WARNING: Once you see these photos, you won’t be able to resist planning a portrait session at Cannon Beach in Oregon.

Austin (my husband) has family forty-five minutes from the Oregon Coast, so we have spent a ton of time at a bunch of beautiful coast locations, but Cannon Beach is by far my favorite for portrait sessions. The iconic Haystack Rock, and the occasional moose sighting are just beyond perfect.

One thing I love about all the Oregon Coast towns is the quaint aesthetic that they have intentionally tried to keep in all the shops, towns and homes (ok, and the phenomenal ice cream & candy shops). At Cannon Beach you are most likely to find parking street side near some of the vacation rental homes on the beach. These streets are absolutely to die for, and will make you want to drop everything and move to Cannon Beach immediately.

Planning a Cannon Beach portrait session is really fun and really simple. Here are five things that you need to keep in mind as you plan a portrait session at Cannon Beach.

Number 1: Cannon Beach is a tourist town, and it is busy during the summer. We like to photograph at Cannon Beach either on weekday evenings, or on weekend mornings (sunrise). This will help to avoid some of the crowding that happens at this location. If you are wanting to get up close and personal near Haystack Rock or head down to Hug Point, we highly recommend scheduling just before sunset on a weekday, or right at sunrise on a weekend. These two locations are absolutely stunning and just minutes apart, which is a huge bonus because we can schedule two epic locations in one session.

Number 2: There are a lot of places and opportunities to find parking. Make sure you remember what street you parked on, because a lot of them look very similar and it’s easy to forget how far we’ve walked on the beach. Most of the streets near the beach are public parking and really easy to access. My personal suggestion is to park near the vacation homes for the easiest access. You can see in Grace and Jake’s session that they parked in this area, so we were able to start up in the tall grass on the sand which is a really fun element to add into your gallery.

Number 3: It is a lot harder to walk in sand than you might anticipate. We highly suggest bringing comfortable walking shoes, or taking off your shoes and walking barefoot through the sand. Just something to be aware of! Plus — barefoot photos on the beach are so cute!

Number four: My father-in-law always says, “There is a reason they call it the coast and not the beach.” The water at the Oregon Coast is COLD. It never warms up, even in the middle of summer. We were there in August, and although it was a really warm day, the water was freezing. If you want Cannon Beach portraits playing and splashing in the ocean, we will absolutely do those, but we will do them at the end of your session so your feet aren’t freezing for the rest of the day!

Here are some of our favorite photos from Grace and Jake’s Cannon Beach portrait session.