Signature Outdoor Photo Sessions Across the Bay Area
Hand-picked locations I know intimately — for families, couples, and individuals who want somewhere beautiful and real.
Over years of shooting across the Bay Area, I've found the locations that consistently deliver — the gardens, coastlines, and hidden corners where the light, the backdrops, and the room to move all come together. These are my signature sessions: each one a place I know well enough to work confidently in any conditions, and packaged so you know exactly what to expect before we start. Pick the one that speaks to you below — or if there's a spot that already means something to your family, tell me about it and we'll build a session around it.
Villa Montalvo · Saratoga
An Evening at Villa Montalvo
As the light turns golden we'll move through the Spanish colonial colonnades and terraced gardens, capturing the warm glow on the stone facade. The cactus garden offers something completely unexpected — sculptural, dramatic, and unlike anything else in the South Bay.
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90 Minutes
$650
Covers the full grounds — the Spanish colonnades, terraced gardens, and the dramatic cactus garden. Prefer something shorter? A 60-minute session at the main building and garden is $450 (20+ images). Villa Montalvo's venue permit fee is added to either option.
San Jose Municipal Rose Garden · San Jose
A Stroll Through the Rose Garden
We'll wander through hundreds of rose varieties in every color imaginable, working through the formal beds and pergola as morning light catches the blooms. I love shooting low through foreground flowers to frame you within layers of color and fragrance.
60 Minutes
$450
Peak bloom April–June and September–October. Includes 20+ professionally edited images.
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Filoli · Woodside
A Wander Through Filoli's Formal Gardens
We'll wander through the sunken garden, past tulip beds and the wisteria-draped pergola, pausing wherever the light falls perfectly through the formal hedgerows. The manor house and reflecting pool give us a dozen distinct backdrops within a single morning walk.
90 Minutes
$650
Includes 30+ professionally edited images. Up to three people can enter for free with my membership.
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Elizabeth F. Gamble Garden · Palo Alto
Among the Blooms at Gamble Garden
We'll start beneath the flowering pergola while the morning is still cool and the garden is yours alone — then move through the orchard in bloom and into the ranunculus beds where I shoot low through layers of color. Beautiful in every season.
60 Minutes
$450
No entry fee. Includes 20+ professionally edited images.
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Cantor Arts Center & Cactus Garden · Stanford
Rust, Bronze and Desert Gardens at Stanford
We'll move between three completely different worlds within a short walk — the weathered corten steel of the Serra sculpture garden, the intricate bronze relief doors of the Cantor Arts Center, and an extraordinary desert botanical collection with century-old agave and flowering cacti.
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90 Minutes
$650
No entry fee. Covers all three worlds — the corten-steel Serra sculpture garden, the bronze doors of the Cantor, and the desert botanical collection. Want a shorter session? Pick any one of the three for 60 minutes at $450 (20+ images).
Montara State Beach & Devil's Slide Bunkers · San Mateo Coast
Beach and Bunkers at Montara
We'll start down on the beach with the marine layer holding the light soft and the surf rolling in — wide compositions against the sea stacks, intimate frames in the wet sand — then drive five minutes north up to the WWII bunkers on the Devil's Slide headland. Weathered concrete, ever-changing graffiti, and sweeping ocean views give us a completely different register in the same session. The coast and the concrete, the soft and the structural, all within ninety minutes.
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90 Minutes
$650
Free parking at Montara State Beach; small day-use fee at the Devil's Slide trailhead. Best in morning when the marine layer is in. Includes 30+ professionally edited images.
Redwood Grove Nature Preserve & Shoup Park · Los Altos
Redwoods and Creek Play in Los Altos
We'll start under the towering redwoods at Redwood Grove Nature Preserve — filtered light coming down through the canopy, soft forest floor, the kind of dramatic vertical compositions you'd usually have to drive an hour into the mountains for. Then we walk the trail across to Shoup Park where Adobe Creek runs under a stone bridge, the oak grove opens onto open lawn, and when the creek's flowing we can finish with kids splashing in shallow water. Two completely different worlds, seven minutes apart, both genuinely beautiful. Excellent choice for families.
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90 Minutes
$650
Free entry and parking at both locations. Dog-friendly throughout. Playground allows for additional candid photographs. Creek flowing in spring after good rainfall — often dry by late summer; either way the stone bridge, oak grove, and lawn give us plenty to work with. Includes 30+ professionally edited images.
Dumbarton Shoreline Trail · Newark
Graffiti, Industrial Decay and Bay Views at Dumbarton
We'll work through a series of completely distinct backdrops within walking distance — graffiti walls, rusted pipeline, razor wire fence, and the old pump house sitting out over the water with the bay stretching behind it. Wind and overcast conditions make this location come alive.
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90 Minutes
$650
Pumping station and salt pools work better in the morning or afternoon. Includes 30+ professionally edited images.
17 Mile Drive & Pacific Grove · Monterey
A Morning Along the Monterey Coast
We'll spend a full morning moving through some of the most dramatic coastal scenery in California — the Lone Cypress against the open ocean, wave-carved rocks at the shoreline, and ancient cypress groves with warm maritime light. A full story told across multiple iconic locations.
3-4 hours
$900
Vehicle entry fee added to session price.
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Alviso Marina County Park · San Jose
Sunset at the Salt Marsh
At golden hour this place transforms — the salt marsh reflects every color in the sky, the light goes completely warm, and everything takes on an almost surreal quality. We'll work the wide open compositions and silhouettes you simply cannot get anywhere else in the Bay Area.
60 Minutes
$450
Best timing at the golden hour.
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Wilder Ranch State Park · Santa Cruz
Bluffs and Barns at Wilder Ranch
We'll start at the historic farmstead — old barn wood and whitewashed walls make a beautiful backdrop — then move out onto the coastal bluffs where you're standing above the Pacific with wildflower meadows in every direction. The marine layer keeps the light soft and flattering all morning.
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60 Minutes
$450
$10 day-use parking fee added to session price. Includes 30+ professionally edited images.
Custom · Bay Area & Beyond
Where the Sport Happens
Your sport, your place. We'll meet where the climb starts, where the trail drops in, where the line gets technical. I work alongside you — climbing, MTB, trail running, surf, ski, kayaking — to capture both the effort and the place. From a single afternoon at a local crag to a multi-day expedition further afield, each shoot is built around your sport and your goals.
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From $450
Custom session — tell me about your sport, your timing and what you want from the photographs, and we'll plan it together. Image count and turnaround agreed in advance. Travel beyond the Bay Area quoted separately.
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