Photo Session Locations

Each location is linked to either a session there, or a resource with photos if we have never photographed there before!

Nature

Orange County Locations

Carbon Canyon Regional Park, Brea - Travel Fee: $0, Entrance fee of $3 on weekdays, $5 on weekends. Beautiful park and trails! We have photographed here before but usually in the redwoods and unfortunately, photography requires an additional cost, TBD. They are very strict and patrol the area and even with a permit, folks have been asked to leave.
Huntington Beach Library and Central Park - Travel + Entrance: $0. Beautiful park with nature center, trails and pond.
Hiltscher Park Trail - Travel + Entrance: $0. Beautiful trail with old trees in the heart of Fullerton!
Serrano Creek Park - Travel Fee: $27. INCREDIBLE grove of eucalyptus trees! Google it! You'll see!
Yorba Regional Park - Travel Fee: $0, Per car entrance fee of $5 on weekdays, $7 on weekends. Beautiful park and trails!
Laguna Canyon Wilderness Park - Travel Fee: $27, Parking Fee $3 and Travel Fee: $25. Beautiful canyon scenery!
Irvine Ranch Regional Park - Travel Fee: $0, Per car entrance fee of $3 on weekdays, $5 on weekends. Park is in Orange, lovely location with a lot of big, beautiful trees.
Santiago Oaks Regional Park - Travel Fee: $0, Per car entrance fee of $3 on weekdays, $5 on weekends. Beautiful park with great hilly views, one of our faves!
Oak Canyon Nature Center - Travel Fee: $0, permit fee of $25/hr. Gorgeous huge oak trees and bridges. Sadly dogs are not allowed.
Cedar Grove Park - Travel Fee: $0, Parking: $0, Beautiful cedar grove in the park!
Sculpture Garden of Cerritos Library - Travel Fee: $0, Parking: $0, Beautiful unique garden and fun library architecture.
Jeffery Open Space Trail - Travel Fee: $27. Beautiful trees, open fields and golden hour is gorgeous on the hills.

Los Angeles County Locations

Crescenta Valley Community Park - Travel Fee: $40. Large oak trees next to large hillsides. Simply gorgeous!
Vasquez Rocks - Travel Fee: $75 - The most incredible rock formations, looks like an alien planet!
Heritage Park, Santa Fe Springs - Travel Fee: $0, Permit is required ($150 per hour) contact heritagepark@santafesprings.org.GORGEOUS park with historical buildings, greenhouse, train cars, and manicured gardens.
Ernest E. Debs Regional Park - Travel Fee: $25. This is a huge and expansive park but at the top of one of the hiking trails is this little hidden oasis with a small pond, beautiful trees and an amazing lookout view of DTLA. The hike up is STEEP but oh so worth it! Just prepare to wear different shoes for hiking and your session :)
Malaga Creek (St. Francis Episcopal Church) - Travel Fee: $40. Saint Francis is known for it’s beautiful eucalyptus and open air feel. We most love the glorious ivy covered walls and the beautiful trees that make every photo feel like a fairytale. There is a spectacular view of the ocean and hiking trails all close together.
Vista Hermosa Park - Travel Fee: $25, Permit Fee: $150 (MRCA Location) - urban park with incredible views of the DTLA Skyline!
Ferndell Park - Travel Fee: $25. Located inside of Griffith Park, this little hidden oasis is always green no matter the time of year. It features shady light, a manicured path and creek.
Lewis MacAdams Riverfront Park - Travel Fee: $25. Located next to the LA River, the lighting and features are incredible!
South Coast Botanic Garden- Travel Fee: $40, Permit Fee: $50 and admission of per person: $15 required. Similar to the LA Arboretum, but located in the South Bay.

Inland Empire Locations

Chino Hills State Park - Travel Fee: $30. Per car entrance fee of $5. Beautiful park and trails with hills, trees and poppies in the spring. Dogs allowed!
Salvation Mountain - Travel Fee: $140. Yes, it is way the heck out there. Is it unique and wild? Yes. Is it colorful as #$%&? You betcha. Have we done a session there before? YES! Google the place and check it out!
Lake Arrowhead - Travel Fee: $100. Gorgeous and the location speaks for itself.
UCR Botanical Gardens - Travel Fee: $30, Permit Fee: $50 (details here). Beautiful botanical gardens!
Joshua Tree National Park - Travel Fee $133, Permit Fee $120 (See this page under "Special Use" Permit for more permit information) The location speaks for itself on this one, there is nothing quite as magical as Joshua Tree. Just note, we won't shoot out there in June-September (too hot!)

Our Faves

Caspers Wilderness Park - SJC

Travel Fee: $35
Parking: $3 on weekdays, $5 on weekends
Caspers Wilderness Park is an 8,000 acre protected wilderness preserve nestled among the river terraces and sandstone canyons of the western coastal Santa Ana Mountains. Our all time fave! Sadly dogs are not allowed.
San Juan Capistrano Mission

Travel fee: $35.
Permit Fee: $80 per hour
The perfect combination of nature and old architecture!
San Juan Capistrano Open Space
Free to park and use! Beautiful trees, open fields and golden hour is gorgeous on the hills. It is just down the street from the mission and is perfect for the second hour of an engagement session!
Los Angeles Arboretum

Travel Fee: $35, Permit fee of $75 and admission of $15 per person required.
One of our favorite spots for beautiful photos year round! They always take such care of the space! We are also featured on their photography brochure! :)

Urban

In your home!

Yep, this is a unique option but suits many couples who just bought a home together, want to feature something special in their home, want to have some home-ey every-day type lifestyle photos or who want to feature a pet that is most comfortable in the home (looking at you kitties!). Here are two examples (one and two) of at home sessions we have done, they were so fun!

Orange County Locations

Old Towne Orange - Travel Fee: $0, Parking Varies. Various different places to meet and photograph including alleys and brick, painted and vine covered building exteriors.
Downtown Fullerton - Travel Fee: $0, Parking Varies. Various different places to meet and photograph including alleys and brick, painted and vine covered building exteriors.
Downtown Santa Ana - Travel Fee: $0, Parking Varies. Various different places to meet and photograph including alleys and brick, painted and vine covered building exteriors.
Disneyland - Travel Fee: $0, Parking: $20, Entrance Fee for 2 photographers and yourself. Not really an option again until after the pandemic restrictions ease (we want to see your faces!) but we have photographed several engagement sessions in the park. Usually sessions are 4-5 hours long to accommodate for crowds and seeking spaces without a lot of guests. The goal is that we make it look like you are the only people there! It is worth it, I promise!

Los Angeles County Locations

Pomona College - Travel Fee: $33. Permit Required (details here). Various different places to meet and photograph including parks and building exteriors.
Cal Tech University - Travel Fee: $33. Permit Required (details here). Various different places to meet and photograph including parks and building exteriors.
LACMA - Travel Fee: $25. Fun, modern exteriors, and everyone loves the Urban Lights installation!
Music Center (Walt Disney Concert Hall + Dorthy Chandler Pavilion)- Travel Fee: $25. Parking Varies. As far as we can tell, no permit required. Amazing building exteriors! They do close the majority of access to the WDCH 1 hour before and after a concert, so be sure to check the LAPhil's schedule.
Griffith Observatory - Travel Fee: $35. Parking/Entrance $0. Typically we do sunrise sessions here to avoid crowds!
Venice Beach - Travel Fee: $25, Parking Varies. Fun, modern exteriors and murals. !
Brand Library - Travel Fee: $25, Parking Varies. Amazing exteriors!
Highland Park Murals - Travel Fee: $25, Parking Varies. A little stroll down Figueroa in Highland Park. Starting at the new Abel Mac mural at the Owl Bureau, landing at the Dapper Line Mural behind Highland Park Wine.
Malaga Cove Plaza and Library - Travel Fee: $40, Parking: $0. Incredible Tuscan and European courtyard vibes. Weekends only, weekdays are busy with shops and businesses.

Our Faves

Arts District, LA

Travel Fee: $25, Metered Parking.
Fun, urban, colorful photos in the arts district! Wear good walking shoes and we always aim to end on the First Street Bridge right at golden hour to have the LA skyline behind.
Pasadena City Hall

Travel Fee: $35, Metered Parking.
Beautiful building, photography permit no longer required on weekends but IS required on weekdays! Sundays are better as Saturdays are even more packed with other shoots.
Old Town Pasadena

Travel Fee: $35, Metered Parking.
Various different places to meet and photograph including alleys and brick, painted and vine covered building exteriors.

Beach

If you are thinking of a beach location, please scroll down to see our notes on beach lighting.

Note that most all beach locations require a permit, Laguna Beach is the most reasonably priced.

Orange County Locations

Crystal Cove, Newport Beach - Permit Fee: $TBD (Permit through the California Film Commission), $15 per vehicle entrance/parking fee, Travel Fee: $25. Weekday photography only, permits are not issued on weekends.
San Clemente Beaches - Travel Fee: $25, Parking $5, No permit for city beaches (Calafia State Park requires a pricey permit). Beautiful cliffs, coves and rocky/sandy beaches. Linda Lane is a fave!

Los Angeles County Locations

Malbu Lagoon - Permit Fee: $TBD (Permit through the California Film Commission), $15+ per vehicle entrance/parking fee, Travel Fee: $54.
El Matador State Beach - Permit Fee: $65 (Permit through the California Film Commission), $15+ per vehicle entrance/parking fee, Travel Fee: $70. Only weekdays during the summer months, weekends available during the fall and winter months.

Our Faves

Laguna Beach

Travel Fee $25
Permit Fee: $100 (for 2 hrs)
Permit information here.
Treasure Island Beach is our favorite!
Little Corona Del Mar

Travel Fee: $25
Permit Fee: $TBD
(permit required through Film LA)
Lovely rocky beach!
Palos Verdes Cove

Travel Fee: $40, Parking $0.
No permit fee.
Meet at Shipwreck Trail for Bluff Cove. Beautiful cliffs, coves and rocky beaches.
Note: this location is gorgeous but requires climbing up and down steep hills and good shoes!

Lighting at the Beach

We want you to see how we work with the bright sunlight at the beach, including the bright afternoon light and golden hour at sunset, and how we embrace the sunlight in our pictures.
As the photos go on and time continues towards sunset, you'll see the light become more golden and soft. Note that the photos are in focus, but the character of the light adds the glow that we love!
The golden hour (the 1-2 hours before sunset) is THE best time to take photos and is the only time we will take photos at the beach.
Any earlier in the day the lighting will be very harsh, you will be squinting, have dark, deep shadows in your face and more details will be lost. We will always place the sun behind you so that you aren’t squinting and creating more face wrinkles, but that means that the lighting is much brighter in the scenery around you.
Cloudy days are of course very different and will provide much more detail and muted colors in the photos.
Overcast at the beach means more muted colors with more of the background and sky being visible in the photos. No matter where you are, you will have even, soft lighting on your face and you won't have to worry about squinting!
Sometimes, there is even different lighting during the same session!
Rest assured we will edit the colors to be the same, but you can really see the difference between sunny and cloudy here on the same subjects. With sunny here…
…and cloudy here. We did our best to position the couple well and make sure the exposures match throughout the gallery.