As you guys know, we were out in the San Francisco area a couple weeks ago for Francis and Ann’s engagement session! We made sure to book a couple extra days around the session so that we could explore and enjoy springtime in the Bay Area, and boy are we glad we did!!!
Here are our film photos from the trip!! Developed and scanned by Richard Photo Lab. Shot with my Mamiya 645 on Porta 400 film.
Sorry about how long this is! I considered splitting it into numerous posts – but just got way too far in to turn back! 😉 Enjoy this seriously EPIC post!! haha.
Our first full day we settled into our AirBnB – a fabulous little place in Sausalito that we absolutely loved!! James, sadly, was feeling seriously under the weather (thank goodness we always book an extra day before sessions or weddings just in case of this kind of thing!) – so I spent the day stocking the fridge and then set out to explore Sausalito on foot. (We originally planned to go to Muir Woods – but wandering around in this quaint little town on a perfect spring day was an okay substitute. 😉
This was part of the view from the back deck of our apartment!
Everything was blooming!! Spring had definitely arrived and we enjoyed the gorgeous 65-70 degree weather during our trip!
More of the view from our deck…
And the view of San Fran from Sausalito!
Then I drove the car up to the look-out point at the Golden Gate Bridge and it was one of the few foggy days we had while we were there – as you can tell here… you can barely see Alcatraz in the distance!
One last view from our place as the sun was setting…
Day 2 we had the engagement session in San Francisco in the afternoon – but made sure to take advantage of the morning (and our close proximity to all the gorgeous nature) and headed to Muir Woods!! Needless to say (for anyone who has been there) – this place was breathtaking and so incredibly humbling. When we go back we’ll definitely spend a full day there next time!!
Had I realized it would be so dark in there – I would have brought 800 speed film instead! Some of these are a pinch blurry – but I can’t help but share anyway.
The way the light shines through this place is simply stunning.
On the drive back to Sausalito there are some seriously gorgeous overlooks!
The view from our place on a clearer day!
Then off to San Francisco we went to meet up with these two lovebirds and their pups!! To see their full engagement session – click HERE. For this – I’m sharing a few of the snaps I took with the film camera because I couldn’t resist!
Day 3 we spent exploring the Golden Gate National Recreation Area along the coast… along the Marin Headlands to Rodeo Beach, and back to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was stunning!!
It is still crazy to me that it can be sunny and warm one second, and then Karl the Fog rolls in over the hills and boom…. soooo cold! Here was Karl creeping his way up this tiny one-lane one way road we took along the coast!
James was not a fan of me taking these photos over the edge of a pretty serious cliff. I may or may not have slipped on some loose rocks… so he may or may not have had cause to worry about his (clumsy) wife… but still!! The photos!!! Aaaaaamazing!!!
We eventually made our way all the way to Rodeo Beach only to find it was much too chilly (and cloudy) on that side of the coast … so we ate our picnic lunch in the car – ran out to see the beach – and headed back to hit the road to find the sunshine!
But not without stumbling upon these beautiful little deer eating along the way!
We made it back to the Golden Gate Bridge just as the light was starting to get all pretty and golden. It was over 70 degrees (in the sunny spots) this day – so EVERYBODY and their sister had their boats out – it appeared!
We had a much better view of the bridge this day thanks to the sunshine and lack of fog – but man was it WINDY!!! As you can tell in the photos of us below! haha! (We seriously could barely keep our eyes open because the wind was blowing some serious dirt and decent size pebbles in our faces!!)
We were exhausted after exploring so we headed back to take a nap and woke up just in time to enjoy dusk on our walk to dinner in Sausalito.
I took this one of our view at dinner. We had the most delicious crab and a deck nearly to ourselves, because we can handle the ‘chill’ and enjoyed this gorgeous view of the San Francisco skyline. I didn’t have my light meter with me – so I had to meter in camera & the skyline came out a bit bright. This was a 30 second exposure (as you can tell by the way the stars & water are moving) – and it appears I possibly caught a shooting star (or plane?) during the exposure too!
Our final day in California, we didn’t fly out until 5:30pm, so we had more time to get out and enjoy the sites and the weather! I had to include this photo of the sunrise the next day because James loves it so (even though I’m a little iffy on it)! haha.
We hiked from our place in Sausalito to the Golden Gate Bridge (6.5 miles round trip) and I absolutely loved it! Why can’t we have more hills in Chicago?!
Then we packed up and headed home to Chicago. This was such an amazing trip and we’re so thankful for our awesome clients for bringing us out! Feel free to hit me up if you have any questions about what we did if you’re planning a trip to the area! xoxo!