Best Photo Locations in Davis

The best photo locations in Davis are the UC Davis Arboretum, downtown Central Park and the Farmers Market area, Community Park, the Putah Creek Riparian Reserve, the city greenbelt paths, and the farm fields on the edge of town. All six are public, free to access, and need no permit for a personal portrait session. A Davis session runs $250–$575 depending on type, with no travel fee from Sacramento.

I shoot in Davis almost every month — it's only 15 miles west of downtown Sacramento, and it gives you something the city can't: a botanical garden, a creek corridor, and open farmland all within a few minutes of each other. This guide covers general portrait spots for families, couples, and engagements. If you walked the stage this year, the campus grad spots live in my separate UC Davis graduation photo guide. Below are the six spots I actually use, roughly in the order I drive them.

The UC Davis Arboretum is the single best portrait location in Davis, and it isn't close. The garden runs about three and a half miles along the old Putah Creek channel on the south edge of campus, with tree-canopied paths, a redwood grove, the oak collection, and the rose garden all strung along the water. The canopy filters the light into soft, even shade that flatters every skin tone.

I shoot here because the variety solves problems. In one 90-minute session I can move a family from the redwood grove to the creek bridges to the open lawn at the Gazebo without driving anywhere. The dappled canopy also means it's one of the few Davis spots where I can shoot at midday and still get usable light — useful when a session has to land outside golden hour.

Best time to shoot: Last 90 minutes before sunset for warm light through the canopy. The shaded paths also work midday year-round, which most open Davis spots do not.

Permit info: Free and open dawn to dusk. No permit for personal portraits. Weddings, commercial shoots, and large groups need an Arboretum reservation.

Parking: Visitor lots along Garrod Drive and La Rue Road. Campus parking is paid by the hour on weekdays and often free on weekends — check the signage at your lot.

Works best for: Davis engagement photos, family sessions, couples, maternity.

Community Park off Covell Boulevard is the most family-friendly portrait spot in Davis. Wide open lawns, a ring of mature shade trees, easy flat parking, and gentle terrain make it the spot I send clients to when the group includes toddlers, grandparents, or anyone who can't walk a long trail. Nothing about it fights you.

I shoot here for big family groups and maternity sessions because the logistics are simple. You can park 50 feet from the shooting spot, the open lawn lets a group of ten stand naturally, and the tree line on the west side throws long warm light across the grass at sunset. It's not dramatic — it's reliable, and reliable is what a session with young kids needs.

Best time to shoot: Last 60 minutes before sunset. The west tree line backlights beautifully as the sun drops behind it.

Permit info: Public city park, no permit for personal portraits. Reserving a picnic shelter or large event needs a Davis Parks reservation.

Works best for: Family sessions, maternity, extended-family groups, seasonal mini sessions.

Davis is laced with greenbelt corridors — hedged, tree-lined bike-and-walk paths that thread between neighborhoods all over town. The Covell greenbelt on the north side and the corridors near North Davis are the ones I use most. They give you a clean, private, leafy backdrop within a five-minute walk of almost any Davis home, which makes them the easiest in-town option for a quick session.

I shoot the greenbelts when a client wants something simple, close, and unfussy — a maternity announcement, a fall family update, senior portraits. The hedges and arching trees frame the path into a natural tunnel, traffic is foot-only, and the light goes soft and golden as the sun drops below the rooflines. It's the most underrated Davis spot because most people walk past it every day without seeing it as a set.

Best time to shoot: Late golden hour. The path corridors hold soft light a little longer than open parks once the sun is behind the houses.

Permit info: Public pedestrian paths. No permit for portraits. Keep the path clear for cyclists and walkers.

Works best for: Family sessions, maternity, couples, senior portraits.

Davis is small and flat, so almost everything above sits within a 10-minute drive of everything else. A 90-minute session can comfortably cover two or three spots if the route is built around the light dropping from the canopy out to open sky.

Here's the golden-hour engagement route I use most often:

1. Start in the UC Davis Arboretum 90 minutes before sunset, in the redwood grove and along the creek bridges.
2. Walk south to the Putah Creek reserve for earthier oak-woodland frames as the light warms.
3. Drive 8 minutes to the west field edge for the open sunset sky in the final 30 minutes.

For family sessions with kids, I keep it close and simple:

• 5:45 PM — Community Park open lawn and shade trees
• 6:30 PM — A nearby Covell greenbelt path for backlit frames
• 7:15 PM — Wrap before the kids hit the fatigue wall

A typical Davis engagement session uses two or three of these spots. For the full regional picture, see the best photo locations in Sacramento guide, or the eastern-foothills version in my Folsom and El Dorado Hills location guide.

Personal portrait sessions in Davis are almost entirely permit-free. As long as you stick to public parks, the Arboretum paths, the greenbelts, and public road shoulders, the vast majority of family, couples, and engagement sessions I shoot here need zero paperwork beyond parking.

You only need a reservation or permit if your session involves:

• A wedding ceremony or large group in the UC Davis Arboretum (Arboretum reservation)
• Reserving a picnic shelter, amphitheater, or field at a Davis city park
• The downtown market pavilion or amplified events (City of Davis permit)
• Commercial, advertising, or paid editorial shoots on campus or city land
• Drone flights (separate FAA rules plus campus or city approval)

The one rule I never bend: the farm fields around Davis are private working agriculture. Shoot from the public road shoulder, park safely off the pavement, and never walk into a planted field — sunflower, wheat, or otherwise — without the grower's explicit permission. Campus parking is paid by the hour on weekdays, so factor that into your arrival time.