Rosewood Sand Hill, Menlo Park: The One Decision That Governs Everything
A low modern hotel in the oak country of the Peninsula foothills — and one decision that settles how the whole day is lit.
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Venue Guides
We are writing a photographer’s field guide to every wedding venue we would happily work in, city by city. Each guide covers the light, the timing and the frames that work – and says plainly where we are drawing on craft rather than on having shot there.
Berkeley Hotel: One Frame, and How It Is Made
A historic hotel in Berkeley, and the one frame an old building like it gives better than anything modern.
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Pema Osel Ling, Corralitos: What It Suits and What It Does Not
A retreat centre on a Santa Cruz Mountains ridge — quiet, wooded, and built for something other than weddings, which cuts both ways.
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Nestldown, Los Gatos: Field Notes
A private garden estate among coast redwoods above Los Gatos — the darkest woodland in this guide, and the clearings that rescue it.
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Hakone Gardens, Saratoga: The Problem, and Four Ways Out
A Japanese-style garden on a steep foothill slope — designed for a single walking eye, which is not what a wedding is.
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Cavallo Point, Sausalito: The Light Through the Day
A former military post at the north foot of the Golden Gate — white buildings, a parade ground, and weather that arrives through a gap in the hills.
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Fairmont San Francisco: The Building’s Own Logic
A grand hotel at the top of a San Francisco hill — built on a ceremonial spine, and standing above the fog more often than in it.
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Viansa Winery, Sonoma: The One Decision That Governs Everything
A hilltop above the wetlands at the cold southern end of Sonoma — where the wind comes from, and what that means.
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Sunstone Winery, Santa Ynez: Field Notes
A stone winery in the Santa Ynez Valley — warm limestone, oak savanna, and a valley that lies the wrong way round.
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Ferrari-Carano Vineyards, Healdsburg: The Site’s Own Logic
A formal ornamental garden in the middle of Sonoma vineyard country — two design languages on one property, each with its own rules.
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