The Loomis Farmhouse
I find most of my locations the same way: a client mentions a place, I look it up, and I drive out to see it in person. The Loomis farmhouse came from exactly that. A client said, “My friend has this rental property in Loomis, it’s kind of rustic, would that work?” I drove out the next week. Within five minutes of walking through the front door, I knew this was going to become a regular location.
The property sits on a few acres in the foothills east of Sacramento, about 30 minutes from downtown. The house itself is a renovated farmhouse with natural wood beams, stone accents, hardwood floors, and the kind of worn-in character that you cannot fake with staging. It looks like someone’s home, not a photography set. And that makes all the difference.
The Light in the Main Room
The main living area has north-facing windows that run almost the full length of the wall. North light is the best light for boudoir. It’s even, soft, and consistent throughout the day. You don’t get the harsh shifts that east or west windows produce as the sun moves. At 10 a.m. the light in this room looks the same as it does at 2 p.m., which means I can take my time with setups instead of chasing the sun from room to room.
The windows are large enough that the light fills the space without hot spots. Place someone six feet from the glass and the light wraps around them. Move them to ten feet and the light becomes more directional, creating deeper shadows on the far side of the face and body. Both look beautiful. The room gives me options that most locations don’t.
There’s also something about the quality of the light in the foothills. Sacramento is flat and the light there can feel heavy, especially in summer. Up in Loomis, the air is cleaner, there’s less haze, and the light that comes through those windows has a crispness to it. It’s subtle, but it photographs differently.
Texture and Contrast
What makes this location work for boudoir specifically is the contrast between hard and soft. The beams are rough-hewn and dark. The stone fireplace is cold and textured. The floors are scratched and worn. Against all of that, skin looks incredibly soft. A body against a rough wooden wall creates a visual tension that a white hotel bedsheet never will.
The wardrobe choices that work best here lean into that contrast. White cotton. Bare feet on hardwood. Vintage lace against weathered wood. A simple robe with nothing underneath, draped open, standing in front of the stone hearth. The location does half the work. The styling just needs to not fight it.
I’ve also found that clients relax faster in a space like this. It feels like a house, not a set. There’s a couch you can actually sit on, a kitchen where we make coffee before we start, a porch where you can step outside and breathe. The informality of the space lowers the barrier to comfort, and comfort is where the best images come from.
Multiple Setups, One Location
One of the biggest advantages of the Loomis property is the variety within a single location. In a typical two-hour session here, I can shoot four or five distinct setups without ever leaving the property.
The bedroom has a wrought-iron bed frame and a window that produces a single shaft of directional light in the late morning. It’s intimate and contained, good for close-up work and quieter, more personal images.
The living room is the main stage. The north windows, the beams, the fireplace. This is where I shoot the majority of the session and where the widest variety of looks happen. Standing, sitting, lying on the floor, leaning against the mantel. The room is large enough to move through without feeling repetitive.
The porch wraps around the front of the house and faces an open field. Overcast days are best out here because the clouds act as a giant softbox and the light is perfectly even. On sunny days, the porch overhang creates open shade that works almost as well. This is where I get the images that don’t look like indoor boudoir at all, boots and bare legs and open sky.
And behind the house there’s a field. Tall grass in spring, golden and dry in summer. I’ve shot clients walking through it in nothing but a sheet, backlit by late afternoon sun. Those images look like they could be from a different session entirely, which is exactly the point. Variety within a single booking gives clients a range of looks without the complexity of driving between locations.
A Working Location
I’ve shot at the Loomis farmhouse enough times now that I know exactly where to put someone at any hour of the day. I know which corner of the bedroom catches the best light at 11 a.m. I know that the living room floor has a spot where the wood grain creates a leading line right to where I place my subject. I know that the field behind the house is best at 4 p.m. in October and 6 p.m. in June.
That kind of familiarity with a location translates directly into better images. I’m not spending the first 20 minutes figuring out where to shoot. I’m spending them making you comfortable and shooting frames I already know will work.
If you’re in the Sacramento, Rocklin, or Roseville area and you want a session with character, warmth, and natural light, the farmhouse is one of my top recommendations. You can see more images from this location in the indoor gallery.
Ready to book a session here or talk about other locations? Get in touch.