Is Molly a good photographer? Yes. Can I recommend you hire her? No. IF you can get Molly to…read morerespond to you once you've signed the contract and made the deposit, IF you can get a time, date and location scheduled with her and IF you can get you photos from her in the time she promised, I'm sure you'll be happy with the results. But I'd tell you that the stress and frustration that it will likely take is just not worth it when there are so many other options out there. After reviewing a good number of local photographers, we ultimately chose Molly due to her price (lower than others) and style (moody but not too stylized) for our engagement and wedding photos. The initial call with Molly and getting the contract signed went well. After chasing Molly and having rescheduling twice (because she double booked herself), we were still working out the location details hours before our engagement shoot. Frustrating. After the timeframe the photos were promised to us came and went, I again was chasing Molly and getting frustrated at her continued lack of responsiveness. After more chasing and frustration, we eventually got our engagement photos. We were happy with how they turned out. Come 2020, Covid and the lead up to our summer 2020 wedding. Given the circumstances and everything being up in the air, I first reached out to Molly to see if she would still be willing to shoot our July 2020 wedding, if we were able to have it, and what her policies would be if we needed to cancel. Total radio silence after multiple attempts to reach out via text and email. We eventually decided to postpone our wedding and I needed to ensure all of our vendors would be able to accommodate our new date. More extreme frustration, emails, texts and total radio silence from Molly.....meanwhile, her social media page had new posts hourly which only made things more frustrating since it was clear her phone was in front of her and fully functioning. Long story short, after threatening legal action and demanding to terminate our contract with her, we were able to come to an agreement and part ways with Molly. I spoke to the lawyer for another local couple who also went through a similar ordeal with Molly and was threatening legal action against her after she failed to show up for the couples scheduled engagement shoot. So I can tell you with certainty, we are not the only customers of Molly's to deal with her totally unacceptable lack of communication and ability to meet her contracted commitments. Even if you're on a tight budget, I would tell you to spend a bit more and get a photographer who will be reliable, communicative and will be able to meet their commitments. The money you save will not nearly be worth the hassle you have to put up with when you hire Molly.

Molly was a perfect fit for my husband and I.We decided to take some photos while temporarily…read moreliving in Monterey. Molly did wonderful. We produced well over 50 photos and they were all perfect. She captured the natural California light and all of our awkward moments that turned out to show our personalities perfectly. We will definitely use her again if given the chance. I can't wait to see where her talent will lead her.

I am so glad I hired Adam for my surprise proposal to my girlfriend. Living in SoCal and having…read morenever been to Monterey/Big Sur, I planned my whole proposal based on google searches, reddit threads, and word of mouth. Being a Big Sur/Monterey local, Adam provided extremely helpful insight and feedback for my proposal. He definitely helped relieve a lot of the stress during the planning phase of my proposal. On the day of the actual shoot, the day-of jitters was overwhelming at times, but Adam's energy and demeanor was very centering. He was patient and gave my new fiancee and I space to calm ourselves, and also knew when to take charge and guide us with our poses. He also had amazing and creative ideas for how to pose and brought us to local, reclusive spots to take intimate photos. Best of all, Adam always had a smile on his face and he made us really think like we were supermodels walking the runway haha. If you're going to do any photoshoot, especially a proposal or engagement shoot, in the Big Sur/Monterey area, I would highly recommend getting Adam!!

Adam took photos at my daughter's ceremony and did an incredible job! He is professional,…read moredetail-oriented, and truly talented. I highly recommend him!

Mark was the best wedding photographer we could have asked for. Throughout the entire process, he…read morewas extremely professional, communicative, and responsive, and he delivered utterly stunning photos of our wedding day. I will especially point out that, with me as a client who really dislikes having her picture taken, Mark was super understanding and easy to work with. At our request, he captured the majority of our wedding photos without me even noticing, and I couldn't be more grateful for that! Mark took a silhouette shot of our friends and us at dusk (attached), and it is not only one of my favorites from our wedding, it's one of the most awesome photos I've ever seen. Thank you so much, Mark!

We used Expressive Photographics for our engagement photos. Mark is very professional and easy to…read morework with. If you have a special spot or ideas that you would like him to incorporate he can get the shot you're looking for! We won't be using him for our wedding photography but our engagement pictures came out great!

We selected Susan from five local finalists, based mostly on their portfolios, and Susan's…read morerepresented the greatest range of artistic angles and the widest range of couples. Her body of work is much more than the traditional formal wedding and for these reasons we chose her. We paid a bit extra for an engagement session before the wedding and that album is terrific and made us all the more confident of our choice. On the day of the wedding at the Seascape Resort, Susan was central to making our day perfect, arriving well before others and staying all the way through dinner, dancing, and the rest, and she was critical in helping with the flow of the entire event, like a best friend there to help produce each part of the afternoon and evening. Susan would get ten stars if they'd let me give them!

My family was together for a reunion in Santa Cruz and we wanted a family picture. Because this had…read morebeen planned in advance, I sent several emails to photographers on Yelp and Susan was the one to respond promptly. She accommodated us in every respect, for which we were so thankful since we realized it was the holiday season. The setting for the pictures was beautiful. She showed patience and creativity in working with the 18 of us. She was a delight to work with and pictures were everything we could have hoped for.

This review is 4 years overdue but Ben was there to help capture my wife and I's engagement. Not…read moreonly was he super professional but he was extremely helpful in picking the perfect spot. If you're looking for incredible photography work, Ben is the best option. You won't be disappointed!

Ben was super friendly and easy to work with! We both are introverted but this photo session came…read morenaturally and was so fun :) Our engagement photos came out so well and we are excited to work with him again for our wedding in a couple of weeks :D

Mike is fantastic! He photographed our wedding in San Francisco (yes, he drove up from Santa Cruz!)…read moreand we just received the pictures and we are extremely happy with them. Neither of us are photogenic and yet we look extremely happy, relaxed and natural. I provided a list of must have pictures & Mike made sure they were all taken as well as taking pictures of places that we had not even thought of, the building (even capturing a cable car in front), the foyer, hearts in Union Square, etc... Mike was like the invisible man during the reception and captured so many candids that really tell the story of how intimate & enjoyable our celebration was. Thank you so much Mike, can't wait to collaborate with you on putting together a wedding album.

Mike was such a joy to work with as our wedding photographer! So kind, thoughtful and warm, we…read morehardly noticed him as he photographed so many special moments of the day. The photos are beautiful and we are so grateful, highly recommend!

We used Rebecca Stark for our micro ceremony and wedding reception (two seperate days). We loved…read moreour photos from both days and loved how easy it was to get along with Rebecca. She did a great job dealing with the harsh sun of our micro ceremony and helping us feel comfortable taking photos. Our sunset photos from our reception are beautiful. She was a great choice!

Rebecca photographed our recent wedding on West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz. she took stunning…read morephotographs, before, during, and after the ceremony. She made sure to get many different poses, candid and staged, and included the ocean view and cliffs that we had requested. We ended up with around 150 high quality photos, and she provided them in a gallery we could share with people, and also downloadable in hi-res for printing and sharing online. Highly recommended!

Olga was very nice to work with. She made our one year old very comfortable during the photoshoot…read more Pictures came out to be really great! Highly recommend!

I was looking for an in-home newborn photographer and found Olga on Google. The booking process was…read moreeasy, we scheduled the session quickly, and Olga arrived right on time. During the session, Olga captured both lifestyle and posed newborn photos. She was extremely professional and showed incredible patience with my baby. I expected the experience to be stressful, but it was actually very relaxing and enjoyable. The images were absolutely beautiful. Olga brought all the props we needed for the session. I highly recommend her!