I’m always amazed how this city provides so much inspiration to me. It definitely helps that it offers so many amazing little locations to shoot, and I get to meet and work with such awesome couples everytime I’m up there for a session! One such location is the Japanese Tea Garden, tucked away in Golden Gate Park (why doesn’t LA have a park like this, WHY) and one such couple were Karen and Lipo. Are they not the sweetest? :)

“No city invites the heart to come to life as San Francisco does.
Arrival in San Francisco is an experience in living.”

—

3 photographer girls. 24 hours in SF. 12 rolls of Walgreens Kodak film {developed at Costco}. Ready go.

Now there are two things I fell a bit more in love with on this trip.

The first would be film.

I’ve known that film = magic for quite some time, but I feel like this trip really reinforced how drawn I am to it. Film feels real to me. When I look at a film photo, it’s almost as if I can reach out and touch the moment, like the moment is still there, 100% as real as yesterday. As if somehow, the smells and the sounds and what I felt at that.very.second are all conveniently built in as well. It is immensely tangible in a way that I can’t even explain. And of course, the color. Blows my mind every time.

And the second is the city.

There was a period of time as a kid, where my family used to visit SF every year. Ghirardelli might have been the first chocolate brand I knew. We had cable car ornaments on our Christmas tree. At 3 years old, I would refer to any overcast day as “San Francisco weather.” And then, maybe 15 years passed without me visiting the city even once. But this job brought me back. First for an engagement session here, a wedding there. Somehow I found myself in this city a total of 6 times this year. The little apartments with their bay windows & hardwood floors, the cozy cafes, the hills, bridges, the nightlife, the FOOD… San Francisco continuously inspires me in an incredible way.

And if for some bizarro reason you do not already love this city as much as I do, perhaps these photos can change your mind…

(all shot on Kodak 400 film, with a Canon AE-1)

I believe I literally squealed when I opened the scans Alice sent to me of my photos and saw this first image below. I was so banking on receiving a set of photos that were totally white/totally black/completely blurry & ridiculous, and then I saw this, my first shot – somehow exposed, in focus, and full of insane light. EVEN PIGEONS (rats with wings!) look good on film.

Even if I conjured up in my mind the most perfect cafe in the world, it would not be as perfect as Cafe de la Presse.

A big thank you to Kevin Chin for taking us to shoot around the Embarcadero. The light against the bay bridge was incredible – I think I looked a bit like a crazy person juggling my film camera, iPhone, and digital point-and-shoot (JUSTINCASE the film didn’t come out) as I tried to capture it in every way possible.

The Ferry Building, the place where I just walk around repeatedly saying “WHY DON’T WE HAVE THIS IN LA??”:

Savory bread pudding. The world is a better place now that some genius thought this up.

And some shots from Alice & Connie’s collection…

Lomo Fisheye FTW!

When I was in San Francisco for Meenah & Shaobo‘s wedding {coming to the blog soon!} I had the opportunity to meet up with Tiffany & Jeremy for a sweet engagement session in Muir Woods and the nearby beach. I had no idea that just on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge lay such beauty – I drove along in utter amazement as I crossed through the magical little town of Sausalito, alongside small bays, through rolling grassy hills, and finally, up to the gorgeous expanse of trees that makes up the woods. All week long the forecast called for an 80% chance of rain, but as it always seems to do, the weather turned in our favor and not a drop fell the entire day.

Tiffany & Jeremy booked me over email/phone, so it was so exciting to finally meet them in person! They are so sweet and perfect together and I can’t wait for their lovely norcal wedding at Fogarty Winery next summer!

Now, have I mentioned how much I LOVE shooting in the woods?