I wasn't sure what to expect going into having my portrait taken for some work-related paperwork…read more Based on experiences from many years ago, I thought there would be lots of me looking at a blank wall in the distance and having to keep my eye from twitching as the photographer says things like "Hold that!" Luckily, my one hour session was nothing like that. Jason greeted me warmly, we chatted for a bit to figure out my goal with the photos, and he even helped me figure out outfits from the selection of tops I'd brought. Although I have a tendency to plaster a smile on my face and make deer-in-the-headlights eyes when confronted with a stranger holding a camera, there was none of that. He carefully adjusted the lights at the beginning of each outfit's photo time and took some test photos to double-check. It's clear he pays attention to not just the subject in the photo but the lighting and background as well. His attention to detail and friendly, not-even-remotely sketchy personality really made me trust him and give him real smiles. He felt like a professional cousin, if you know what I mean. As for the photos, they are some of the best photos I've ever had taken of me. As part of the package, he retouches the photos before sending them out. Since he carefully set up the studio and also gave me great suggestions (from letting me know to adjust my collar to suggesting I fix massively errant hair) during the shoot, there were only minor retouches necessary. He also let me see the photos as we went along and we chatted about what worked and what didn't (from my perspective too, not just his). It's amazing we got so many good photos in just an hour! I really think it would have taken at least two, if not three times as long to get so many good pictures with any other photographer. I can't say enough good things about Jason and my experience. I felt comfortable at the shoot, even had fun with it, Jason turned around the photos lightening fast to help me meet a deadline, and even welcomed any requests for slightly different picture tweaks after sending me the final versions. I signed up for the portrait session not knowing what to expect but had what I thought were realistic expectations. Jason blew those expectations out of the water. I see now why he is so highly rated.

I wanted to go back to a favorite hobby of mine when I was back in high school: photography! Sick…read moreof my point and shoot camera, I finally caved and bought a DSLR. So much has changed since I used my old school Minolta SLR when I did black and white photography during my good old dark room days, so signing up for Jason's class was going to get me up to speed on all the bells & whistles DSLR's have today. I'm thankful I have two years of photography under my belt, so knowing the fundamentals of ISO, aperture settings, F-stops, depth of field, etc hasn't changed, nor will it. Learning all the other stuff a fancy digital camera has the capacity of doing is another story. I attended the 101 class from 10:00 to noon and the speed of content of that class was okay. There were about twenty of us in the class and Jason's focus was primarily on composition. Stuff I knew already, but good to highlight on that once again. We spent the last thirty minutes of the class taking pictures of fruits and veggies. It was interesting to see how creative other students got from the pics they posted on the MeetUp page for this group. The afternoon 102 "Getting to Know Your Camera" was very informative. I'm glad he keeps the class size to under 15 attendees so he can answer all our questions and give us his undivided attention when needed. There's so much you need to learn about a camera and three hours seems like too long for a class, but it's really not. We didn't have any breaks, he just crammed through the topics, walked around the room to show us where to find certain features on our cameras and took some practice shots. Overall, the classes were informative. I want to sign up for more classes, primarily taking low light pics. He knows his stuff and doesn't get too deep with the information because I know how overwhelming it can be; some folks in the room had blank looks on their faces, that was pretty funny but they eventually understood what settings to put their camera on by the time class ended. Oh yeah Jason, buy a dry erase board! Your PowerPoint presentation was cool, but even you admitted you need a dry erase board...haha!

Eddie is an amazing photographer. He is extremely talented and super easy to work with. My husband…read moreand I hired Eddie for our wedding on 9/21/13 and our engagement photos on 5/20/13. Eddie is extremely professional and very creative! He has a lot of awesome ideas and I can't wait to see our wedding photos. We absolutely love our engagement photos. Eddie truly loves what he does. He is easy going and kept me very relaxed when he was taking the photos for our wedding day. He adds his creative touch to photos and also really listens to what us important to the bride and groom. I dealt with a photographer at my friend's wedding and they were more focused on the shots they wanted to get than what the bride and groom wanted. Eddie is definitely not like that at all. It was wonderful! He took plenty of photos I asked for on the day of that I didn't I know I wanted until then. Eddie also put together our engagement photo guest book, which turned out amazing!!! Also for our engagement session Eddie didn't simply stick to a strict time limit. He took the photos until we and he had what he wanted. We greatly appreciated that!! Eddie also brings an assistant that separately photographs the wedding. Eddie brought Brian to our wedding as his assistant. Brian is technically not an assistant, but a fellow established photographer. Eddie and other professional photographers he knows will assist each other on jobs as the second photographer. Some photographers will bring an assistant that is more of an intern that will shadow the photographer rather than separate out. So when Eddie photographed the girls Brian photographed the boys. It was so efficient and freed up time in our time-line, creating a lot less stress for me. :) In fact, it kept me stress-free that day. Also what stood out to us is Eddie's ability to truly take a lot of candid photos, which are our favorite!! I definitely recommend Eddie! He is easy to work with, very professional (but still a lot of fun) and very creative. Also for the engagement photos he knows some of the best spots in SD!! His great personality also keep me relaxed and calm on my wedding day. :) Everyone loved working with Eddie at the wedding! We had a lot of complements from our guests about him having a great personality and everyone is excited to see what the pictures look like as they were intrigued by some of the pictures he took and how he interacted with the guests while taking them.

Eddie Garcia is honestly the best! Two of my friends had booked him for their weddings and I was…read morewowed by how he got the perfect shots without impeding on the guests' view, so clearly we had to have him as our photographer. Being both a guest at one of Eddie's weddings and a bride at one, I can review from two perspectives. As a guest: Eddie did a great job getting all of the shots that both the bride and groom wanted. He made sure that all guests could still see the couple as they stood at the alter, yet his images were spectacular! His camera was incredibly quiet, it did not have that annoying clicking sound after each exposure. At the reception, Eddie's photo booth was a blast! He printed out full 4x6 sized images for the guests. He had a large backdrop and great props. We were able to fit over 14 people in one shot; which is much better than the tiny photo booth set up. Eddie and his team were incredibly respectful and did a great job. They dressed professionally and got some beautiful pictures. As a bride: Engagement Pictures- Eddie did so much with us for our engagement pictures. We wanted to get some fun shots on a rooftop gym, then some shots around Little Italy, followed by some pictures at sunset in Balboa Park. Eddie made all of this happen! He knew exactly where to go when, according to lighting. The poses that he put us in were classic and not overly cheesy with distracting props (that is saved for the photo booth, where it is optional and a lot of fun)! During our engagement shoot, Eddie took us to some amazing places. Both of us grew up in San Diego and now live in Little Italy, yet Eddie knew the most obscure places with gorgeous backgrounds and great views. At one point, we took some of my favorite shots on top of Nelson's Photography. Wedding Day- During our wedding, Eddie was there to help manage all of the logistics of our day. I love the Hotel Palomar and really wanted pictures around the hotel. Eddie got there early to scope out the best places and took some spectacular shots around the hotel before our ceremony at Centennial Park. At the ceremony, Eddie made sure that he captured all of the most pivotal moments of our day. Immediately following the ceremony, we took family pictures, which Eddie was able to do very quickly! Once one group was completed, they went straight to the cocktail hour at the Diamond View Tower. Eddie and his team are a very talented group of photographers! The whole team is so generous; my nieces loved a few of his photo booth props, and Eddie even allowed them to keep one! I would highly recommend them to anyone looking for a photographer for their event.

So disappointing... we hired them for our 2nd wedding (we had our first wedding in the Bay Area…read morewith a wonderful photo booth and staff), and you can only fit two ppl max in the photo booth without getting cut off. This means, 2 ppl WITHOUT PROPS.. with 2 ppl and props, you will get cut off. So what's the point of the props they brought?! I asked them why they can't pull the camera out more to fit more ppl, and they said something about the outlet... You would think the photo booth staff would come earlier to set up and work on getting the distance right. This was a 200+guests wedding and unfortunately, the photo booth was a huge disappointment. Not only that, but we received an album as part of our package and didn't even have all our guests photo booth photos in it. There were at least half of our guests' photo booth photos missing. I don't recommend them...

I highly recommend Starlight Photo Booth for any event. They provided us with the BEST service for…read moreour wedding on June 21, 2014. When our original photo booth company cancelled on us 2 weeks before our big day, Starlight Photo Booth came to the rescue and saved us! Not only did they provide us with a photo booth at the last minute, but they were also very generous with they pricing, because they understood how devastated and stressed we were about the other company canceling. We were amazed with everything that came with the package, 4 hours of services with personalizations on each photo strip, tonnes of fun props, a leather album with all the photo booth pictures taken at our reception, AND, a thumb drive with a complete library of the pictures! Wow!

Bronson Pate at Bauman Photographers has been our attorney trade magazine's go-to photographer for…read moremore than 14 years throughout San Diego County, and for good reason. He's a true professional and an expert at his craft. Consistently talented, reliable, and easy to work with, Bronson also brings great energy to every shoot. He's pleasant, upbeat, and genuinely fun to be around, which matters a lot when you're photographing attorneys, executives, kids, or anyone who doesn't love being in front of a camera. The entire Bauman Photographers team is excellent as well. They're deadline-driven, responsive, and incredibly helpful when something unexpected comes up and I need flexibility to keep a client happy. I recommend Bronson and Bauman Photographers without hesitation.

Bauman Photographers has been my go-to for professional and personal photography. I hired them for…read moreexecutive headshots and also for a family photo shoot, and both experiences were smooth from start to finish. The photographers give clear guidance, keep things comfortable, and capture photos that feel natural and flattering. Their editing is clean and tasteful, and the whole staff is easy to work with. Whether you need studio work or on-site photography, they deliver great results.

Valerie is a phenomenally outstanding photographer! We just had our wedding this past Saturday, so…read morewe haven't even gotten our photos back yet but we are just so happy with our experiences with Valerie that we had to post a review now! (Will post update and some photos from our wedding once available -- which I am confident will be amazing since we loved our engagement photos -- will post some of our engagement photos for now!) First of all, Valerie is one of the most genuine vendors that we worked with for our wedding. Her services are reasonably priced while still offering a superb, quality service and product. All our interactions with her made us feel like she was genuinely excited for our big day and wanted to make it special for us. Valerie was definitely one of our favorite vendors that we worked with for our wedding! Secondly, Valerie's personality really helped us shine and feel comfortable in our photos even for 2 camera-shy people. Even all the guests at our wedding raved about how much they loved her! She's friendly, engaging, helpful with posing, professional, and efficient! We are SO happy that we found Valerie after searching through hundreds (literally hundreds of photographers in San Diego) -- we really lucked out in finding her and highly recommend her to any other couple in the search for wedding photographer or any photographer services for that matter!

Valerie has this special skill where the more I look at the photos she took for our engagement and…read morewedding, the more I love it. We are really happy with how our photos turned out. Valerie is also very witty and has a style of humor where she's super quirky, but in a good way that makes you feel less shy and self conscious when you're taking photos and more willing to express your true self during the photoshoot. Her rate is also incredibly reasonable and competitive! Besides being an awesome photographer, Valerie is also really great in helping you with bridesmaid tasks during the wedding. This includes helping you with bustling your dress, carrying your gown train around, securing your veil to the back of your head, or pining boutonnières on for your parents/wedding party members. I was especially grateful for her in doing all the boutonnière pinnings as I had no idea how to do that and definitely did not want the added stress of trying to figure it out on the day of. One tip that I suggest when taking your engagement or wedding photos is to have some ideas of poses you want or have a list of the specific sites you want to take pictures at your wedding venue. I regret not doing this as, after the wedding, we realized there were a couple places we wish we had taken more photos at. Additionally, our wedding photos had many similar poses sprinkled throughout and I wish I had researched/looked at more wedding photos in general to get ideas of what other poses we could've done. However, considering how much details are involved in weddings, these are sort of just "cherry on the top" stuff which would've been nice to have but aren't deal breakers. Valerie will definitely not miss any defining wedding moments for you. You can rest assured that she will capture all your wedding highlights without fail!

I met Charlie through a client event service project that we were both working on. I was impressed…read moreby Charlie's attention to detail and excellent communication skills. Whether you need a wedding videographer, photographer, DJ or planner, I highly recommend Charlie and his team. They're true professionals who care about the success of your event as much as you do.

I've had the pleasure of collaborating with Charlie and his photo/video team on multiple occasions…read moreand they never fail to impress. Charlie is incredibly responsive, and always available when I have a question before, during, or after a shoot, which makes planning (and everything else) a breeze. His team of photographers and videographers are not only skilled and creative, but they also bring a friendly, positive energy to every event. Unlike other companies I've worked with in the past, where delays or unprofessional behavior were issues, Charlie's team delivers exceptional results right on time, every time. If you're looking for top-notch quality and a stress-free experience, this is the team to call!