SF Bay Area Beach Family Photography | Iris and Lace Photography

Bay Area Beach Family Photos

Today I’m featuring three beautiful, kindhearted families I photographed along the San Francisco Peninsula coastline this Fall!

If you’re considering a beach location for your family photos, here’s some quick tips:

The weather & light is unpredictable. It might be sunny and clear, or windy and even misty. Every beach photoshoot is totally unique! Bring layers and change of clothes for the ride home, just in case.
I avoid scheduling beach sessions on Summer/Fall weekends due to the extra crowds.
You may get wet. You will definitely get sandy!

Is a Beach Location Right For You?

I recommend beach photoshoots for laid-back, adventurous families who love the water, enjoying playing on the beach as a family, and are comfortable with the elements.

You might get wet up to your ankles. We do try to stay dry but sometimes a wave will come up behind us unexpectedly just as we pose for the perfect photo! You can expect that your hair may not be “perfect” in every photo, since the ocean is breezy— but that’s okay! The beach is a beautiful destination for fun-loving families who want to capture real moments and play.

Beach photography sessions are some of my most variable. As you look through these three family galleries you will notice that they all look totally different. This is especially interesting because these sessions were all photographed within 1 week of each other, all within the same section of coastline. Even in the same area at the same time of year, the galleries all have different colors and moods. Just as every sunset is totally unique, no two beach photography sessions are ever exactly alike.

Scheduling Bay Area Family Photos at the Beach

As you may already know, the Bay Area has regional microclimates which means that June, July and August tend to be very foggy months along the coast of the SF Peninsula. (I still love the photographing the moody, subdued, muted tones that I can achieve in a foggy climate. You can view some of my foggy beach sessions here and also here!) After the foggy summer months clear up, late Fall, Winter, and Spring features a beautiful sunny season.

One thing to keep in mind: in October, Half Moon Bay features an annual Pumpkin Festival, so particularly on the weekends the traffic can be very thick. Due to this traffic, I do not schedule beach sessions on weekends during October. If you are interested in a beach family photo shoot during the Fall, I recommend scheduling your photos on a Monday through Thursday, when beaches are quieter, parking is less of a hassle, and there is much less traffic. Trust me, it is worth it!

Choosing a Bay Area Beach for Photos

Choosing a beach is one of the ways I guide my clients with my expertise. I have spent many hours scouting beaches all throughout the Bay Area, trying to find locations that are beautiful, spacious and accessible. Some beaches in the area are particularly windy, crowded, or have difficult parking situations. Some local beaches also require expensive permits and are monitored by rangers. I will work with you to recommend beaches that are good for your family photos. If you are planning to bring a dog to your beach photoshoot, be sure to let me know in advance, because some Bay Area beach locations do not allow puppies.

Managing Light & Crowds on a Sunny Beach

Shooting on the West Coast is a wonderful privilege, because the ocean is a beautiful backdrop for photos, but also presents some technical photography challenges. One of the biggest challenges from a photography standpoint is the harsher sunlight later into the evening. When photographing on a beach, the landscape is totally open, so there is no shade to use. Furthermore, the ocean reflects sun rays back up, making the landscape even brighter, and compounding the problem of way too much light.

To accommodate for the extra light later in the evening, I sometimes shorten beach photoshoots and push back the start time a little bit later than I normally would. On a clear day, I find that the best light is the 20 minutes as the sun is touching the horizon and softening nicely.

For one of these beach sessions featuring in this gallery, we actually arrived to the location few minutes early, and I told the family I was going to wait to start shooting until the light had softened. So don’t be surprise if we arrive on site early, just to hangout for a few minutes until the light is perfect!

Sometimes we arrive and there are many other families also enjoying the beach. I try to arrive a few minutes early and scout out the area to find the section of the beach where there are not as many people. I am able to Photoshop some small people out in the distance of photographs but I try to eliminate heavy Photoshop work by strategically photographing my family at an angle. This is another reason we often wind up standing close to the water (and may get wet!) as there are fewer people in the background, the closer you get to the water’s edge.

What to Wear for Family Photos at the Beach

When booking your photos with me, I will provide a Style Guide to help you coordinate your wardrobe. In general I recommend my families to wear neutral colors like khaki, cream, brown, tan, gray, white. This will be the foundation for your family's wardrobe. Next I recommend incorporating a pop of warm color such as wine red, burnt sienna, or mustard yellow. It's important that the whole family doesn't match perfectly and there is enough color to draw the viewer's eye naturally to the subject of the photograph. I also have a Client Closet with dresses to borrow if you are unsure of how to dress your family.

The temperature at the beach is also unpredictable. It may be a warm sunny day, or the weather may be misty with a little breeze. I recommend wearing layers and bringing shawls or jackets to your photoshoot.