We don't often go to this side of San Francisco City Hall due to time constraints. It takes a little bit of effort to get to this side and across Van Ness. There is no cross walk there, so you have to walk all the way down to the corner of Grove Street and then cross. However, if the bride and groom are interested, making this extra walk is totally worth it! Some beautiful grass and a great angle to view SF city hall appears on the Van Ness side. It is also less crowded with tourists so you have much more privacy in this location. I have actually seen other outsiders who want to take pictures of the building itself go to this side of the building. The best part of this from a wedding photography standpoint are actually the areas to shoot in. There is a nice grassy area and a beautiful private enclosure that provides nice light and a good view of the building. SF city hall looks great from any angle and this side is no different. For this particular photo, we just asked the bride to pose and move around for the groom. The added advantage to photographing the building from this angle is the lack of cars in the frame. The final result came out fun and nice. By lowering the camera angle a city hall wedding photographer can completely eliminate parked and driving cars in the background. This is not possible on front side of San Francisco city hall. I hope to convince more and more couples to come over to this side of the building for some of their photos.
Wide angle view of the Grand Staircase at city hall
