Maternity Photographer in Sacramento, CA

Sacramento's tree canopy is among the densest of any American city, and for maternity work that matters more than it sounds: it turns hard afternoon sun into something usable a full hour before open ground becomes workable.

The American River Parkway runs for miles of that shade and is the obvious choice. The prettier one is McKinley Park's rose garden, which peaks through April and May, or the Victorian streets of Midtown and East Sacramento where the trees close over the road entirely. Old Sacramento's boardwalks and iron frontages are there too, though they photograph better early, before the crowds.

Sacramento is about forty minutes north of the studio, which is close enough that the gown wardrobe is a real option rather than a theoretical one. A good number of Sacramento families photograph outdoors in April or October and come to the studio in the months either side.

It is worth naming the rest of what the city offers, because most families only think of the parkway. The Capitol's grounds are an arboretum in their own right, planted with trees from around the world; Land Park has the ponds and the old oaks; and the grid of Midtown alleys, with their brick and iron and murals, gives an urban alternative to all that greenery for anyone who does not want a soft-focus field. Sacramento is a city with genuine variety in it, which for a maternity session means the pictures can look like a choice rather than a default.