Ella is a delight to work with! she has made me feel so comfortable in front of a camera!…read more We are always bouncing ideas off each other and they are always executed better than I ever could have imagined.

I just wanted to write in an update. I had such a great experience working with Ella a few years…read moreago, that I knew I could trust her to create some incredible maternity portraits for me. Pregnancy was rough, but I knew I wanted to record and honor the work my body was doing. Looking back at these pictures I'm in awe. Ella, these are some of my favorite pictures of all time and they will be treasured forever.

This review is long delayed as our wedding was in October 2025 and engagement photos in April 2025…read morebut looking back at the pictures captured by Vivian brings back so much good memories! Viv was immediately our first choice because she has an incredible portfolio of photographing in redwoods and nature which is sometimes very difficult to photograph with the different lighting. We are a bit awkward but from the get go, she was easy to talk to and was also organized. Our wedding was on the casual side so we did not have a planner but Viv was on top of everything and even though we had a day of coordinator, Viv was the one coordinating when it was her time and took lead which was much needed to wrangle everyone. The wedding was a tiny bit chaotic, running behind and rather short but Viv did a fantastic job capturing candid moments and making sure to pull us away for portrait photos away from everyone else before the wedding ended. She was professional and there wasn't a moment where I thought she was distracted. Her work speaks for itself but I really love that she shoots in multiple formats and captures the light and nature around the subjects so clearly and naturally. I often wish our wedding was slightly longer or not running behind because that would have given Viv even more time to take amazing pictures! We really enjoyed having Viv as our photography and thankful for the memories she has captured for us.

My partner and I were drawn to Vivian for her prior experience working with the venue and our…read morewedding planner, and, most importantly, her vision. We were given curated referrals for a photographer from both the venue, Mister Jiu's, and our wedding planner, and something about Vivian's photos struck us as both intimate and purposeful, naturally capturing the best moments in her subjects and the moment. Vivian has a terrific eye for capturing everything from the planned and choreographed to the spontaneous. Many of our photos were taken at the venue and the surrounding area of San Francisco's Chinatown before and during our dinner celebration. We were always in good hands, experimenting with different poses, cameras, and film to achieve a varied look, which, upon reflection, my wife and I were so glad Vivian took the time to do everything she did. We also appreciated her ability to switch gears from serious to witty, perfectly capturing every moment our surroundings or guests placed us in. And importantly, Vivian captured every important moment, framing our loved ones and us perfectly, even when we didn't know she was doing so. Vivian always made us feel welcomed, was always kind, and appreciated the love and joy perfectly captured in our photos that day. Thank you, Vivian, for being there with us on our special day!

Sonya photographed our wedding at Cavallo Point. She is an amazing photographer and such a great…read morepersonality too. We love our photos. She was also very helpful the entire evening. I highly recommend her to anyone who is looking for a photographer.

Where are the 10 stars when you need them?!? I have had the pleasure of knowing Sonya for almost…read more10 years. Sonya has been THE photographer for my business photos and my personal photos. I remarried recently and of course my first call was to Sonya to be our photographer. Sonya went above and beyond from that very first call. She worked with us on what types of photos we wanted, our schedule, the different people we would want photos with, etc. She knows many of the venues well and does a great job of scouting locations. Unfortunately, we had rain on our wedding day. Sonya did a quick adjustment and found other spots for our photos. She and her assistant got wet and they never took the smiles off their faces. There are many special touches that Sonya adds which I won't share here as I want you to be as pleasantly surprised as we were!

We received services from Crystal for our family photos 2 times, and we had a fantastic experience…read moreeach time! We absolutely adore the raw moments that she was able to capture with our son, who is constant moving and lives in his own world. The photos are reminders of the moments that we will treasure forever. Crystal is a pleasure to work with and we look forward to many more photoshoots with her in the future. Thank you!

My wife has cancer. So I asked Crystal to do some photos as a gift to her. Crystal was so amazing!…read moreShe was very empathetic and brought out the best emotions from both of us while being so considerate of my wife's limited mobility. I really liked that Crystal knew exactly how to guide us and made the best use of the location and time of day to capture the best natural light and come up with such stunning images! Oh and yes her turnaround was incredible -- no long waits and we had our photos with ample time for holiday greetings. I would so highly recommend Crystal and CL Image. Not only is she super talented and comes up with visually sensational shots, but she is so great to work with personally and can guide you through the shoot with ease. It was a lot of fun and we got amazing pics!

Becca goes above, beyond, and "Yes, and!"…read more When my guy and I were searching for wedding photographers, we noticed from her galleries that she knew her way around redheads :P and that her candids really captured the character of the people and the energy of the event. When we started talking to her and working with her, we were also really excited and impressed by her creativity and the way she collaborated to expand on our vision. We had some amazingly ridiculous ideas for our engagement shoot and she affirmed AND added to them; she showed the eff up, and drove around Oakland with us, props and costumes in tow (she even responded to a drunk photo-bomber with grace and grit :P) We were shocked at how much fun we had! Both of us are kind of allergic to canned/posed photos, and Becca has an amazing balance of making sure our heads were tilted the right way so the composition still looks good, but not giving sooo much direction that it would be super stiff and awkward. We were cracking up at some of her prompts: "Okay so Lizzy, I want your shoulders turned this way but your energy going that way" and honestly, it worked! She knows how to cultivate a really nuanced and connected experience by describing things really specifically but leaving a lot of room for our playful interpretation and authenticity. On the wedding day, she brought the same balance of flexibility and strength/leadership. I had at least 2.5 meltdowns, and Becca was kind and solid throughout everything. She got so many amazing shots, and I actually heard from multiple guests about her calm and enthusiastic presence. One thousand percent recommend! Thank you so much, Becca. You're a superstar and we're so thrilled with every element of your work :)

Beyond being an incredibly skilled photographer who made my husband and I look like the best…read morepossible versions of ourselves, Becca is also such an incredibly warm and vibrant personality to be around. We had chatted with a number of photographers about our wedding, but it wasn't until we met Becca that we immediately clicked with both her aesthetic sensibilities and her warmth and friendliness. Being uneasy in front of cameras, it was super important for us that we felt comfortable around any photographer that we brought on, and with Becca, it just felt like hanging out and having fun. She had great ideas for photos and she was game for ours as well. The photos made it to us promptly and we couldn't be happier with the way they turned out. We look forward to having another opportunity to work with Becca again!

I have worked with Katrina on a few different occasions and she is extremely talented and great…read morebehind the camera and fun to work with! Our photos came out amazing I love that she does what needs to be done to get the perfect shot.

I found Katrina Davis' nature photography class through a special deal on SFGate, which I believe…read moreis the same as the one offered on Living Social. Katrina basically offers this 3 hour course every Saturday and Sunday morning in various locales throughout the East Bay. Wanting to take full advantage of my new Sony Nex-5, I decided to plunk down 29 big ones, and chose March 5 at Robert Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve (http://www.yelp.com/biz/robert-sibley-volcanic-regional-preserve-oakland) as the location, since I had never been there. From the get go, I could tell that Katrina is very energetic, and passionate about what she does. If you like your instructors to be young, hip, and in tune with current trends, yet still experienced and knowledgeable, Katrina is for you. The class was about 10 - 12 individuals of various ages and backgrounds with many different types of cameras - everything from basic point and shoots, professional DSLRs, to hybrids like mine. Although technically a beginners class, there was a quite a range of expertise levels. Some were just a step up from knowing how to press the power button, while others were a tad more advanced. Even so, Katrina was easily able to give everyone the one on one attention they needed, and also made sure that they all knew how to use their equipment properly. At the beginning of the course, she went around inspecting everyone's camera to ensure not only that each person understood how to use it, but also that she herself understood, as to make it easier to help with proper settings later on. Now, I wouldn't call myself an absolute noob when it comes to cameras, but until now, I had barely done anything more than the most basic of photography, never bothering to mess around too much with the ISO, shutter speed, F-stop, etc. No more. After this short class, I now feel more confident to switch off that intelligent automatic mode, and straight to the once seemingly unfathomable... manual. *gasp!* Katrina brought us to various spots around the park with interesting landmarks and photo opportunities, and at each site, she would teach us a new technique. Such methods include creating depth of field in trees and grass, bringing out the color in the sky, capturing light in dark areas, and maximizing size and volume of small areas. Every so often, she'd review our pictures to see if we were grasping the concept, and would give pointers on what improvements could be made. Above all, Katrina made the class fun with her exuberance and sense of humor, and even though we were all nerds with cameras taking pictures of trees and insects, everyone seemed to have a blast. I'd definitely recommend her course for anyone showing the slightest interest in photography. I'm not saying you'll instantly turn into Ansel Adams or Herb Ritz, but you'll definitely come out with a much greater understanding and confidence in your picture taking prowess. Furthermore, not only does Katrina teach a class, but she also has her own photography business doing weddings, events, modeling portfolios, etc. If any of you out there are looking for a photographer, I definitely wouldn't hesitate to refer you her way. I'm fairly certain that your experience with her as your photographer would be nothing short of an awesome time.

We worked with Julia for our newborn photoshoot and loved our pictures and experience with her! Her…read morephotography style being more lifestyle/editorial, soft, and dreamy, was exactly what I was looking for. Julia was super professional, sweet, and calm which was perfect for our newborn. Booking with Julia was so easy as her availability is shown online and she's quickly responsive to all emails. After booking she provides wardrobe suggestions which was super helpful to prepare, and also had the option of letting me and baby borrow outfits for the shoot. We received our online gallery of photos 3 weeks later and then a print of them a few weeks after then. Loved the pictures she captured and would definitely recommend Julia!

We highly reccomend Julia Shelepova!…read more Julia recently took our family portraits and we could not be more pleased with her style. She is so kind, accommodating and best of all, wonderful and patient with children too. She took her time with us and really got to know our family. We can't wait to use her again for future family portraits. We are so grateful.

Can't say enough good things about Ngoc! Once we saw her work, we knew that we wanted her to…read morecapture our maternity photoshoot. She was very responsive, professional, and answered all of our questions prior to the shoot. She offered great location suggestions and even offered flexibility in dates when our original date was looking to be rained out (luckily the rain held off for a bit!) During the actual shoot, she made us feel comfortable the entire time, was encouraging, gave good directions, and all in all, got us so excited about what the end result would look like. She was such a delight to work with. Turnaround time to get the photos was really quick, and we loved all of our pictures! We can't wait to have Ngoc capture more of our life milestones in the future!

Could not be happier with our experience with Ngoc for our maternity photos! Ngoc was so responsive…read moreand professional on initial contact that I knew from the get go she was the right choice for us. We quickly connected and found a date for photos while she offered awesome suggestions for location and what to wear. It was extra special to see her scope out the location we chose the week before our shoot to make sure it was just right on her Instagram and it's nice to know she goes the extra step to make sure she is prepared to make her photo shoots special. Can't wait to schedule our next photo shoot with Ngoc after our little one arrives!