This is always a fun photo to take after a San Francisco city hall wedding. The trick is getting the newlywed couple timed correctly to walk across the street without other pedestrians. For this photo I got down low to get an angled shot and tilted the camera just a bit. We often have to have our brides and groom walk a couple of times to get it right. For this picture, I decided to sharpen the San Francisco City Hall sign in the background for effect! Also, the fact that this photo is presented in black and white gives it more of a documentary feel. One of the slightly humorous things that often occurs is cars getting in our photo. Sometimes over eager drivers creep into the photo before the married couple clears the city hall cross walk. San Francisco city hall wedding photographers face unique challenges especially when it comes to marriages at this historic building. This problem has been reduced now that there is a Crosswalk with lights. Its almost hard for me to believe that we used to walk across this on a regular basis with no light.
The above photo was taken in my very first year of San Francisco city hall wedding photography. This was before they had a crosswalk light to protect pedestrians as mentioned above. So what I mentioned in this post at the time was true. Cars would often cross the pedestrian area almost immediately after the bride and groom walked by. This is no longer the case because now they have to wait for the light. Much safer and long over due after some pretty bad accidents. For many years, we felt like we were taking our lives in our hands crossing this street.
As a nice bit of nostalgia, I have added a few more photos from this wedding below. This was one of our first weddings every photographed at San Francisco City Hall. I thought at the time that I knew everything there is to know about shooting weddings here. I was wrong! Over the years I have learned lighting tricks and new locations. In some cases, we use the same location, but our angle is different or lighting more dramatic. We definitely try to mix up our wedding photography coverage these days. Part of the fun, is learning some of the new angles and techniques. Some of our favorite recent photos are from completely new places with new poses. It keeps things fresh and fun for our San Francisco city hall brides and grooms. The goal always is to provide them with the best wedding pictures possible!
