Houston engagement photographer

Everybody asks for Hermann Park, partly because it's the one everybody's already heard of. It earns it anyway. The reflection pool, the Japanese Garden, and McGovern Centennial Gardens sit close enough together that you get three completely different backdrops without moving the car.

Go on a weekday if you can. Weekend afternoons belong to everybody else.

See a full session here: Hermann Park engagement photos.

This is where I go when noon is the only time you can meet me. The live oaks over that lawn do the work of a diffuser, so nobody's squinting and nobody's waiting around for sunset. It's free, it's open, and the grey building behind you doesn't fight your clothes. Check what's on at the Menil before you go, since the grounds get busier around an opening.

If one of you went here, tell me before we pick anything else. There's a difference between shooting a pretty campus and shooting somebody's campus.

Either way it holds up. The arcades give you shade, the oaks give you structure, and it photographs like a campus in the Northeast right until you step back out into the heat.

Downtown is the only stop on this list that feels like a city. On a Sunday morning you'll have Market Square more or less to yourselves, so that's the window I take. It's also the shortest walk to a real skyline behind you.

Here you're across the water from downtown instead of standing under it. Same towers, softer. The path along the bayou is walkable, so we cover a lot of ground without you thinking about it, and the last half hour of light over the water is the reason to come.

Short walks, a lot of options. The Cullen Sculpture Garden gives you shade and something to stand next to, and the museum grounds are a block from there. If you're squeezed for time, or it's July, this is the one I'd pick.

More spots, with photos from each: the best places to take pictures in Houston.