Huntington Library Engagement Photography | Nicole + Phillip

The Huntington Library in San Marino (near Pasadena) is already a beautiful location for an engagement photography session, but there is a certain time of year that makes it even more special.  CHERRY BLOSSOMS!!!

Around March the cherry blossoms start to bloom, creating a pink accent to the stunning greenery.  And what better of a couple to shoot at a beautiful spot during the best time of year than Nicole and Phillip.  During the engagement session is when we usually get to truly see the unique relationship each one of our couple’s has.  When looking through the photos below, you can see that these two really love each other and are made for each other.  We are shooting their wedding later this year in October.

Huntington Library Engagement Photography

The Huntington Library features many photographic opportunities.  The Chinese gardens at the Huntington Library is one of the largest Chinese gardens outside of China.  It is also a rare one where it was custom designed for the layout of the hills, versus one that is designed in China and transplanted (like in a typical city block).  It also features a Japanese garden with bridges and koi ponds (and an amazing bonsai tree collection).

I just wanted to start first with the image above. It’s an image of our couple on the main bridge of the Chinese Garden, shot through the blooming pink cherry blossoms.

This large fountain is beautiful, historic, and famous (it’s in movies). It’s a great place to start the engagement photography portrait session.

And just look at those magnificent palm trees and white statues in the background.

The Chinese Garden at the Huntington Library

We moved on to the relatively new Chinese Garden in the back of the Huntington Library. It’s known for it’s gorgeous layout and is distinct for its layout (designed specifically for that space and land).

Engagement Photos at the Huntington Library Japanese Garden

We moved on to the Japanese Garden to capture the beautiful and amazing pink cherry blossoms in bloom at this time of the year.

And here are the white cherry blossoms.

This is the entrance to the bonsai tree garden, where they have some spectacular specimens.

We had to take some engagement photos of the cherry blossoms with strobed lighting to get more color and tone from them.

Then we moved on to the small bridges in the Japanese Garden. Note how low the railings are, which means they aren’t to code. The Chinese Garden has taller railings (not authentic) because of building codes, but this was made before those laws. It’s just one of those small details that shows the history and character of this amazing location.

And here is the beautiful arched Japanese bridge in the middle of the Japanese Garden. I can’t imagine having to actually climb up the steep sides of this, but they have it blocked off of course.

Engagement Photos at the Historic Huntington Library

For more examples of Huntington Library engagement photography (San Marino and Pasadena), make sure to see the many other examples on our blog.  Here is the category for engagement photography in Pasadena. We also have more recent work online on our Instagram account. We tend to be on the more experimental and edgier side, often aiming for more unique and original images. Our engagement photo sessions are a chance to get to know our couples and capture them as they are, as their friends and family see them. Then on the wedding day our couples are comfortable with our presence, making the photos more candid and photojournalistic.