Chasing Horizons
Two people. One rhythm. The kind of love that shows up at 5 AM when the alarm goes off for another impossible trail.
Gran Canaria - Spain
I've known Chris since 2001—back when we were kids putting up hardcore shows and making space for misfits who didn't fit anywhere else. Twenty-something years later, I'm watching him and Lisa tear through Gran Canaria trails, and some things never change. Chris still makes shit happen. He just traded basement venues for mountain peaks.
This wasn't supposed to be a couples session. I was there shooting under Björn Lexius for Willpower Running—Chris's brand, Lisa's playground, their shared obsession. But watching them move together through those volcanic trails, I realized I wasn't just documenting gear and landscapes. I was witnessing a love story that happens to unfold at altitude.
They met while running. Not at some party or through friends—they met doing the thing that makes them feel most alive. Chris had already conquered the Western States Endurance Run. Lisa had been chasing ultra trail records across Europe. When they found each other, they found someone who understands that the most beautiful things require everything you've got.
The morning mist clung to those peaks like atmosphere you can't fake. Lisa's feet hit the trail with the precision of someone who's logged thousands of miles. Chris moved with the quiet confidence of someone who knows endurance isn't about speed—it's about showing up, mile after mile, even when everything hurts.
Watching them adjust each other's gear, check footing on loose rock, pace each other when one was struggling—I realized this was what love actually looks like. Not sunset kisses or flowing dresses, but two people choosing each other again and again with every step.
This started as brand work, but it became something that shifted how I see love stories entirely. Why do your photos have to look like everyone else's? Why can't they be about the thing that actually makes you come alive together?
Chris and Lisa didn't need traditional poses because their connection isn't traditional. It's written in pre-dawn alarms and post-run recovery, in shared energy gels at mile 20, in the way they move through the world as a team when everything gets hard.
By the time we reached that summit overlook, I knew I'd captured something rare—love that doesn't need perfect lighting or posed moments. Love that shows up in mud-splattered gear and technical fabrics, in the way you support each other when your lungs are screaming and your legs are shaking.
Your love story doesn't have to look like anyone else's. It just has to be true.
this is a STORY BY HAFENLIEBE
LOCATION(S)
Gran Canaria - Spain
GUESTS
0
SHOT IN
December
TYPE
Lover's Session
TIME ON SET
1 day
DIRECTED BY
BJØRN
Here's what shooting Chris and Lisa taught me: love stories don't have to fit any template. They don't have to look like what we think couples photography should be.
Sometimes love looks like this—mud-splattered gear instead of flowing dresses, shared suffering instead of perfect poses, the way you support each other when everything hurts instead of how you look in golden hour light.
This started as a brand shoot, but it became something that completely shifted how I see couples sessions. Your love story should be about what actually makes you you together—not what you think looks romantic on Instagram.
Maybe your love story started in music venues and grew into mountain adventures. Maybe it began in art studios and evolved into motorcycle road trips. Maybe you found each other in one world and built something together in another.
What matters isn't the setting—it's the rhythm. The way you sync up when it matters. The way you support each other through the hard parts. The way you both understand that some things are worth pushing limits for.
Chris and I went from hardcore shows to trail running photography, but the connection remains the same: respect for people who commit fully to what they love. And Lisa? She brought her own fire to both the trails and the story.
Your session should capture what you actually are together—not what you think couples photography should look like. Because the best love stories aren't performed. They're lived.