California
San Francisco is the only major American city where a fifteen-minute drive changes the weather completely. It can be flat white overcast at Ocean Beach and full sun in the Mission at the same hour on the same afternoon, and knowing which is which on a given day is most of the skill of photographing here. The fog is not a hazard to be worked around — it is the best portrait light in the state, and the sessions that go wrong are the ones that fought it. The permitting here has a wrinkle that catches almost everybody. A large share of the most-photographed ground in this city is not city property: the Golden Gate Bridge approaches, Baker Beach, Marshall’s Beach, Lands End, Crissy Field and the Marin Headlands are all Golden Gate National Recreation Area, administered by the National Park Service. City parks — Alamo Square, the Palace of Fine Arts, Golden Gate Park — answer to San Francisco Recreation and Parks, a completely separate permit. Getting one does not cover the other. The practical upshot is good news more often than not: NPS does not require a permit for still photography in areas open to the public that uses no models, sets or props, so a handheld engagement session at Baker Beach is generally fine. A ceremony at the same spot is a Special Use Permit.
September and October are the clear, warm months here — the actual San Francisco summer, after the fog season ends. June through August is fog: cold, grey, windy on the coast, and excellent for portraits if you stop waiting for it to lift. Winter is the greenest the hills get and brings the most dramatic skies between storms. Spring is windy and variable. Whatever the month, the fog usually burns off inland by late morning and returns to the coast by late afternoon.
The Golden Gate Bridge from the south, at an angle that puts the full span behind you. The north end of the beach is clothing-optional, which is worth knowing before you arrive with a family.
A Roman rotunda and colonnade around a lagoon, built for the 1915 exposition and kept because the city refused to let it go. Empty at sunrise and a wedding-party queue by ten on any Saturday.
A stone labyrinth on a bluff at the mouth of the bay, reached by a short trail. Cypress, cliff and open ocean, with the bridge in the distance to the north-east.
The Painted Ladies with downtown stacked behind them. The classic frame is from the park lawn looking east, and it works only in the last two hours of light when the sun is behind you.
Directly above the north tower, looking down the length of the bridge into the city. The single most dramatic viewpoint in the Bay Area and the one most likely to be socked in.
These come under the San Francisco rate: a photographer travels out from the city at no extra charge, and the session is priced exactly as it would be in San Francisco itself.
For a handheld portrait or engagement session, generally no. The bridge approaches, Baker Beach, Marshall’s Beach and the Marin Headlands are all Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and the National Park Service does not require a permit for still photography in areas open to the public that uses no models, sets or props. A wedding ceremony at any of those locations does require a Special Use Permit, applied for well in advance.
No — it usually improves it. Coastal fog acts as a softbox the size of the sky, giving even light, no squinting and deeply saturated colour, which is why so much editorial portraiture is shot here in June. What fog does remove is the distant view: if the specific photograph you want is the Golden Gate Bridge in full sun, check the webcams the morning of and be ready to move inland, where it is often clear at the same hour.
September and October. The fog season ends, temperatures reach their annual peak, and the air is at its clearest — this is the city’s real summer, and it surprises visitors who came in July expecting one. Winter is the second choice for its green hills and dramatic post-storm skies.
No, and this is the most common mistake here. San Francisco Recreation and Parks administers Alamo Square, Golden Gate Park and the Palace of Fine Arts. The Presidio, Crissy Field, Baker Beach and Lands End are federal land under the National Park Service. They are separate authorities with separate applications, and a permit from one carries no weight with the other.