Hola Amigos!

I’m excited about this post because it was the first time I got the opportunity to fly to San Francisco for an engagement session! It’s definitely not my first time out to the Bay area by any means though. My younger sister just finished up her 3rd year in optometry school at Berkeley and I have some other great friends who live out in the San Francisco area, so when ever I get the chance, I like to come out and visit them.

In this particular trip to San Francisco, I was fortunate enough to make 5 new friends – Nina, Ren, and their three puppies. Nina and Ren are an awesome couple who are totally in love with each other and their puppies. After being extremely close to missing our bright and early flight from Long Beach, Nina and Ren picked up Doug and me from SFO and we were on our way to Golden Gate Park for the engagement session. Check out some of the cool shots we pumped out from that gloomy/rainy engagement session!

We started off parking by Stow Lake, which is pretty much at the center of the impressive 1,000 acre park. We were immediately in awe when we saw a small group of cherry blossoms and started off there.

As we started to walk deeper into the park, two of the three puppies wanted a quick time-out to relax their paws for a minute. This shot was taken with the 135mm at f 2.0 on the Canon 5D Mark 2.  I love the background blur and how deep the photo looks with that lens/body combo.

When we first met the two, Nina was warning us that Ren was a little camera shy. If she didn’t say anything, I’m sure I would never have guessed.

We decided to hike over to the Japanese Tea Gardens nearby for a change in scenery

It wasn’t until about here when our luck was running out and we had to pull out the umbrella to protect ourselves from the rain that we were hoping would hold out until our engagement session at Golden Gate Park was over. (When I mean we, I mean Nina and Ren because Doug and I didn’t bring any umbrellas because we were in a rush to catch our flight.)

Our last stop was the historic Dutch Windmill, which was erected in 1903. The Tulips garden surrounding the windmill were really awesome.

The rain started to really come down and we decided to call it a day after this shot.

The Bay area has a different feel than the LA area I’ve been born and raised in. Things seem to move at a slower pace up there, and it seems like people there like to stop and smell the roses. Here in LA, it always feels like everyone is rushing from point A to point B, leaving no time soak in their surroundings. Both Berkeley and San Francisco have this sense of community to me. There are little neighborhoods everywhere and each seem to share that sense or feel of community. What I really love about the Bay area is the food! I’ve had many “Best ____ I ever ate” here, which include Chicago style deep dish pizza, hot chocolate, vanilla cream-filled churro (yes, a cream-filled churro), and strawberry shortcake. It’s a really awesome area, and sometimes, I wonder if it’s more right for me than LA. I wish I had an opportunity to spend a few months rather than a few days to hang out up there and really soak things up.

It was really fun chatting with those two about places they love to eat around San Francisco, and I will definitely try them out the next time I’m there. Doug and I were able to hang out with them again when we photographed their wedding at the Surf and Sand Resort in Laguna Beach recently. It was such a fun wedding and we took some stunning photos of their Indian wedding. I can’t wait until I catch up and blog about their wedding because it was one of most colorful weddings that I have ever photographed.

Congrats to you two, Nina and Ren, and I wish you two only the best in your future endeavors!

Cheers,

Danny