Growing up in northern Marin (Novato, for those curious) the thing I’ve learned about photographing in the Marin Headlands is that I’ll never know what to expect when I get there. Over the years, I’ve accumulated some knowledge on how to assess conditions and even if I’m right when I arrive, it may be a completely different story in 10 minutes.

This was sort of the case with Alan and Thu’s engagement session in the Marin Headlands. Upon arriving a bit before sunrise, it was a pretty densely overcast and foggy, especially up at the higher elevations of Hawk Hill. As we got started, the sky cleared up a bit but a dense bank of clouds lingered along the horizon blocked the rising sun. But then mother nature decided to hook us up with some incredible light through a stunning sunrise display. For the rest of the morning we intermittently swapped foggy overlooks with warm sunlit scenes and sunny skies with grey backdrops but that’s part of the charm of the San Francisco Bay and the coastal fog, is it not?