Family Photos at Yorba Regional Park: A Photographer's Guide
Yorba Regional Park is ten minutes from my house, which means I've shot there more than anywhere else in Orange County, and also that I have no excuse for being late. It's a long, flat park along the Santa Ana River in Anaheim, built around four small lakes joined by streams, and it is genuinely one of the easiest places in the county to photograph a family. Here's everything I've figured out about it.
Getting in, and where to actually park
The main entrance is off East La Palma Avenue. Parking is three dollars on weekdays and five on weekends, paid at the entrance, and that's the only cost of being there. The address for your maps app is 7600 E La Palma Ave, Anaheim.
There are several lots strung along the park, and the one that matters for photos is the lot on the north side of the lakes. Everything I'm about to describe is a short walk south from there, which is the whole appeal of this place. Nobody has to hike. If you have a toddler who has already decided today is not the day, you are ninety seconds from the car.
The practical bits
- Main entrance off East La Palma Avenue, Anaheim. 7600 E La Palma Ave.
- Three dollars to park on weekdays, five on weekends.
- There's a free lot at Yorba Athletic Park on the southwestern end if you'd rather walk than pay. It's a real walk, so budget for it.
- Gates are 7am to 6pm in fall and winter, 7am to 9pm in spring and summer. The winter hours are the ones that catch people out.
- Restrooms and picnic shelters throughout, which matters more than you'd think with small kids.
- The Santa Ana River bike trail runs along the south edge, so expect cyclists.
Where I shoot
The park runs more than a mile end to end, and most of it is lawn and picnic tables. The part I use is the narrow channel where two of the lakes meet, just south of that first lot. The banks come close together there, the trees lean in over the water, and you get a real sense of depth in a frame instead of a family standing on grass with a park behind them.
It's also the only part of Yorba that doesn't read as a park in photographs. Ten steps in the right direction and the parking lot, the road and the picnic shelters are all out of frame. That's the whole trick.
What the light does here
This is the part nobody tells you, and it's the reason I keep coming back.
In winter the sun sets far enough south that it drops behind the trees on the west and southwest side of the park well before actual sunset. When that happens you're standing in soft open shade while the trees at the far end of the lake are still lit up gold. You get warm light in the background and no squinting in the foreground, which is the combination every photographer is chasing and almost never gets handed to them.
It's also why my November session here starts at three in the afternoon rather than the usual hour before sunset. Wait for the light you'd wait for anywhere else and you've missed it.
By late November the same low southern sun sits behind the trees at the south end in the morning too, which makes mid-morning genuinely good at Yorba. That's rare. Most parks around here are harsh and flat until late afternoon, and Yorba just isn't, which is why I put a morning session on the calendar for the first time this year.
Winter light here arrives early and leaves early. Show up when you would anywhere else and it's already gone.
When the trees are worth it
Orange County runs about two months behind everybody else's autumn, and Yorba runs late even for Orange County. The trees don't really start looking like anything until November. If you come in early October expecting color, you'll get a lovely green park.
By December there's a thick layer of fallen leaves on the ground, and honestly that's my favorite version of this place. Kids will do more with a pile of leaves in four minutes than I could get out of them in an hour of direction. I've written more about when Orange County actually turns and why if you want the full timeline.
Crowds
Yorba is usually calm. It's big, it's spread out, and on a normal weekend you'll share it with birthday parties and people fishing, none of whom will bother you.
The exception is October and November, when every family photographer in north county remembers this park exists at the same time. It doesn't ruin anything, but you'll see other sessions working, and the good spots get a queue. Going earlier in the day, or on a Sunday morning, sidesteps most of it.
Do you need a permit?
Yorba is an OC Parks facility, and portrait photography there runs through their permit process. That's the photographer's job, not yours. If you're hiring someone and they look blank when you ask about it, that tells you something.
The rules themselves are sensible and worth knowing either way. Nothing that makes smoke or sparks, which rules out the smoke bombs and sparklers you've seen on Pinterest. Stay on the marked trails. Don't block paths for other people. Photography is only allowed during parking hours, which in fall and winter means the gate shuts at six, so a session that runs long isn't a session. OC Parks also asks photographers to check in with the park two days ahead, which is how you find out there's a car show on the lawn you were planning to use.
Full details are on the OC Parks filming and photography page.
The short version
- Where
- Yorba Regional Park, 7600 E La Palma Ave, Anaheim. Main entrance off East La Palma.
- Cost
- Three dollars weekdays, five on weekends. Free lot at Yorba Athletic Park on the southwest end if you don't mind the walk.
- Hours
- 7am to 6pm fall and winter, 7am to 9pm spring and summer.
- The spot
- The channel where two of the four lakes meet, a short walk south of the north lot.
- The light
- Winter sun drops behind the west and southwest trees early and lights the far bank. Start earlier than you think. Late November mornings are unusually good here.
- The trees
- November for color, December for leaves on the ground.
- Crowds
- Quiet most of the year, busy with other photographers in October and November.
- Permit
- OC Parks permit required for portrait photography. Your photographer's responsibility.
Two Yorba dates this season
Come shoot it with me
The Weekend Matinee runs at Yorba twice this year, once in the afternoon light and once on a late November morning. Fifteen minutes, twenty-five images, $295.
