We don't often go to this side of San Francisco City Hall due to time constraints. It takes a little bit of effort to get to this side and across Van Ness. There is no cross walk there, so you have to walk all the way down to the corner of Grove Street and then cross. You can also go down to McAlister street and cross. However, if the bride and groom are interested, making this extra walk is totally worth it! Some beautiful grass and a great angle to view SF city hall appears on the Van Ness side. It is also less crowded with tourists so you have much more privacy in this location. I have actually seen other outsiders who want to take pictures of the building itself go to this side of the building. The best part of this location from a wedding photographer's standpoint is where we get to shoot. There is a nice grassy area and a beautiful private enclosure that provides nice light and a good view of the building.
You definitely obtain a different feel for the building from this side. It actually looks more official. But SF city hall looks great from any angle and this side is no different. For this particular photo, we just asked the bride to pose and move around for the groom. The added advantage to photographing the building from this angle is the lack of cars in the frame. The final result came out fun and nice. By lowering the camera angle a city hall wedding photographer can completely eliminate parked and driving cars in the background. This is not possible on the front side of San Francisco city hall. I hope to convince more and more couples to come over to this side of the building for some of their photos. It really worked out well for these newlyweds and the photos captured on this side of city hall were some of their favorites.
Wide angle view of the Grand Staircase at city hall
The Best Way to Work with City Hall Newlyweds
This particular couple reminded me of some of the best ways to work with our clients. A city hall wedding photographer would be smart to listen to the suggestions of their couples. When you are an expert in your field there is a tendency to think you know best and should not take suggestions. In fact, it is easy to convince yourself that you are actually doing your wedding client a favor by using your expertise and doing things your own way. I would suggest strongly that highly ranked city hall wedding photographers do not handle things this way. In this particular case, I was really hoping to spend more time at other locations besides the one suggested by the bride and groom. However, I listened to their advice and the pictures that we took on the opposite side of San Francisco city hall ended up being all of our favorites!
