on Friday, where it has already been shared 1,000 times.
It's not the first time an unknown couple has been photographed at Yosemite. Photographer Michael Karas snapped a photo of a newlywed couple at Taft Point in 2016. He later made contact with them, but said they wished to remain anonymous. Matthew Dippel also captured a proposal at Taft Point in 2018 and later tracked down the couple with the internet's help.
Stinson hopes the couple she photographed is still together, and hopes to finally share the picture she took of the moment they got engaged.
"I kind of invaded on someone's private moment, but I'm hoping now that they might be glad I did," she said.
Do you know the couple featured in this photo? Have you captured a serendipitous picture of strangers who you'd love to track down? Tell me about it at tlakritz@insider.com.
- Read more:
- 5 times animals masterfully photobombed proposals and engagement photos
- These couples took engagement photos in their favorite stores, and fluorescent lighting has never looked more romantic
- A photographer captures elderly couples posing like newlyweds, and the photos will restore your faith in love
- A man proposed to his girlfriend on a plane a year after they met in the air
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: How to find water when you're stuck in the desert
https://ift.tt/395Dspq