A couple of months after I photographed them on the coast, this pair wanted new pictures somewhere they'd never been. We landed on Filoli, where the gardens, the troll on the trail, and an empty ballroom floor all got their turn.

A Bay Area family commissioned a spring portrait session at Filoli Gardens as a gift for an older couple they love. We started inside the mansion, where they were most themselves. The morning opened up further in the sunken garden, when I asked them to dance.

The forecast said overcast all afternoon. The first hour delivered exactly that. Then the sun came through — and the register of the entire session changed.