Not gonna lie, Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park engagement photos are iconic! You have these massive trees, filtered afternoon light, and enough room to wander around without feeling like every second of the session needs to be planned.
That was exactly the vibe we wanted for Ashley and Brandon’s engagement session. They’re laid-back with this subtle, flirty energy. The kind of couple where nothing needs to be overly performed because the connection is already there. The redwoods gave us the perfect mix of down-to-earth, romantic, and just dramatic enough without making the whole session feel like a production. Nothing too overdone, just the two of them hanging out together in a ridiculously pretty part of Northern California.
And if that sounds like exactly what you’re looking for, there are a few things I’d think about before choosing a date and showing up in cute shoes.
Planning Engagement Photos at Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park
When I’m helping a couple choose an engagement photo location, I’m usually thinking less about finding the most popular spot and more about what fits the feeling they want from their photos. Because planning an engagement session that feels like you is the priority! If you’re still deciding what kind of engagement session fits you best, I wrote more about planning a San Francisco engagement session that feels personal here.
Ashley and Brandon wanted a forest setting, so Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park made sense for the vibe they were going for. I’d also never photographed a forest engagement session in the redwoods before, so selfishly, I was pretty excited about this one too!
And that’s kind of the thing about choosing an engagement session location: the setting does a lot more than give us a pretty backdrop. It changes how the whole session feels. In the redwoods, we had room to wander, explore, and photograph Ashley and Brandon within the landscape instead of staying in one spot and cycling through poses. It naturally lent itself to something a little more relaxed and romantic.
So if you’re scrolling through engagement photo locations in the Bay Area, don’t just ask yourself what looks pretty. Think about how you want the session to feel while you’re actually there. Do you want to wander through the woods? Run around on a beach? Dress up and explore the city? Start with the experience you want, and choosing the location gets a whole lot easier.
Why I Scout a New Engagement Location Beforehand
Because I hadn’t photographed at Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park before, I arrived about 40 minutes early to walk around and figure out exactly where I wanted to take Ashley and Brandon.
Part of that was obviously about finding good places to photograph. But I was also thinking about them. I didn’t know how comfortable they’d be walking longer distances in their outfits and shoes. And I really didn’t want our engagement session to turn into me wandering through the forest saying, “Wait, maybe over here?” every five minutes. That is not the vibe. You are not hiring me so we can all collectively get lost and call it creativity.
Having a game plan meant that once Ashley and Brandon arrived, we could just hang out and shoot. No wandering around trying to figure out where to go next. Or worse, making them walk way farther than necessary in cute-but-maybe-not-hiking-approved shoes. It’s a small behind the scenes part of planning forest engagement photos, but it makes the actual session so much more relaxed. You get to focus on each other, and I get to focus on the two of you instead of scouting while we shoot.
Want to get into my head on how location can totally change the vibes of your session? Here’s how location choices shape your San Francisco engagement photos.
The Best Time for Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park Engagement Photos
Lighting in the redwoods can be a little dramatic in the most annoying way. One minute it’s soft and glowy, and the next minute the trees are like, “Absolutely not, no more light for you.” Because you’re surrounded by tall trees, there are specific windows when the light filters through them in the way I want for photos. And since sunset changes so much throughout the year, the ideal session time isn’t necessarily going to be the same from one season to another.
For this location, I recommend planning to arrive around four hours before sunset for that afternoon light. Any later and it will be a bit too dark in the woods, and you won’t get that pretty filtered light. Ashley and Brandon’s session was on a Saturday afternoon. The park also wasn’t too crowded, which was a nice bonus.
When I’m planning Northern California engagement photos, I want the session time to work for the actual environment we’re photographing in. But also, you have a life and a schedule! The goal is to find that sweet spot between the best light and a time that realistically works for you. We’ll talk through things like sunset, the location, the season, and your availability. Then we can choose a time that gives us beautiful light without making the whole day feel stressful. Good photos matter, but so does actually enjoying the experience of taking them.
What to Know Before Your Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park Engagement Session
If you’re planning your own Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park engagement session, there are a few practical things I’d keep in mind.
Before your session, it’s worth checking the official park map so you have a general sense of where you’re headed. Not because you need to become a trail expert, but because parking and walking time are real things. Annoying, but true.
First, be prepared to move around. We don’t have to turn your engagement session into a legitimate hiking expedition. However, part of what makes a location like this fun is getting to explore it together. Comfortable footwear, or at least footwear you’re comfortable walking in, makes that a lot easier.
Your outfits matter too, not because there’s one specific thing you’re supposed to wear for redwood engagement photos. It’s because I want you to be able to move naturally in whatever you choose.
And finally, don’t choose your session time without considering the light. The trees change how and when sunlight reaches us. Which is why I plan the timing of a redwood session around the location rather than automatically scheduling everything for sunset.
Basically: wear something you feel good in, expect to walk around, and leave the light calculations to me.
What a Relaxed Engagement Session Actually Looks Like
One of my favorite things about engagement sessions is that there really doesn’t need to be that much pressure around them.
Ashley and Brandon and I had already talked through a lot of the details over text and voice notes before meeting up. Then we spent about two hours together at the park, mostly walking around, talking, and taking photos as we went. It was super chill.
I don’t put time limits on engagement sessions for my wedding couples. I think they’re about more than getting a gallery of nice photos. This is also our chance to get to know each other before the wedding.
I get to see what you’re like together and what feels natural for you in front of a camera. You get to learn how I photograph, and what my direction feels like. Hopefully by the end of it, you realize that you don’t need to magically become a professional model because you got engaged.
By the time your wedding arrives, we’ve already done this once! And that familiarity matters.
If you’re hoping your engagement session feels more like hanging out together somewhere beautiful and less like performing for a camera for two hours, this is exactly how I like to approach it. We’ll plan enough to have direction, but not so much that the whole thing feels stiff. Check out the experience here!
Why I Love Engagement Sessions Before the Wedding
Yes, you walk away with engagement photos. But I genuinely think one of the best parts of these sessions is everything that happens before the wedding because of them.
Ashley and Brandon had such great energy. And spending this afternoon together gave us time to become a little more friendly and comfortable with each other before I photograph their wedding next June. That’s important to me.
Your Bay Area wedding photographer is around for a lot on a wedding day. Having already spent a couple of hours wandering through the redwoods together means that when I show up at the wedding, I’m not a complete stranger holding a camera.
We already know each other a little bit. And in Ashley and Brandon’s case, we also got some pretty epic forest photos out of it. When I sent Ashley their gallery, her text back was, “I loveeeee the photos!!! You’re so fast 😭 thank you so so much!!!”
So I’d say our afternoon in the redwoods worked out pretty well!
Book Your Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park Engagement Photos
If running around the redwoods with your favorite person sounds like your kind of engagement session, I think we’ll get along pretty well. I’ll help you think through the location, timing, light, outfits, and all the little details that make the session feel relaxed instead of chaotic. Let’s find a spot that feels like you, chase some good light, and make photos that feel just as good as they look.
Let’s plan your engagement photos!
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