I was promised beaches and nice weather when people told me about San Francisco.

Our last trip to the beach ended up with us going down to Daly City and having dim sum. Luckily, we had more success this time around. Travelling to the upper portion of Ocean Beach, we spent some time in the Japanese Tea Garden until the sunset approached.

All credit to Shirley for picking the outfit. Let’s break it down a bit: Tea colored shawl, black tank-top, white skirt and the all time classic Addidas Stan Smith sneakers; all this paired with a simple necklace and the ever so popular Daniel Wellington.

The sunset was probably one of the most beautiful I’ve seen, and it’s only made better by the smell of the ocean and the sound of the waves.

Oh, and the beautiful lady in my lens, of course. In 50mm we trust.

I think the pictures speak for themselves. What they don’t show is Shirley shivering behind the scenes. I was almost worried she might get hypothermia, her hands were like ice, and you can see the goosebumps on her skin.

All in all, this was probably one of the better shoots I did, also I realized how to properly use the hue adjustments.

I wish I had my lights, I wish I had my whole mobile studio setup. But I think putting myself into the situation where I don’t have any of them pushes me to work with what I got. I don’t think I’ve produced better portraits than these, but I feel like this might change after my next shoot, just like my previous shoot.

Oh and one more thing.

Shirley can totally do a thousand yard stare, and it looks amazing.

-Tao