I simply cannot rave enough over Maija's contribution to what was the most stressful, nerve racking and ultimately best day of my life. Turns out when you invite everyone you love to a function as big as a wedding, it is like herding cats. And Maija is an AMAZING cat wrangler. With the assistance of 3 highly trained professionals (Maija for the photographer, a DJ crew and an official wedding planner- all of whom my family tried to talk me out of hiring,) every piece of chaos was managed with hardly a blip on the emotional radar. And that is saying something, because as we all know, weddings are emotional affairs. I would even go so far as to say, without the aforementioned professionals, it is questionable whether I would still be on speaking terms with all of my friends and family... And that was a benefit of hiring Maija that I did not even know I was getting. Her picture portfolio speaks for itself. Her photos are truly beautiful and fully capture the essence of everything you would want to remember from such a special day. I would recommend her on her skill with a camera alone, but where she truly shines is in her grace and caring while going through the process. Maija takes care to focus on what you want, but brings a truly amazing empathy and flexibility to the task. There will never be enough time on your wedding day and she helped me find the right balance of staying on "schedule," but still experiencing the moment. And with the pictures she took, I am able to go back, whenever I want, to experience it again and even see some of the things I missed the first time around. Houses and cars will come and go, but you will never be able to recreate your wedding day. The pictures are once in a lifetime. Spend the money. Hire Maija. With the quality of pictures she takes you will want to carve out time just to browse through them for the sheer beauty of the product she provides. read more

Maija Karin Photography - No words can express how perfect she made our wedding!!! AHHHHHHHHHHH hahahahahahha I scream with honest excitement every time I think about it. Pictures are EVERYTHING to me! What she doesn't know is that we had a photographer and I came across some of her pictures online. I decided why not call. Instant LOVE! She had to be ours! The next time chatting, with of course wine, I was even more excited. Words cannot begin to describe the personal and emotional connection we made. Just look at our wedding photos! Everyone talks about how magical our wedding was and how our photographer truly was able to capture it. My Mom told me it was like we were best friends for years! She can up with photos and captured details that I have seen no other photographer do (I work for a wedding planner as a side job). Her added touches are so special. She truly puts her heart and soul into what she does. She is beyond the total package. I don't just say these things, I truly mean them. We all fell in love with her and her work. When you get married it is a blur and to be able to look back at pictures and truly relieve it all because of the photos, is more than I thought would ever happen. She captured our love, our emotion, my craziness and my baby girl Bella (My dog) perfectly. She took the things and people we love and made a breathtaking story for us. Ryan and I have already told her she is not leaving our lives and cannot wait to have her capture more events in our lives. She came in as our wedding photographer, but has become so much more to us, our families and our hearts! Without a doubt, Maiji will be the ONLY photographer that I recommend. She will exceed and keep exceeding your expectations. AHHHHHHHHHHHH she is remarkable inside and out! read more

Hands down the best wedding photographer in Boise!!! Wow...I feel a surge of emotion looking back at our wedding photos. Maija captured us so perfectly at our engagement session, all the moments & details leading up to our I Do's, and lastly our fun celebration. LOVE LOVE LOVE our photos!!! We had a large wedding party, lots of family, and about 400 guests. Maija kept everyone on track and everything went smoothly for us. She still managed to capture all the amazing wedding moments and details working her way around the busy reception. We initially decided to not have sunset photos due to the size of our wedding and the possibility of not being able to sneak out. We were surprised with a traditional Basque dance so Maija stayed longer than expected to capture this special moment for us. She even went above and beyond to sneak us out for the most beautiful sunset photos on the Basque Block following the dance. We have so many amazing photos to add to our new home and share with our families. Maija's photo from our big day won a local Summer contest for The Grove Hotel. I can't express how amazing Maija is as a wedding photographer with her warm smile and fun personality. She is so talented and creative. I highly recommend Maija! Thank you so much for your exceptional service and attention to detail with a warm smile! Also, for working with our huge cultural wedding. You're the best!!! :) read more

Maija is just an absolute gem! Wedding planning can often be incredibly stressful, especially when you've been planning for months and everything culminates on one big day...including meeting many of your vendors in person for the first time. From the first moment we met Maija onsite we were struck by her authenticity, warmth, humor and professionalism. Her depth and breadth of experience just shined through the entire day -- from the first look photos all the way through the last dance of the evening. She was quietly and confidently capturing all of our beautiful memories. Both Mark and I were a bit nervous to see our photos because neither of us like to be in front of the camera (especially me!). When we received the photos and started to go through the galleries there was a collective moment where we just looked at each other and started laughing...the photos were so stunning it looked like a Hollywood set. We looked so relaxed and Maija captured our joy and happiness...perfectly. Now every time someone asks us about the wedding my first response is....'Oh! Let me show you the gorgeous photos!!' read more

We used Maija as our photographer for our wedding last weekend. She worked with us and our wedding coordinator on our timeline, ensuring that we would have plenty of time to get all the family photos done in time for the ceremony, and then making sure we had all the ceremony events captured. She was really helpful in choosing cool and unique locations for our bride/groom pictures, she definitely has a good eye for picking spots you wouldn't think of! During our shoot, she was willing to coach us as much or as little as we wanted or needed, and was calm and helpful in directing us into poses and angles. She made us feel comfortable and was spontaneous with capturing natural moments between us. She was also flexible with changes in weather and locations. We have a fairly big family, and Maija ensured we had all the groupings we needed and that all family members were represented and welcome. I saw some early sneak-peeks of our pictures and was blown away! I cannot wait to see how everything turns out. I would definitely recommend Maija to a friend. read more

Choosing a photographer for your daughter's wedding is no small task. I was a wedding photographer myself for about 10 years, so I know all too well how important this job is! As a photographer you can imagine that I wanted to hand pick the perfect photographer for her big day. I follow several photographers in the Treasure Valley and Maija was my first pick. From the very first emails and phone conversations Maija did not disappoint. She is extremely sweet, personable, and passionate about capturing the wedding day just as you imagined it. She was easy to work with and the entire experience from the beginning to end was a delight. She cares about the smallest details from the get-go and delivers a stunning product in the end. Her style is simply beautiful and creative. She captured all the emotions of the day perfectly and we were so blessed to have her spend the day with us. I respect her as a fellow photographer and would hire her again, no doubt! Thanks, Maija for the outstanding job you did! read more

We loved having Maija shoot our wedding! I'm pretty awkward in front of a camera and she did a good job making me feel comfortable. Every time we look back at our pictures we can't help but smile - it was such a special day for us and she captured all the emotion and beauty so well. Also, our photos were almost entirely under tree cover and in dappled shade. While a less skilled photographer might have a hard time handling that weird quality of light, she ended up making everything look as magical as it was. Just look at our photos! She's also super organized! Her planning documents really helped us start thinking about timelines, etc, and what was doable. We ended up getting a wedding coordinator about two months before the wedding and she did a wonderful job working with the wedding planner and weaving in our prior plans to make sure everything went smoothly. During the wedding she was super professional. If we were to do it all over again, we'd pick Maija again in a heartbeat. read more

I would recommend Maija to anyone interested in beautiful portraits that show your personality and the character of the environment around you. We used Maija to photograph our wedding in Leavenworth in May. Maija is able to portray who you are in her photos. I am not an easy person to photograph, I close my eyes and turn awkwardly and do not usually like to share photos of myself because it never looks like how I see myself. Maija works magic in this area and I loved most every picture of myself and everyone else. My younger son does not like being photographed and she was able to get some impromptu shots of him in his element despite his best attempts to avoid it. She is very experienced, able to navigate numerous people in different areas efficiently and you end up with a great photo representation of you and your family and friends that is reflective of who you are. I had difficulty choosing photos to print because I loved so many. Highly recommended. read more

Maija and her second photographer did such an amazing job on our wedding photos. They felt like there were supposed to be a guest at our wedding and not someone we paid to be there. Since, we had a destination wedding we talked through Skype and phone conversations. From the beginning, Maija was caring and made my wife feel at ease as a bride. Throughout the planning months she checked in with us to make sure we were following our timeline and also sent us a sweet gift. The minute we met, we felt like we had known her forever. Her great professionalism and humor made it easy to have her be a part of our special day. Maija was very flexible and knew what to say when wedding festivities were stressful. I would recommend Maija to any of my friends. read more

Maija was extremely friendly and professional throughout the entire process from scheduling, to the day of the wedding, to receiving the final photographs. During the photoshoot, Maija guided us through poses and helped ease our nerves in front of the camera. At the same time, she kept it light and fun, and was a joy to work with. When we received our photos we were blown away by the quality of the beautiful images. Maija was able to capture all the important moments of the evening while also getting wonderful candid photos of our family. Thank you so much Maiji for capturing our perfect day so wonderfully! We'll be enjoying these photos for years to come. read more

After the wedding, Maija sent us a sneek peek of about 15 pictures. We are still waiting on the rest, but the ones she sent are AMAZING!!! I can't tell you how many people have told us that our pictures look like something out of a magazine. There was even one picture that I remember thinking might come out a little posed and not only is it beautiful and completely natural, it's one of my favorites! Also, my husband has a hard time posing naturally in front of the camera; with Maija's pictures he looks SO photogenic! Maija is an amazing photographer and was worth every penny. I am so glad we chose her to do our wedding in Leavenworth. read more

Maija photographed our wedding in central WA 2 months ago. WE LOVED HER!!! She was super easy to work with leading up to the wedding - she was very professional and responsive to my calls/e-mails. She was also very familiar with our wedding site and had great ideas about where to take pictures, how the lighting would look, etc. I loved that I didn't feel her presence during the ceremony or reception (ie, she wasn't following our every move or in our faces with her cameras), yet when we got our pictures she had great photos from the whole night. We have gotten lots of compliments about our photos, so I would definitely recommend Maija! read more

We got married in January 2023, at Stillwater Hollow in Nampa Idaho. Maija was wonderful to work with from start to finish! The engagement photo session near Bogus was a great first interaction, and she took great care all through the wedding process. Maija's shot placement, and editing is first class. We had an awesome variety of weather on the wedding day, fog, sun, and full moon rise over the Boise mountains, and she was able to capture it all. We also got our pics back in a timely manner for another reception, and we have nothing but good things to say about our experience. Thanks Maija! Jim and Jayme read more

Maija was an absolute joy to work with! Going into the session, my husband had just fractured his collar bone and I had a broken zipper on my dress, and we wanted to take pictures in the freezing snow. Maija handled it all like a true professional. She made us relax and laugh and positioned us in all sorts of angles. When we received the pictures, they took our breath away! You would never know that we had had any issues. And the snowy backgrounds that she chose and drove us to were gorgeous! I am so grateful that we were able to have someone so flexible, professional and talented take our wedding photos. read more

Maija photographed our infant son four times between birth and one year. She was fantastic! Not only were the photos beautiful, but she was so easy to work with. As you can probably tell from her portfolio, Maija is not into props, just stunning photographs of your baby. And even if your baby isn't cooperating, Maija is able to capture great moments. As a new mom, I can't tell you how much we appreciated her flexibility with our schedule and last-minute changes due to a runny nose. I cannot recommend Maija more highly as a baby/family photographer. read more

Maija Effinger was simply incredible shooting our family photos. Maija was full of great ideas and I felt like she really tried to catch us in a moment instead of just taking shots. I felt comfortable at all times and she made me feel and look beautiful by capturing just the right lighting. Maija captured precious shots of our daughter as well which was extremely important for our first baby book. We were both very impressed with her creativity and professionalism. I will definitely be a forever client. read more

We had Maija do our wedding photos November 2011 in Cle Elem. WA. We are absolutely impressed and in love with what she did! She suggested we take most of our photos outside, even though it was winter time, and it was the best advice ever. The pictures look natural, elegant, and stunning. She was so easy to work with and made everyone feel very comfortable. She truly captured that magic of our day and I love looking at the photos on our walls every day. I would recommend her with the highest confidence. read more

Where do I begin?! Maija did an amazing job capturing every aspect of our wedding day. I can't stop looking at all of the pictures! She arrived on time and stayed for our whole wedding day. She was so friendly and I am still receiving compliments on how great our wedding photos look. I would definitely recommend Maija if you are looking for a fun, creative and unique photographer! Thank you so much Maija for the beautiful pictures you have given my family that we will be able to cherish forever! read more

We gave Maija a huge challenge! And she crushed it! Our daughters wedding was in December (limited daylight hours), in the evening and in a log lodge. Her photos were perfect! Every family member or friend who has seen the photos has remarked how beautiful they are. She was fantastic to work with, I can't say enough about her and what a fantastic photographer she is. Don't even hesitate about choosing Maija Karin Photography! read more