The Grand Staircase at San Francisco city hall is one of the central points of the entire building. Most visitors tend to collect in the area and also sit there to rest and look around. This fact, coupled with other wedding photographers wanting to take photos of the staircase makes it a challenge to obtain an image such as the one above. A little bit of luck is usually involved plus waiting for the right moment for the crowds to clear out. We would also suggest you book your San Francisco City Hall ceremony for late in the afternoon or early in the morning to have the best chance of getting an image like this one. The fortunate thing about this building is that there are many other beautiful spots to take fantastic photos. We like to wait out all of the brides and grooms going to the staircase during peak times. Then when we find an opportunity to get the picture, we head to the bottom and then work our way up, capturing images as we go.
We really try to provide our clients with unique angles and background for their Grand Staircase wedding pictures. There are so many ways to photography this magnificent landmark and we love trying out new ideas for our brides and grooms. We know that many of our newlyweds want the pictures that they have seen of the grand staircase on our city hall website. But we also want to give each couple something unique and creative just for them. One of our favorite angles we like to do is from up above, which highlights the amazing patterned floor. I think a lot of inexperienced city hall wedding photographers may miss this particular angle because it is less obvious. It's a bit more challenging because when you're standing at the top of the staircase looking down there are often lots of chores and other couples in the picture. However, with a little bit of patience we usually can pull the shot off for our city hall couples. Like most people I also love the grand view. This is the image taken straight on that shows the entire structure. You'll see both angles featured prominently throughout the San Francisco city hall section of this website. The important thing is that we provide our clients a little bit of both if time allows. Here are some options for photographing the Grand Staircase at San Francisco city hall:
