When Matt and Shane told me they wanted to do their engagement session in San Francisco, they had a handful of ideas for locations: Coit Tower, the Palace of Fine Arts, Marin Headlands.

I told them I would figure out some other locations and set up a schedule for our day. But I neglected to tell them about the danger in letting me control the schedule: I got so excited about all the possibilities for beautiful engagement photos in San Francisco that my ambitious schedule led us to a nearly five-hour photo shoot.

Still, despite being tired at the end of the day, we had a blast and came away with a great set of pictures. And we had fun chatting while driving around the city, a trip that was made longer because I took us on a couple wrong turns.

We also got to see some new spots in the city. They had never been to the top of Coit Tower or the overlook of the Golden Gate Bridge in the Marin Headlands. And none of us had ever been to the top of Twin Peaks, where we ended our San Francisco engagement session with a night photo overlooking the lights of the city, made challenging by the wind whipping over the mountain top and threatening to blow away the umbrella I was using for lighting.

We made pictures at a number of iconic locations through the day, and that theme will be continued during Matt and Shane’s wedding, planned for the gorgeous and enormous Corinthian Grand Ballroom in San Jose. We got a tour last week and I’m super excited about the pictures we’ll make there.