I love this classic location- Union Station! An old train station in downtown Los Angeles, which is still in operation. It’s open to the public, thus there are lots of people and variables in play. Outside the station, there’s also a great Mexican “puebla” which is beautiful and has lots of character. The Sunday of our scheduled session, there was folk dancing and lots of people celebrating Mexican culture.

It was a pleasure getting to know May and Ryan through this engagement session. I’ve photographed weddings at Hakone Gardens, so I was looking forward to using being back at this location. There are stunning bamboo like forests on the left side of the property and lots of little nooks and crannies for portrait spots. The cherry blossoms were in bloom, which was a nice surprise and different from the summer weddings here. It can get very very hot in this south bay location for summer weddings FYI.

The last picture in black and white was a team effort to say the least. We were actually in a different location that happened to have lots of blossoming trees (it looked more like an office park instead of a picturesque outdoorsy location). Several of May’s friends had come to assist in hair and makeup and overall support. I had this crazy idea of lighting the couple with a flash behind them, which required one of her friends to hold the light. Her other friend and I then proceeded to use my monopod (a long stick), frisbees and sheer willpower to shake trees around them to get blossoms to fall. There was a lot of experimentation but in the end I think we got a unique and fun picture- close to what I had envisioned.

Everyone was laughing and having a good time. You know you’re in the groove of a creative process when you feel like a kid again- laughing, experimenting and having fun.

I’m not sure why I never used Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park as a portrait spot (ok, maybe it the combination of water plus thousands of dollars of digital camera equipment) but it was gorgeous and a lot of fun!