Maternity Photographer in Auburn, CA

Auburn is where the gold rush stuck. Claude Chana found gold here in May 1848, the North Fork Dry Diggings became a town of fifteen hundred inside a year, and Placer County put its seat here in 1851 — and unlike most of Gold Country it never went quiet afterwards. Old Town still stands on the ground the first camps were pitched on, and it is a genuinely beautiful place to spend a morning.

For maternity portraits it is the canyon rather than the town that earns the drive, and it earns it easily. The Auburn State Recreation Area follows forty miles of the North and Middle Forks of the American River, and the Confluence, where the two meet, is the one setting within reach of this studio that gives you water, rock and real elevation in a single frame. Jesica loves photographing up here, and it shows in the work.

The Stagecoach Trail climbs out of the Confluence in under two miles and looks back down the canyon — the wide frame people picture when they picture the foothills. The oak woodland on the way up does the quieter work: broken shade, warm ground, and a background with depth in it rather than an open field.

This is a session to plan properly, and worth planning. Auburn is about an hour and fifteen minutes from the studio, the canyon holds its heat well into the evening in summer, and the light down at the water goes early because the walls are steep — so the usable window is narrower than it looks. Spring and October are the kind months, late afternoon is the hour, and sensible shoes matter more here than on any other session this studio photographs.