Lincoln Park

Chicago Photographer Finds Couple Caught on Camera Under Lincoln Park Statue

"I started to walk to the statue, but they were already gone"

After a weekend search, a Chicago photographer found the couple he caught in a drone photo standing together under a statue in Lincoln Park last week.

While trying to capture picture of the sunset, photographer Antoine Tissier captured two people standing under the Ulysses S. Grant Monument with his drone camera.

Tissier posted the photo on Instagram, captioning it, "unexpected picture of a mysterious #couple we are trying to identify!"

"It had been pretty quick and unexpected," Tissier said. "I went around Lincoln Park with a friend to take a few drone shots of the sunset on Thursday."

Tissier said about 20 minutes before sunset, he saw the couple going onto the rock with a photographer on the ground. He said he had time to take just two photos of them with the foliage.

"When I landed two minutes after, I started walk to the statue, but they were already gone," Tissier said.

On Monday, Tissier updated the post to say they found the couple, Emily Hartney and Omar Gonzalez, who are newly engaged.

Tissier said he was planning to delete the pictures when he arrived home, but his friends convinced him to share the photo online in order to find the couple.

After posting in some Chicago Facebook groups and airing on WGN 9 News Chicago, Hartney's brother in law told her he saw the photo.

Hartney said she and her fiance were shocked when they saw the photo posted online and that an anonymous picture could get such attention.

"It was so gorgeous and we couldn’t believe our luck that someone else with a drone happened to be in the same spot as us to capture that photo," Hartney said. "It’s super cool that we were able to get in contact with the photographer though, now we’ll have two awesome photos from that day from two completely different perspectives!"

"To be honest I never believed we could find them, regarding how many people are in Chicago, and they could even be tourists from anywhere else in the US or the world, and maybe they were already back into their plane the next day when I posted it online," Tissier said.

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