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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Filoli in December is a different place entirely. The gardens go quiet, the house lights up from within, and paper lanterns line every path. A portrait session in the middle of it felt less like photography and more like stepping into something.