What attributes are shared by the top San Francisco Bay Area wedding photographers? There are lots of answers to this question depending upon your own preferences, but there are a few positive things that all of them possess. Here is a list (in no particular order) of what I think most great wedding photographers need to be able to do. All of these things should be possible while still delivering discount pricing.
The Gallery below provides some example of what we consider to be top notch SF Bay Area wedding photography. This Northern California wedding occurred in Walnut Creek at Boundary Oaks Golf Course. We also handled the bridal prep and the groom prep at the same location. The ceremony took place out on the First Tee of the golf course at Boundary Oaks. They have one of the best outdoor ceremony sites that is overlooking the golf course in the trees. The one thing I really like about Boundary Oaks is they have a very large “getting ready” room for the women. This room also has lots of light available so we can shoot without flash in the room with no problem.
The other nice thing is that the women were not too far away from where the other guys are getting ready so we can move between them both. Once the bridal prep was done we moved onto the ceremony and it was a beautiful day. The only thing about Boundary Oaks is that it gets pretty hot and there's not much shade in the summer. So most of the guests wait under the trees until the ceremony starts then they come out. This particular ceremony was relatively short but you can see from the images above that we captured it quite well. This is one of our favorite venues in the San Francisco bay area and we understand that the pricing is very reasonable.
Like all San Francisco Bay Area weddings that occur in the summer you can usually be sure it's not going to rain. This day was no different and we were able to capture some great ceremony photographs. Once we finished with the ceremony it was time for the family photography. Due to the excessive heat that day we took the family members into the shade, which everybody appreciated. Normally the family photos take about 25 minutes or so depending on how many groupings they have. Once that was completed all the guests went indoors to have drinks and we took the bride and groom out into the golf course. They have some beautiful old trees that you have to get to by taking a golf cart. They normally have a person escort you to make sure you don't get in the way of the golfers.
Unfortunately, Boundary Oak's famous big old oak tree recently came down in a storm, but they still let you out there and there are other large trees and grass to use for backgrounds. More importantly, there is still sufficient shade to keep our bride from overheating and also allows for better wedding photography. We understand that all Bay Area wedding photography occurring in the summer can have heat to deal with, but Walnut Creek is a bit hotter than average. So we do our best to try to keep everybody comfortable while capturing the best wedding pictures possible.
Once we've completed all of the outdoor formal photography we all went into the reception to get ready for the big celebration. The bride had a surprise in store for everybody when she came out in a cute dancing dress. The groom and her did a choreographed dance routine which everybody loved. we made sure to capture plenty of candid images of their amazing precision dancing. If you look above you will see some of the photos we captured of the dance. I thought she was going to keep the Dancing dress on, but she quickly changed back into a wedding dress for the rest of the night's festivities. Normally, at this point we just follow the couple around from table to table while they visit their relatives and friends. The idea here is to capture hugs and greetings in a candid manner.
When we photograph a full wedding like this, we make sure to cover all of the action from start to finish. We will never leave your reception early even if we go over the allotted time. It is certainly important to make sure that you have a realistic timeline and share it with your wedding photographer and guests for any San Francisco Bay Area Wedding. We really enjoyed Boundary Oaks as a wedding venue and have been here for wedding photography many times.