rachel and ronnie – san francisco engagement photography

rachel and ronnie were the winners of my summer engagement giveaway last month, and i was so happy that i found myself such a fun, adorable couple. rachel wanted a very SF-esque engagement session without all the cliches (i.e. the palace of fine arts and the golden gate bridge), and we came up with the russian hill/ghirardelli square area. we didn’t actually make it into the heart of russian square as it involved climbing, you know, hills – we made it up to the top of lombard st. and were pretty much winded – and ended up in part of the fisherman’s wharf area. on a sunday afternoon. which meant it was swarmed with lots and lots of tourists mulling about and staring at them getting all kissy for the camera. i’m sure it made them super awkward,  but they sure didn’t show it.

these two are, like, totally adorable and a complete blast. they went along with my crazy ideas, like making the 4-block VERY hilly and UPHILL trek up to lombard and then getting mushy there while a bunch of cars drove by. heh. but did i mention, they are completely adorable?! these two are giants fans, which means this dodger fan is not supposed to like them, but i had to let even that slide because of their adorableness. the best part about this session? watching them make each other laugh. it was so friggin cute. awwwwww.

oh, and here’s where i would normally whine about the weather yet again…it was super foggy and kinda drizzly…but the sun kind of peeked through for about 10 seconds. i guess a session trying to depict san francisco HAS to include some fog. haha. surprisingly, it wasn’t super cold. i guess i’ll take what i can get.

anyhow. we all know i have trouble narrowing down my favorites, but that was even more so true with this session. enjoy!

san francisco = cable cars 🙂

they let rachel “pull” the lever 🙂

this next photo basically sums up the day:

so ronnie spotted the bridge and wanted a photo with it. i had to go the untraditional route here.

rachel has such gorgeous eyes, and the next two photos show it. no photoshopping, all natural!! 🙂

ring shot! 🙂

i bought these heart ring pops at target around valentine’s day, thinking they’d be a fun prop for an engagement shoot. i’d forgotten about them for awhile, but remembered them and brought them along with me. i almost forgot i had them but remembered i had them towards the end of our session, and brought them out for the last few shots….

i think they had fun with them 🙂 heeeee.

thanks rachel and ronnie!! you guys were a blast! good luck planning your wedding!

cassie – class of 2011 – san francisco senior portrait photographer

i have to admit that pier 39 and fisherman’s wharf are not my favorite san francisco locations. it’s always super crowded, and really, there’s not much there. however, i’ve always thought that it would make a fun place for a shoot – i love the carnival vibe and the color in the area. so when cassie gave me free reign to pick the location of her shoot, i suggested pier 39 – luckily, she was willing to go along with it! we also headed down to ghirardelli square, which has some awesome brick backgrounds.

cassie will be a senior this fall. she’s lived in the bay area her whole life, but is moving to indiana and wanted to fit in a shoot in san francisco before she left. she was up for anything – even with a bunch of tourists staring at her. in fact, there were a couple of people who snapped photos of her with their camera phones, thinking she was famous or something. since there are a bunch of street performers in the area, i joked that we should have a money cup in front of us while we were shooting and make people give us some change in exchange for a chance to get a photo of her – we would’ve made quite a killing, i think 😉

it also ended up being one of those typical san francisco days – sunny in the daytime, but with fog rolling in as it got closer to evening. our shoot started off with some sun, but the fog rolled in rapidly and it got quite chilly after a while. but you couldn’t tell in these photos – cassie was wearing shorts, and rocked it! it led to more stares from tourists who were thinking “who is this crazy girl wearing shorts and a tank top in 55 degree weather?!” but cassie was unfazed.

i had a lot of fun with her, and got a bunch of fun shots!

(while walking around and waiting for cassie to get there, i walked into a candy store and found this orange lollipop. i though it would be cute as a prop and fit the colorful theme of the shoot. it did!)

apparently i’m funny 😛

i looooove this one. cassie is goooooorgeous!!

so one of the first things we spotted at ghirardelli square was kara’s cupcakes. cassie asked if we could stop in for a cupcake, and as a cupcake lover, i couldn’t resist! (they were yummmmmy.  kara’s is one of my favorite cupcakeries in the city!)

hellooooo gorgeous (seriously. i’m jealous. it’s not fair! lol)

thanks, cassie! good luck on the east coast 🙂