Last fall, we got our friend's wedding announcement in the mail. A good friend would call their…read morefriend and say "congratulations!" but what did I call to say? "WHO WAS YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER?" Oops! My bad. Sorry, friend -- by the way, congratulations! Enter Erin Leigh of http://www.thebowerygirl.com who I instantly booked a session with. My husband and I went mini-golfing for our photo session 'cause we're cute like that...and it was incidentally that day in San Diego that was like 107 degrees with 100% humidity. Oops! My bad. The camera has never lied so beautifully. I mean, it was 107 and we're out mini-golfing -- you can put 2+2 together and realize we looked and felt sweaty and DISGUSTING...but the photos somehow came out incredibly! We are blessed with many friends who are amazing photographers, but Erin took one of my single most favorite photos of my husband and I of all time which I will attach to this review. & shooting with her was a blast!!! Ask Erin Leigh about her super cool heirloom techniques like daguerrotype! Or just google daguerrotype and then stare slackjawed while you think to yourself: "holy shit, there's a photographer in San Diego who can do this? DO I REALLY LIVE IN A CITY THIS COOL?" The answer is: yes & yes.

Erin is a well-kept secret that shouldn't be! When I sent my recent engagement shoot to a friend,…read morethe rapid-fire reply I got was a request for her number to do their family photo shoot. She's *that* type of good. In fact, I learned about Erin from someone else's photos, too. The way she captured the light and the unique background of how they met in their engagement photos stayed with me for years. (Let's be honest, how many other people's photos do you remember? Exactly.) That was back in my jaded single days, when I didn't bother to save photographer names! Luckily, it was my turn to start The Great Wedding Photographer Hunt and someone sent me Erin's way again last week. Fate! My fiancé and I are not the posey posey traditional wedding photo types. To be honest, finding a wedding photographer was at the top of my Dreaded Wedding Tasks list. I was nervous about meeting up with Erin (and here I thought first date jitters were done!), but she was so understanding and fun in the initial emails that I started to warm up to it. Next thing I knew, we booked a Sunday shoot and ended up laughing our way across San Diego, snapping pictures in secret locations I can't believe she found. She had creative ideas and was so easy to be around that when the pictures came back, I was stunned at how much I saw ourselves in them. She hadn't just captured us looking our best, she had captured us *being* our best. Everyone who has seen the photos has been impressed at how real they seem (and yet, flattering, ha!) She is solid talent, and the fact that she's an absolute pleasure to work with is just bonus. Trust me, your search is done. This lady has a gift for photography and I can't wait to entrust her with capturing the most important day to come. I'm doubling down on Erin. I'm not sure if this is a fan letter or a Yelp review, but do with it what you will, Yelpers!

Vanessa is simply amazing!! My husband can be a bit picky, so we knew Vanessa would be a winner…read morewhen we both loved her personality and editing style/images. She is so personable, sweet, makes you feel relaxed in front of her camera and has an amazing eye. Like another reviewer said, Vanessa really is THE ultimate hype girl! We absolutely love our wedding photos, and she had sneak peeks and the full gallery sent to us early!

Vanessa was our photographer for over two years. She went above and beyond for us as our first…read morewedding was canceled the week covid hit and worked with us at our makeshift backyard wedding and then again at our 2 year anniversary party / make-up reception. She got some incredible shots of my beautiful wife and even somehow managed to make me look good! haha. She is super fun to work with and makes you feel super relaxed. I can't recommend highly enough! She's also introduced a badass large format film camera into her arsenal which is super awesome and takes everything up to another level of quality. Thanks again!

Let me start off by saying that Gail is one of the best people I know. She is very professional (…read morebut her warmth and kind heart makes her feel like part of your family) and punctual! She definitely has a gift or as people say an "eye" for what she does. My pictures of my birth (C-section) are one of most treasured items I have. You may think that it is maybe unnecessary...but let me tell you I wish I had pictures of my birth with my firstborn! She also did my son's first weeks pictures or newborn pictures and I did not think it was possible for him to possibly be any cuter! And boy was I wrong! All in all Gail and The2OfUsPhoto are amazing! You will not find anyone who is more caring about you and your wishes and your child. Worth every penny and more!

We had no idea what to expect with a Birth Photographer, but decided to give it a go. We are…read moreextremely glad we did! Every time we look at the pictures, all the overwhelming emotions of love and wonder come flooding back. Gail is so supportive and loving, and yet her presence is so unobtrusive. I'm amazed at some of the shots she got and we didn't even know she was there! Even the hospital staff commented on how they really weren't aware of her presence. Before I go any further....for those of you, like me, who are concerned about what exactly the birth pics are going to show...don't be. They are all very tasteful, and nothing is showing that you wouldn't want to show. Had I imagined I would want to hire a Birth Photographer for my first Grandchild's birth? Nope. Am I glad I did? There are no words to express how glad I am. The baby went straight to the NICU so there was a lot of the initial moments of life that my daughter and I didn't get to see, until we got the pictures . Gail was able to capture all those "first moments" so we really felt as if we were there too. I cannot thank her enough for that. Gail also did a newborn session with N. Those are some of my favorite pictures. Once again, Gail's loving, calming presence produced some amazing pictures! Having extensive newborn knowledge, and endless patience, allows her to know just how to get "that" shot. We never felt rushed or uncomfortable in any way. Gail will get all the shots you want, but if you're clueless about what you want, she has lots of suggestions too. She knows her stuff! All our family lives far away, so the pics enabled us to share this amazing moment with them all. They all said it was like being there and were so, so thankful they were able to "share" it with us. We live near to Gail and will see her occasionally. It's always so great to see her, and she is so in love with all the babies she has photographed. It's like having another Auntie for the baby! I could go on and on. Do I recommend Gail? Oh heck ya! I am so glad we had her do the Birth and Newborn pics. No regrets. You will never be able to re-create those moments!! It's worth it!

Calli did our engagement photo shoot and I couldn't have been happier with her. I turned to Calli…read morebecause I had been trying to book my engagement session with my actual wedding photographer but being unable to figure out a date due because of crazy schedules. I called around and Calli answered the phone and I decided to go with her because of how fun she was on the phone. She had tons of energy, was excited to shoot at our location (diversey harbor) and was also flexible with scheduling. Everything from there was awesome. We ended up switching our shoot date at the last minute because of the hot temps and I was so glad she offered us that. On the day of the shoot she got to our location an hour early so she could scope it out. When we got there we got started with some of her ideas and then we periodically threw in some of our own. She was so flexible. The entire time she was so excited about the pictures, moments she was catching and she just kept coming up with awesome ideas for shots. She didn't out any limits on the number of poses or places we shot at and just kept building off of each idea. She posted our photos about 48 hours after the shoot (talk about timing!). We love them and have gotten TONS of compliments. Now the tough part will be deciding which ones we want to print and frame. Calli is a fun, energetic and creative photographer. If this is the type of photographer you are looking for you won't go wrong with her.

I've written a review for Calli before about my engagement photos but now that I've been married a…read moreweek I knew I definitely needed to give 5 stars again for the wedding day photos. Calli is absolutely amazing!! I can't emphasize it enough. I appreciated that she was so punctual and really stuck to the timeline. Our wedding experienced 25-40 mph winds! It was definitely unexpected and of course as the bride, I was slightly bummed about Mother Nature taking a turn on me. Calli was so helpful and her positive energy really kept my spirits up! There were moments I was feeling frustrated because my hair was all over my face but she would quickly turn it around and change our direction or find spots by buildings to block the wind. I am so grateful I hired her to capture the day. The wind storm ended up being a wedding punch line and my husband and I are absolutely in love with our sneak peek photos. We are SO pleased with the way the photos captured those fun moments and guests even commented that you couldn't even tell there was a wind gust storm in the photos. Thank you Calli!!!

I have never posted a bad review in my life but this time it has to be done to protect any future…read morewedding or party planners from this unprofessional company. Our wedding was scheduled for June 30th. 3 months before I contacted this company to DJ for us. I have a thread of over 55 emails back-and-forth for coordinating the entire event. They would only contact by email, and when they did you had to wait sometimes a week to get a response from them. They strung us along to the day before our wedding and then cut us off by refusing to communicate or confirm the final details, leaving us in the lurch the day before our wedding. Can you imagine how panic stricken you would be if something like this happened to you? This company is the most unprofessional operation ever created and needs to be publicly exposed for what they did. They didn't even have the integrity to call us and apologize. Please, do not contact them or use them! There are hundreds and hundreds of great DJs out there who do have integrity and are professional.

The people that are behind this entertainment are nothing but friendly and patient all they care is…read morethat you have fun while they host your party. The Dj they had playing played every requested song my family was Very impressed! by all the verity of music they had playing I will definitely book again for my next birthday party thank you for a memorable night.

I loveee our family photos!!…read more I was looking for someone to take our family Holiday photos last minute and Jeff was able to squeeze us in a week later. How awesome is that!! Jeff was very professional, patient and easy to work with! He's also very good with kids bc my 2 year old is very shy but something about Jeff made her feel very comfortable to act like a little supermodel, she was working the camera that day! LOL! I also loved how quick his turn around time for the digital files was!! Overall, I was very happy with his service and have no complaints... I definitely would recommend booking with Jeff and his team!

Best. Photos. Ever…read more I've done shoots with several photographers for sorority shoots, prom shoots, and graduation shoots but my professional headshots done by Jeffrey were the best by far. Technical Expertise Jeffrey has an entire range of different lenses suited for different photography categories such as headshots or landscapes. The one he used for my headshot blurred out the background into a soft blur, making the focus of the photo me, which was perfect for my use for the photos as professional headshots. Photography Tips I also got a ton of tips on what to do to ensure the photos came out amazing (for example, what color outfits would show up best in the photo, how to pose - perfect if you're super awkward like me and have no idea where to put your hands when taking a photo). Best Customer Service I felt like the prior photographers I had tended to rush the shoots and didn't really pay attention to what I told them I wanted the photos to come out like...thankfully there was none of that with Jeffrey! He was attentive to the requests I had for the photos, and cracked a ton of jokes throughout the entire shoot which made the time fly by. Next time I need a shoot done, I'm definitely going to hit Jeffrey up again. Recommend 10/10!

Sharlean is so amazing:) We were so glad we contacted her…read morefor our wedding. We were thinking of just having a photographer as part of a package deal. However, we are thrilled that we went with Sharlean. She is amazing, and we couldn't be happier. She was great. The proof is in the pudding. Thank you so much Sharlean!!!! You truly made our day special!

Sharlene worked with our budget and delivered a great package. She spent the day with us and got us…read moreall of our edited beautiful photos back to us within a timely fashion, even hand delivered a thumb drive so we wouldn't have to fuss with the website! Thanks Sharlene!

We had family come into town this summer and we wanted pictures of the whole group/cousins/…read moregrandparents & cousins etc. Christine came to the beach and was able to take awesome pictures of 17 people, in various groupings, all under one hour. She was able to get teenagers to smile and look cute as well as capture the personalities of the adults of the group. My cousin was thrilled with the pictures. She often gets professional pictures taken every year for her holiday card. She said this was the least stressful photo session taking ever, and thought that she had some winners in the group of images Christine sent to us. Christine was able to deliver 114 images to our group one week after taking the pictures. Great turn around time. I wish that I could have her make me look as good in real life. PS... Once again, I didn't post the faces of the people because I want them to remain anonymous, but Christine does a great job getting natural facial expressions. Check out her website for more pictures.

We did a shoot this summer on the beach for the four of us: two adults and two kids ages 13 and 9…read more Christine was amazing to work with! She is fun and you can tell that she absolutely loves what she does. She was miraculously able to get the kids to open up in front of the camera, which resulted in photos that truly captured their personalities instead of those "canned" smiles that look so stiff. On the contrary, Christine was able to get our shy 13 year old laughing, smiling and doing ballet jumps, while our ham of a 9 year old was appropriately animated and enjoying himself. The beach location Christine chose was beautiful and versatile: we walked along the edge of the water, we sat on the rocks, we stood near the tide pools, we splashed in the small waves. Even though it was a fairly overcast evening, Christine was able to work with the light to make us look good. I've had a bit of experience with various photographers and I can honestly say that working with Christine was really fun. If you're looking for a photographer for a family photo session, seriously look no further!