Where we shoot, on a map
You may see a few photos from nearby locations here. Many shoots span multiple spots in the same session.
Where you land comes down to the session you choose. A shorter weekday session sits at the low end; a weekend session with more time and more edited photos sits at the top. There's no deposit, and you pay after the shoot, not before.
Palace of Fine Arts
Pick what you're planning and we'll pull up the right pricing. Not sure yet? Start with a free 10-minute call.
The Palace of Fine Arts is the Beaux-Arts rotunda and colonnade left over from the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, sitting on a reflecting lagoon a few blocks from the Presidio. Open 24/7, free, fully public. The most photographed piece of classical architecture in San Francisco and the natural urban counterpart to the coastal photos you get from the rest of the SF cluster.
The Palace of Fine Arts is the architectural anchor of the SF cluster. Every other San Francisco location I shoot is coast — bridge, sand, cliffs, kelp. The Palace is the one stop that gives you classical Roman drama in the middle of the city. Pink-and-peach Corinthian columns, a 162-foot dome, a lagoon with swans, an arcing colonnade that you can walk through. Nothing else in San Francisco looks like this.
The lay of the land
Driving up for Astha and Chris's session I watched the marine layer rolling in off the coast and started bracing for a gray afternoon. Then I parked at the Palace and got sunshine and blue sky. That's the thing about this place: it sits far enough in to be doing its own weather while the coast is socked in. We spent the session working our way around the lake and the colonnade. Later we drove out to Baker for the bridge and confirmed the fog was exactly as bad as it looked.
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Getting here
A few things about Palace of Fine Arts
The Palace was built in 1915 for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, the world's fair that celebrated both San Francisco's recovery from the 1906 earthquake and the opening of the Panama Canal.
— Wikipedia / SFGateBernard Maybeck designed the Palace to evoke a Roman ruin contemplating its own decay. The melancholy mood was intentional, partly inspired by classical paintings of the Roman Forum.
— PBS Maybeck biography / Atlas ObscuraThe original 1915 structure was built of plaster, burlap, and wood lath, meant to be torn down after the fair. It became so beloved that the city couldn't bring itself to demolish it. The rotunda you see today is a complete reconstruction in concrete and steel between 1964 and 1974, funded largely by a two-million-dollar donation from philanthropist Walter Johnson plus city bonds.
— Wikipedia / SFGateThe mourning figures on the inside of the rotunda walls are sculpted in Greek-tragedy poses, depicting weeping women contemplating the impermanence of art. Maybeck wanted visitors to feel the melancholy beauty of contemplating loss inside what is technically a celebration palace.
— Atlas Obscura / Curbed SFThe swans on the lagoon have been a fixture since the 1970s. They weren't part of the 1915 original design, but they've become so iconic that they're now part of the image.
— SF Travel / SF Rec & ParksThe Palace has appeared in Vertigo (1958), Time After Time (1979), The Rock (1996), and dozens of other films. The Vertigo scene is the most famous: Kim Novak walks through the colonnade in the dreamlike sequence that anchors the entire film.
— SFGate / film referencesA major restoration from 2008 to 2009 cost approximately twenty-one million dollars and stabilized the concrete structure, repaired the dome, and re-landscaped the lagoon. The Palace you see today is essentially the version Maybeck designed, rendered in materials that will outlast the original by centuries.
— Wikipedia / SF Rec & ParksThe indoor Palace of Fine Arts Theatre is a separate 962-seat venue that originally served as the art gallery for the 1915 fair. It now hosts performances, lectures, and private events — entirely distinct from the outdoor rotunda and colonnade that the rest of the world photographs.
— palaceoffinearts.com
Palace of Fine Arts also appears as Palace of Fine Arts Rotunda, San Francisco Palace, Palace of Fine Arts Park, or The Palace.