ANITA & AUSTIN

ANITA & AUSTIN | A SAN FRANCISCO CITY HALL PORTRAIT SESSION

City Hall Portraits | San Francisco City Hall | San Francisco, California

There's something about City Hall that gets me every time. The marble, the light pouring through the rotunda, two people standing at the top of that staircase about to start their life together. Anita and Austin's session had all of it.

We met right at the doors, "CITY HALL" carved in gold above us, and started there before working our way up to the Grand Staircase for the light.

Bride glancing back over her shoulder while embracing her groom beneath a corridor archway.
Bride and groom cheering with arms raised and hands clasped outside the City Hall doors.
Groom twirling his bride under hanging lantern lights in a City Hall corridor, her dress swirling around her.
Silhouette of a couple kissing in front of a geometric stained-glass window, bouquet resting on the sill.
Couple embracing beneath an arched loggia flanked by large ornate stone urns.
Groom dipping his bride into a kiss in a marble corridor lit by wall sconces.
Black-and-white image of a bride glancing back over her shoulder while holding her train, walking down a staircase with her groom.
Couple embracing on a staircase, framed through the scrollwork of an ornate iron railing.
Couple kissing on a staircase, viewed through the decorative ironwork of a stair railing.
Bride laughing close to her groom's face, her statement earrings catching the light.
Couple embracing against a marble corridor wall lit by ornate brass wall sconces.
Back view of the couple walking hand in hand down a marble corridor toward a wood-paneled door.
Aerial view of a couple walking hand in hand down an ornate side staircase with gilded railings.
Aerial view of a couple embracing against a marble wall on an upper balcony landing inside City Hall.
Black-and-white close-up of a groom cupping his bride's face as they smile at each other.
Couple kissing on a marble balcony inside San Francisco City Hall, seen from below through a row of columns.
Couple embracing near a tall leaded window in a marble corridor, their reflection visible on the polished floor.
Bride glancing back over her shoulder on the Grand Staircase while her groom looks off to the side.
Couple seated together on the marble staircase steps, laughing in a close embrace.
Couple kissing partway up the Grand Staircase, viewed from the base of the stairs.
Black-and-white image of a couple embracing in front of wood-paneled elevator doors, bride glancing back over her shoulder.
Close-up of the couple smiling at each other with their bouquet held between them near a stained-glass window.
Bridal bouquet of coral peonies, purple dahlias, and blue hydrangea resting on a marble ledge beside the wedding rings.
Bride and groom nose to nose, both laughing in a close embrace.
Detail of a boutonniere with orchids, roses, and trailing lace ribbon pinned to a groom's lapel.
Bride and groom standing apart against columns in a marble corridor near the Law Library entrance, bride glancing back over her shoulder.
Wedding rings resting on blue hydrangea blossoms within a bouquet of coral and deep purple flowers.
Silhouette of a couple in a close embrace in front of a leaded-glass window.
Groom standing alone in a vaulted marble corridor, adjusting his cufflink.
Bride laughing while seated on a stone window ledge, one shoe kicked out from beneath her dress.
Couple embracing in front of vintage wood-paneled elevator doors, bouquet held in the foreground.
Aerial view of a couple embracing partway up San Francisco City Hall's Grand Staircase.
Groom lifting bride into the air beneath the ornate carved pediment above City Hall's front doors, her bouquet raised overhead.
Groom peeking over a bouquet of peonies, dahlias, and hydrangea in shades of coral, purple, and blue.
Back view of a couple seated on the staircase, groom's hand resting at his bride's waist.

I mostly stayed out of the way and let it happen. A kiss caught mid laugh, a bouquet thrown up in celebration, Austin nearly hiding behind it a few minutes later while we picked through the details up close.

From there we worked our way up the Grand Staircase, easily the best backdrop in the building. We walked it, sat on the steps, kissed at the bottom of it while the rotunda light did most of the work overhead.

The side corridors are where things slowed down. Fewer people, warmer light off the old wall sconces, room to just stand still together for a second. That's usually where the quietest, most honest frames come from, including one by a stained glass window that needed almost nothing from me.

We wrapped near the elevator doors on the way out. One more twirl, one more embrace, then back out the way we came in.

City Hall has a way of making even a quick session feel like a real occasion. That building has seen a hundred years of exactly this.

If a San Francisco City Hall portrait session sounds like your kind of day, whether it's the same afternoon as your ceremony or a day all your own, I'd love to plan one with you.

See more of my work at San Francisco City Hall, or check current availability for your own session.