It’s no secret that the beach is one of my favorite places to shoot. We’re spoiled with the Bay Area having so many beautiful beaches, each with their own unique characteristics. Besides my personal love of hearing waves and feeling sand underfoot, beaches offer many qualities that make for ideal outdoor photo sessions.

The Colors at the Beach Are Ideal for Family Photography Sessions

Golden sand, a blue horizon, the dusty earthen tones of cliffsides, muted greens of coastal scrub and dune grass. All of these colors are ideal for photography. They are subdued enough to not cast color shadows on anyone’s skin yet they still retain a ton of visual interest and beauty. When photographing people, I find there is a tension between locations with a lot if vibrancy and interest (which can sometimes overwhelm my subjects) and locations that lack much color or detail (which are great neutral situations for capturing true color with subjects but they’re visually pretty boring). The beach is kind of the perfect in-between. ✨

Beaches Are Great Locations for Kids to Run Free

Wide open spaces with no car traffic are hard to come by in the San Francisco Bay Area. Places where your kids can really run free and be as wild as they want to be are even more rare. Where else can you kick off your shoes, embrace some dirty feet, and just frolic with your kids? The beach is where it’s at! 🏃‍♂️

Beaches Inspire Joy and Connection During Family Sessions

One of my favorite aspects of the beach, is that it offers an opportunity to immerse yourself in the natural world, sensing the elements around you. This, to me, is one of the true gifts of photographing families at the beach. That immediate immersion grounds people and requires them to get out of their heads and into their bodies - which is exactly where I want them to be. Embodied and connected to each other. Also, it’s kind of hard not to smile when you’re running through the surf or watching v-formations of pelicans overhead. 😍

My Favorite Beaches in Bay Area for Family Sessions

Ocean Beach - large, flat playa, grassy dunes

Rodeo Beach - black sand, dramatic rocky cliffs

Baker Beach - epic GGB view, gnarled Cypress tree cliffisde

Muir Beach - cliffside views and giant beach boulders

In the session featured below, we shot at Rodeo Beach in the Marin Headlands. I’m such a softie for this particular location. I used to work in the Marin Headlands at Fort Cronkite (back when I was a biologist) and I would often walk Rodeo Beach during lunch breaks. Now, twenty-something years later, I love coming back here any chance I get.

Schedule a Family Beach Session Here