Sacramento engagement photographer Doug Miranda Photography has been capturing engagement sessions and proposals around the greater Sacramento area since 2007. He has photographed many newly engaged couples in some amazing locations during all the seasons of the year around this historic state capitol city of Sacramento and the surround cities and foothill towns. The greater metropolitan area and downtown area offer many locations for engagement photography sessions to take place at. If you don’t like reading you can skip to the bottom to see the list of engagement session locations around Sacramento.
You might be asking yourself why do I even need engagement photos? One big reason to have these kind of photos taken is to commemorate your engagement to your soon to be wife or husband. These photographs will give you a special reminder of your spouse and you before you started down the road as a married couple. The biggest reasons for couples having engagement pictures taken of themselves is to get comfortable in front of the camera, so that come their wedding day they will be use to having their pictures taken. I highly recommend that my wedding couples do this so that they also get to know me better and get use to the process of having their photo taken. Most all couples have never had professional pictures taken of themselves together, so this is a great way to ease them into what’s going to happen on their wedding day. Come wedding day couples that have done this are much use to the camera and I can start capturing genuine photos right off the bat. Another reason couples have engagement photos taken of themselves is to have some nice photographs taken of them outside of their wedding day and wedding attire to hang on the walls or just keep for memories.
Let’s talk about engagement session locations around the great Sacramento area for these types of photos to be captured at. The first area would be the downtown and the outlining areas of the city buildings. One of the most grand and stunning locations in the downtown area would be the California State Capitol building with the surrounding park and rose garden.There area some many unique locations and hidden spots around the grounds of this majestic capitol building. This is one of the most popular spots in the city. Another popular location in the downtown area would be Old Sacramento and the surrounding boardwalk, alleyways and the near by Tower Bridge and water front. Just like the capitol there are ton’s of great spots around Old Sacramento for your engagement pictures to be taken at. The only downside to this area is that it can crowded with people during the weekends. One of the other things I love about downtown is just walking around amongst the tall building with couples and finding new spots with great light to have their photos taken at. There are some many cool areas in the city and if this is your kinda of thing then I suggest just taking a photo stroll around the city. Especially with all the new and old buildings that are now decorated with all the wall murals around the city streets. Near by in East Sacramento is the McKinley Park Rose Garden which is a pretty area when the roses are in full bloom. There are lots of great areas for engagement photographs in the downtown area.
Another great area for engagement session photos are the surrounding cities of Folsom, Roseville, Rocklin and El Dorado Hills. Folsom has the quaint streets of Old town Folsom and the near by walking paths around the Lake Natoma shoreline for your pictures to be taken at. They're are also many hidden parks and beautiful oak tree forest, which are amazing and less traveled too. Another popular area in Folsom is Folsom Lake and it’s many miles of shoreline and secret spots. Roseville also has many oak tree lined parks and a cute old downtown area that is perfect for these types of photos too. The other outlining cities of Rocklin and El Dorado Hills also have many hidden gems of locations that you should ask your engagement photographer about. The foothill area and gold country of the surrounding rolling hills and valleys are also littered with stunning locations and beautiful outdoor backdrops that are much less traveled and are well worth the drive to see these breathtaking locations. If you’re into the beauty of nature I would highly recommend the trip out to the foothills of Sacramento for your portrait session.
One other hugely popular area that has become a very common spot for any kind of portrait photography session to take place at is UC Davis and its surround campus and arboretum area. Just like the capitol the campus at UC Davis is massive and has plenty of areas and hidden gems to have your engagement photos taken at. One of the most popular areas on campus is the T. Elliot Redwood Grove located in the arboretum by Lake Spafford. In this area of the arboretum there are many spots and different backgrounds to have your pictures taken at. One of the best times of the year to have your photos taken in this area is during spring when all the flowers, trees and bushes are in full bloom around the arboretum. Another popular season is fall when all the surrounding trees around Lake Spafford are decorated in their beautiful fall colors. The arboretum is massive and miles long following Putah Creek through out the campus. The campus itself along with all the stunning architecture of the school buildings are beautiful in their own right for photo locations. By having unique nature areas and the surrounding campus buildings make this spot a prefect all in one location for having everything you’ll really need as far as locations go. In my opinion this is why it’s one of the most popular spots in the greater Sacramento area. Plus it’s easy to get to with a quick drive on I-80.
If you live in Sacramento and are willing to travel your only a short 2 hour drive in either direction to some other epic engagement session locations. To the east is Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada Mountain range and to the west is the coast, wine country and San Francisco. Both of these areas have loads of magnificent locations for your portrait session.
Once you’ve picked a location or have one in mind then it’s deciding on when to have your photos taken. If you’re late to the game you most likely won’t be able to pick a season to have your pictures taken in. Since you’ll needing them asap for save the dates or any other wedding related items that you want to customize with your photos. If you planned ahead then you’ll be able to decide when you want your photographs taken. Winter is a good time here in the valley since the scorching heat is not around, but you’ll be hit or miss on being rained out or not. Another popular time of year is spring since you’ll most likely not be rained on and all the flowers and trees will be in bloom. Summer is another good option, but must likely during this timeframe you’ll want to head to the coast or the mountains to escape the summer heat. Fall is one of the most popular times of the year since it’s still warm and dry. With that being said you’ll end up with all the pretty fall colors around the city and foothills too.
Below is a short list of the top Sacramento engagement session locations.
If you are interested in a portrait session please fill out the contract form on this website. You can also email me directly or give me a call at 916-422-2256. I look forward to hearing from you.