Suzanne and Matt at Sutro Baths

I can only imagine their conversation on the way to meet me.

Suzanne – “I have a surprise for you”
Matt – “Cool”
Suzanne – “You’re going to like it”
Matt – “Great” (now getting worried)
Suzanne – “we are going to San Francisco to get photo’s taken of us”
Matt – [silence]
Suzanne – “It’s going to be great. We are meeting at Sutro Baths by the Cliff House.”
Matt – [silence]
Suzanne – “What do you think?”
Matt – [pause]…”Yeah. That’s not really me”

Long pause as both try to figure out what is going to happen next.

But of course, Matt, like many people who are nervous about photo shoots, ended up having a good time. He wasn’t jumping up and down at the end but he definitely was hamming it up a bit. Suzanne was great of course and they ended up with some nice photos.

Suzanne and Matt – Good luck to both of you with your endeavors and hope you like the photos.

A few samples below and the complete gallery here (password required).

Click here if you don’t see a slide show above.

Blog link:  http://jchandlerphotography.com/1077

Janice and Jean Marc Valentine’s Day Portait Session

Take one part surprise, one part beautiful San Francisco evening at Ocean Beach, one part fun, energetic and wonderfully photogenic couple and you have the makings for a very fun and productive Valentine’s Day photography session. Janice surprised her boyfriend Jean Marc with sunset portrait session and I have to say he did a great job just going for it. We explored the sand dunes where Lincoln hits the beach and were fortunate enough to see a very beautiful sunset.

Thanks Janice and Jean Marc for the letting me join you on Valentine’s day. Here are a few samples and and the complete gallery is here (password required).

North Beach Afternoon with Glenda and Seth

For all you photographers out there, when someone says “let’s meet in North Beach and check out a couple record and book stores.”  Say “what day and time” with out hesitation.  That’s what Glenda and Seth suggested to me for their portrait session and honestly I really didn’t know what to expect.  We met at Cafe Puccini (the location of their first date) and then proceeded to the most random record store I have ever seen.  Top floor was packed to the gills with stereo equipment from the 80’s and 90’s and the basement was equally crammed with LPs and guitars.   Best part was watching Glenda and Seth work their magic while searching for hidden gems.   They knew all the details about bands that I never even knew existed.  You just have to love San Francisco – you never know what you’ll find.

Glenda and Seth – thanks for showing me something new in San Francisco.  Hope you enjoy the photos.

A few samples below.  Complete gallery is here (password required).

Indah’s Portrait Session

One benefit of my groupon.com promotion is that I now have a much broader range of clients asking me for photographs.  Just this week, I did a corporate head shot session, a dog portrait session and a shoot with middle school aged kids for a community center in the Presidio.  Challenging in the utmost as I’m stretched beyond my normal children and family photography business.

So the moment I met Indah in her San Francisco home (which she just bought – congrats!!), I realized that I had to step up my game in whole new way.  Here was a stunningly attractive, professional, super nice young woman, asking me to photograph her.  Definitely a stretch from my work with baby bottles and runny noses.

So I took a deep breath, looked for the best light and started the session.  Fortunately, she was exceedingly generous with this fashion-shoot  rookie, the house made had interesting lines and the cloudy light worked.

Thanks Indah and I hope you like the photos.  A few samples below and the complete gallery here (password required).