Sarmaya & Ekin

Every time I enter the City Hall and meet my couple, I think ‘how lucky I am to be here! I get paid to be in one of the prettiest places in San Francisco, be part of a special day, spend time with happy people, be creative and capture the moments as they unfold.

Sarmaya and Ekin were such a couple. Their officiant allowed them to speak their vows (officiants don’t always allow because of time). The officiant only gave them 1 minute each but they wrote over 2 minutes of vows. So we continued them after the actual ceremony.

The Christmas Tree in the background perfectly dates the photos and adds some nice light to normally darker Rotunda area (especially in the afternoon).

I sometimes get asked if the photo session should start after the ceremony and not during it. And my response is always the same - I love the real emotions during the ceremony. While I can stage that later, it's just not the same unless you’re an experienced actor. Here is an examples of some real unstaged ceremony moments.

Boris PolisskyJanuary 10, 2023sfcityhallweddingphotography, sfcityhallstylist, sfcityhallphotography, sfcityhall, sfcityhallphotographer, sfweddingphotographer, cityhallsf, cityhallwedding, sanfranciscowedding, sanfranciscocityhallwedding, sanfranciscoweddingphotography, sanfranciscocityhallphotographerComment

Editorial work

It’s not a ground breaking statement that Covid-19 has turned our plans inside out. Lot of weddings i had booked for the summer got either cancelled, postponed or are up in the air.

San Francisco City Hall is quiet these days with no brides rushing through the security check point to get to room 168. No numerous photographers waiting in line to take a must have Grand Stairwell photo. No quinceanera girls dressed up as some princess from Disney movie with her makeup/hair artist, photographer and a few assistants taking over some area in the City Hall.

I miss that craziness but it’s also good to use the break and time to work on other aspects of photography that i like.

I enjoy shooting weddings for many reasons. I get to meet couples with their families and friends on one of their most memorable days. I get to share it with them, capture these moments. And while there’s a lot of pressure to get it right the 1st time (there are no redos here), I enjoy that adrenaline rush and excitement. So it’s natural that I miss it, but it also opened up an opportunity for me to spend more time shooting something else. I enjoy working in the studio or on location focusing more on editorial kind of work. While there’s plenty of spontaneity it also gives more time to think through some of the shots, create concepts and gives more room to play during the session. There’s more time to think and something new to try that i wouldn’t normally do during the wedding.

A few samples from 2 of my most recent sessions.

Boris PolisskyJuly 3, 2020san francisco city hall, san francisco fashion photography, san francisco editorial photography, sffashion, sfeditorial, sfcityhallweddingphotography, sfweddingphotographer, sfwedding, sf, bayareaeditorialphotography, bayareafashion, sanfranciscobayarea, sfbayarea, sfbayareafashionComment

Alyssa & Kevin

I’m always excited when i get booked for half a day. And it’s not because i’m greedy and here to make money. I enjoying spending time with people and getting to know them. It really is - ask my wife. She’s more of an introvert who has to deal with me always wanting to talk to people, ask questions and have random conversations.

So when i had an opportunity to spend 4 hours with an amazing couple like Alyssa and Kevin I’m beyond thrilled. First off we started off walking on the beach - the weather could not have been better. Then we headed to the City Hall and had time to do both serious and fun photos. It takes a little time for people to open up and be themselves in front of the camera. And I want to get the real, true them out.

Turns out Alyssa loves dancing - so of course i wanted to incorporate that. She has a lot of natural grace and i wanted to capture that as well… along with the silliness of course.

At the end i couldn’t have been happier with the collection of photos we got. There were lots of candid honest moments during the ceremony, very cool group photos and of course plenty of Alyssa and Kevin photos to chose from.

SF City Hall throughout the years

Taking photographs isn’t a new business. Getting married isn’t new either. Getting married in San Francisco, having a small SF City Hall wedding isn’t new. But it doesn’t make it less special when you are the ones getting married.

It’s a great privilege to not just be part of one of the biggest event in a people’s lives, but to be trusted as a photographer during their San Francisco courthouse wedding. I never take it for granted and every single wedding try to be the best i possibly can as a photographer. Through the years I met people from all over the world. Couples come from the UK, Canada, New Zealand and other US tates specifically to get married in beautiful San Francisco City Hall. Other people come from all over the world and meet in the US, then decide to get married in San Francisco Courthouse. Every story is unique and I have to admit I enjoy these stories. Maybe it’s the History major (and Bachelors degree) or maybe I’m very interested in people.. how they met, what they thought of each other, how they get along. And of course not everyone is a extrovert and will tell me their whole life story. That’s totally ok. It’s really none of my business you can say. At the same time it doesn’t only satisfy my interest, but it brings more in couples when we take photos. It brings fun memories of how they met, fun or maybe serious moments. And as we talk, we walk around the City Hall and take photos. Sometimes there’s more time, sometimes there’s less.

My path to being San Francisco City Hall wedding photographer was in some ways accidental, but then i don’t really believe in accidents. Neither do i believe in preordained destiny. I think it’s somewhere in between where we decide how our life goes. But I’m grateful that over the few years as an owner and photographer of SF City Hall Photo i met such amazing people, became part of their life (even if for a moment) and was able to leave them with some of the greatest memories they will have.

city hall wedding, sf weddingsBoris PolisskyJuly 6, 2019SF City Hall Photosf city hall photo, sfchwedding, sfweddingphotographer, sf, sanfranciscoweddingphotographer, sanfranciscoweddingphotography, san francisco city hall wedding, sanfranciscocityhall, weddingguide, wedding guide, wedding photography, wedding photographerComment

Badhia & Zack by SF City Hall Photo

People meet in different places, under different circumstances. They come from different countries, cities, cultures. And then one day a few months later, few or even 10 years later they feel that getting married is the next logical or emotional step. And if one lives in San Francisco why look for another place to get married. People come from all over the world to tie the knot in beautiful San Francisco City Hall.

Badhia and Zack like many of us get shy in front of the camera and were not sure how the whole experience will go. But 15 minutes into our session they felt at ease and even started chatting about life while I was posing them. We spent some time in the City Hall and then headed to Crissy Fields and Palace of Fine arts to complete our photo collection. At the end we got a great fun, serious, silly series of images that they felt represent them.

Boris PolisskyAugust 16, 2018weddings tips, weddingguide, weddingpgotogaphy, wedding, weddings, photo album, photoshoot, photojournalism, photography, sf city hall, sfcityhallphoto, sfweddingphotographer, sfwedding, sanfranciscoweddingphotography, san francisco city hallComment

Andrea & Kevin by SF City Hall Photo

Andrea and Kevin are getting married in Aruba in 2019, but wanted to do a session at the City Hall as they were getting their license. They came in on Friday afternoon and although City Hall got filled up with occasional tour groups, it was relatively quiet as the last ceremonies were finished at 3.30. That allowed us room to maneuver around the City Hall and actually achieve a "clean", crowd-less shot of the Grand Stairwell. I have to admit it's quite a rare occasion and even then i had to polite ask a few people to move for just a split second.

It was a gorgeous day and i wanted to take advantage of the outdoors and the sun creating glares and fun shadows. The end result is quite a good collection of photos done within a very short period of time.

Boris PolisskyJuly 18, 2018sfweddingphotography, sf, sfcityhall, sfweddingphotographer, sfchphoto, sfcityhallphoto, wedding photographer, weddingpgotogaphy, weddingguide, photojournalism, photohrapher, professional photography, weddingphotoComment

Aislinn & Philip by SF City Hall Photo

Ailsinn and Philip came all the way from Chicago to get married in the City Hall. No guests, no large parties... just the 2 of them. I served as their witness, photographer and guide around the City Hall for about an hour. Aislinn mentioned to me earlier that her parents got married in the City Hall, so it was a special location for her. She even showed me a photo of her parents on the steps of the City Hall and asked if we could do a similar photo. We did, minus the pigeons that seemed to have made their habitat on the steps years back. Nowdays you don't get to see that. All though it would make for some good photos.