Not a week later and I'm back again with the details on our even larger, even longer hanfu outing just last weekend on Saturday, August 13th! You can check out our absolutely PHENOMENAL photographer this time at @Ryfucius on Instagram, he was incredibly dedicated and we couldn't have done it without him.
Inspired by the fun we had on the East Coast New England outing, Yulan and I decided to plan a second outing for our SF Bay Area friends on the West Coast too. This time with a party of 14 and a whole day's time, our itinerary was expanded to include multiple photo locations and a karaoke session at the end of the day—and hey, I got to participate this time!
Our first stop was the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, a beautiful park with a lot of natural beauties. Our main target location was the Chinese Pavilion, an incredible work of archtiecture gifted to San Francisco by Taiwan. With a pointed roof and some enchanting carvings in the pillars and benches surrounding the pavilion, it was a perfect spot for a group photo as well as a lot of solo shots.
We couldn't waste the rest of the Golden Gate Park either, though! We had a lot of fun posing next to and on top of the small waterfall next to the pavilion, as well as on one of the bridges in the park. Yulan also bought an extendable prop sword, which was a huge hit with pretty much everyone. I mean, look at how cool we look in these photos—we're like wuxia warriors or something who just all happen to have the same sword.
Afterwards, we stopped at Naya's Dessert Cafe to replenish our energy. Walking in drew a lot of stares, but getting photos for several hours was pretty energy consuming. Naya's is a Thai dessert cafe, so not quite Chinese, but we're always happy to support fellow Asian-Americans!
Our second shooting location was during Golden Hour at the Palace of Fine Arts—while more European in style, the grand carvings and pillars were beautiful photo opportunities. Unfortunately we were a bit late and didn't get the best golden hour lighting, but we did our best. We also took advantage of the sinking sun and strong winds to really show off our big sleeves and dramatic skirts, and we got quite a few C-Drama-like shots there. It did start getting cold, though, and the wind was hard to keep our eyes open in, so we didn't stay for too long before heading to karaoke, where we belted out a number of songs in English, Chinese, and even Korean!
It was dark by the time we all got home safely, and I think a fair number of us collapsed as soon as we stepped through the door, but it was a lot of fun meeting everyone and taking some really cool looking photos. Hopefully you all enjoy the moments captured by our absolutely phenomenal, incredibly dedicated photographer, who ran around with us to all of our different locations for the perfect shot. We hope to organize more of these outings in the future, maybe in different locations, and meet other hanfu enthusiasts here!
More Hanfu Outing:
