A Commercial Model Session at Filoli Gardens, Woodside
A signed model, a couture gown, and Filoli's formal gardens at the worst possible time of day for a portrait session. The brief was commercial — and that changed every decision.
Inside the Filoli House: A Black and White Editorial Session
Filoli's interior is photographed often and rarely well. The reason is colour. A couture gown inside a 1917 country house, shot in colour, reads as period drama. Shot in black and white, it reads as something else entirely.
An Editorial Session at the Pulgas Water Temple, Woodside
A Greek-revival rotunda above a 175-foot reflecting pool, in the hills behind Crystal Springs Reservoir, almost nobody on the Peninsula knows is there. The session was about composition, not coverage — pink chiffon against grey stone, a dress, a column, a long cypress allée.
How to Prepare for an Outdoor Family Photo Session in the Bay Area
Most family photo session prep advice is written for a different kind of session than the one I shoot. Here's the prep I actually want families to read before an outdoor session in the Bay Area — kids by age, weather realities, multi-generational logistics, and the partner who'd rather not be photographed.
Nine People, One Walk: An Extended Family Session at Wilder Ranch
Nine people, one walk, three generations. The day moved from the historic farm at Wilder Ranch to the cliffs above the Pacific — an extended-family session that earned every frame the long way.
Red Against the Ruins: An Editorial Portrait Session at Dumbarton Shoreline
Most sessions look for a beautiful setting. This one looked for the opposite — crumbling concrete, rusted infrastructure, and graffiti-tagged walls — and used a single deep red dress to make it all work.
Spring at Filoli: A Personal Lifestyle Session at Woodside's Most Photogenic Garden
There's a version of Filoli that most visitors never see — the garden at 9am in April, before the tour groups arrive and the light is still cutting sideways through the formal hedgerows. That's the version I showed up to photograph.
Personal Lifestyle Session | Stanford Cactus Garden
Nobody tells you about the Stanford Cactus Garden. It doesn't show up on the photography location lists and it doesn't look like anywhere else in the Bay Area. That's exactly why I wanted to shoot there.
Personal Lifestyle Session | Stanford Cantor Arts Center
Most people walk past the Cantor Arts Center and see a museum. I see a location that most Bay Area photographers haven't fully figured out yet.
Evening Light at Montalvo Arts Center: A Personal Lifestyle Session in Saratoga
Villa Montalvo looks like a film set at dusk — lamps lit, the formal gardens going dark, the estate completely empty. Most photographers are long gone by then. We were just getting started.
From Daylight to Neon: A Day at Niles Flying A and the Niles Depot, Fremont
The light shifted four times. The wardrobe shifted once. The day started in white Western styling at a 1938 gas station, moved through a railway depot in black, and came back to the gas station after dark — this time under neon.
Spring Light and Wisteria: A Personal Lifestyle Session at Gamble Garden, Palo Alto
The message came in at 7pm. By 6:30am the next morning I was already at Gamble Garden, camera bag over one shoulder, walking the paths alone. Forty-five minutes of scouting before she arrived — and wisteria at absolute peak.
Eight Days on the O Circuit: What It Looks Like to Bring a Photographer to Patagonia
Eight days. 130 kilometres. One client who wanted the full O Circuit documented and trusted me to keep up. What it actually looks like to bring a photographer into the Patagonian backcountry — and what we came back with.
Patagonia O Circuit: What I Wish I'd Known Before Hiking Torres del Paine
The O Circuit is one of the great hikes — and one of the more unforgiving ones if you go in underprepared. Hard-won notes from the full loop: gear, refugios, pumas, Gardner Pass, and everything I'd do differently.
Tomales Point Trail in Spring: Wildflowers, Wildlife, and a 9.6-Mile Adventure at Point Reyes
Tomales Point in spring is 9.6 miles of poppies, tule elk, and uninterrupted Pacific coastline. Most visitors turn back at the first viewpoint. Here's what's waiting at the end — and how to get there.
Dumbarton Bridge Shoreline Trail Personal Lifestyle Session
Most people drive over the Dumbarton Bridge without a second thought. The shoreline underneath it is one of the most photographically strange locations in the Bay Area — rusted infrastructure, tidal flats, graffiti, and a sunset that turns the whole bay orange.
Coastal Beauty: A Full-Day Cycling Adventure on 17 Mile Drive
Twenty miles of cycling on 17 Mile Drive, from Pacific Grove to Pebble Beach and back. Changing coastal light, wildflowers on the Monterey Peninsula, and a couple who just wanted their day on bikes documented properly.
Every Flower in the Garden: A Spring Portrait Session at Elizabeth Gamble Garden, Palo Alto
Wisteria. Ranunculus. Apple blossom. Calla lily. Gamble Garden in late March gives you a different backdrop every twenty feet. We moved through all of them — and one frame stopped the session cold.
Best Bay Area Outdoor Photography Locations
Thirty-five locations across the Peninsula, East Bay, Marin, and coastal California — ranked, mapped, and annotated from years of shooting them. The ones most photographers overlook, the ones that only work at specific times, and the ones that deliver every single time.
What to Wear for Outdoor Photography Sessions in the Bay Area
The question every client asks, answered properly. Colors that work in natural light, patterns to avoid, how to dress for specific Bay Area locations, and the one outfit mistake that shows up in almost every session.