For couples who love the ocean but not the beach, I highly recommend having your photo session near the Sutro’s Bath area in San Francisco. Unfortunately one of the more uncontrollable aspects of the area is the weather, but lucky for Jared and Janessa the sweater was cleared of clouds and the cotton candy sky was at its fullest.

Sutro Baths Engagement Session

Upon arrival at the location, we slowly came down Sutro Bath’s steep hillside to arrive at maze like concrete structures the looked out towards the Pacific Ocean. Whenever Mother Nature is involved in any engagement photography session, I always recommend to my couples to bring an extra set of shoes that is comfortable enough for walking. Not only did we have to make our way slowly down the hillside, but after we were finished we needed to walk back up! Let’s just say that there wasn’t much talking during that time since we were trying to catch our breaths.

Slow Pace For Practice

Having the opportunity to learn or be exposed to a photographer’s direction language and posing techniques before your wedding will make you feel confident and more comfortable on the wedding day. Even though engagement session may realistically be an hour of actual shoot, I purposely set in buffer time in every engagement session for traffic, weather issues, and to promote the fact that we have plenty of time. When you’re rushed for time, that’s the number you’re thinking of at the time and you are not able to concentrate as much on other things like getting to know one another or observe how you interact with your future spouse.

Forest Access

After hiking back up the steep hillside, we walked a short distance on a nearby trail in the forest park as we waited for the sun to set at the right moment for some cotton candy skies. At this point, Jared and Janessa were basically pros! They were killing their engagement session and these sunset photos prove it! Check out their full engagement session in the link below.