Like us, Anna and Danny are lovers of the outdoors and nature, so shooting their Sonoma engagement session Jack London State Historic Park was a clear winner as our location choice. The 48-acre property, author Jack London called home is a very special place – beautiful and wild – situated on the eastern downslope of Sonoma mountain in the quaint town of Glen Ellen. Up until about 12 million years ago, the area was part of the Pacific sea floor, but a few massive tectonic events, some erosion, and 12 million years later…the park is now home to beautiful groves of Oak and Madrone trees and an expansive vineyard. It was the perfect spot for us to meet this sweet couple – who’s wedding we’ll be photographing later this summer in the Sierra’s – and have some fun exploring around and taking photographs. Anna is a middle-school teacher, so she’s got patience to spare (and a big heart) which made our pedestiran-tiki-tour around the park’s trails a piece of cake. Danny doesn’t love having his photo taken, but he does love Anna, so that fact (and the awesome lunch he was promised), were good sources of motivation. We walked the trail to the ruins of the Wolf House, an enormous stone structure where London and his second wife Charmian had planned to move into before tragically, it burned down in 1913. We ended our shoot on the western flanks of the park at the winery cottage, where London lived out his final days and, looking south across the vineyard, it’s easy to see why he called this property The Beauty Ranch. Great day with great people in beautiful Sonoma!
