Matt recently photographed our wedding in June. He was exactly what my husband and I wanted. Easygoing and straightforward. He showed up early, stayed late, and had (or appeared) to have a good time doing his work. Matt knew exactly how to handle our guests during the group photos and was great with communicating with the other vendors. He is SUPER responsive over email (a huge plus in my book - vendors who don't get back to you make me very nervous!). Best of all...we loved LOVED our pics. The wedding package includes a CD of all the photos (2000+ for us) but he edits about 300 of them for you. We did not have a videographer so we had hoped that the photos would represent the events of the day and in true photojournalistic style, this is exactly what Matt gave us. Even for people who were unable to attend the wedding, they could see everything that was happening before the ceremony all the way until late in the evening via the digital portfolio Matt sends just a couple weeks after the event. A couple of things with Matt: 1) If you want a lot of formals, be very specific. He will do what you ask but doesn't go above and beyond - not really his specialty 2) Some of the wedding guests complained about the photographer taking so many pictures of them so you can warn them ahead of time. I didn't care if it bugged them. I was glad Matt caught a lot of moments that I missed myself. 3) He is great at capturing moments with kids. My little nephews were tearing up the dance floor and one even lost a tooth! Matt was there to document all of it! Check out Matt's website. He has several weddings for you to view. You will feel like you are present at each and every one of them! Thank you Matt!! read more

Matt is a great photographer and our shots came out very nice. There were rave reviews from our guests and families. The formals were well done and the candids really captured some great moments. If you want a photojournalist style photographer, Matt would be a great choice. If you want someone who will take formals for two hours, I would not recommend Matt. Don't get me wrong, he's great at the formals, but where he truly shines is capturing the moments. Our pre-wedding communication was great: he replied quickly to email, and he was always on the ball. He was professional, showing up on time and delivering the photos on time. You can tell what you need to of Matt's style and quality from the demo albums on his site, but what you can't tell from the site is the professionalism. And Matt's a total pro. read more

Matt photographed our wedding last spring, and he really did an excellent job. His web site has lots and lots of other weddings, so you can get an idea of what his style is like ahead of time, but his strength is the candid shots--we got pictures of things from the reception that we didn't know had happened (*ahem* table of friends making animal faces). He also cheerfully wrangled all 150 guests into a giant group shot for us and put up with some camera-happy extended family following him around. Having been in other people's weddings where the photographer has yelled at the wedding party in order to get the "best" shot, it was important to me to find someone who could be cool. Matt was relaxed but extremely conscientious--he came to the rehearsal, so he could see what the church looked like, and showed up early the day of. He worked by himself, but he managed to be everywhere at once and we got a ton of photos (and quickly--like 3 weeks I think?). We loved our pictures, and would definitely recommend him to anyone who's in the area. read more

Matt was our photographer for our wedding this past October. We were looking for someone that would really catch the feel of our wedding and he did an awesome job. I couldn't be more happy with how the pictures he took came out. He really grasped what we were looking for....candid shots that took us through the whole day and night. He really made us go a back in our own minds to relive our special day. He wasn't fussy and really tailored to us what pictures we wanted. Even the group photo's are awesome. He didn't yell at our folks to come here and go there. He just went with the flow and that made it even more easier to make sure we weren't stress. Everyone has his or her own tastes but with our experience he was great. We would definitley pass his name on to our family and friends. read more

Matt photographed my daughters Erica's wedding in San Francisco, 3/27/10, and I was truly amazed at his talent. Matt captured the event, from beginning to end with photos that were both artistic and extremely moving...I also loved how he switched off from color shots to black and white... uniqueness in every shot. .Everyone who has viewed Matt's work has been stuck by the beauty of his photos... He is very much into the emotions of the wedding, the people involved, ~he just captured everything just perfectly... Wish there were more stars to give you Matt...Just know that 'your the best'!! and... thank you so much again... judith bean [erica's mom] read more

I absolutely love Matt's photography!! We had a casual wine country wedding and I wanted mostly candid shots. Matt was able to catch the amazing moments that only a photography ninja could! He took an astounding number of photos and gave us all of them on DVDs. The edited ones turned out beautiful. The colors are vivid and natural and the black and whites are artsy and fun. One of our stunning first dance shots was even on TV! HBO used it in a special about weddings giving us about 3 seconds of fame. I just picked up our album and I'm impressed all over again. It took a while to arrive because it was made in Italy but the craftsmanship is worth the wait. read more

I have Matt Kim as our wedding photographer in 2007. He is awesome and I would recommend him to anyone who loves photojournalism style. We like him for several reasons: 1. He has an amazing ability to take candid photos, capturing emotions of people. One of our even won an award at the wedding photojournalist association. 2. He tells a story with his chronicle of photos--the day from the beginning to the end. He not only takes many, many pictures of us , but also of our friends and family, which were important to us. ( there is no limit to how many pictures he take) 3. He is very straight forward: no hidden cost, we get all the digital files (1659 pictures), and 300 of them he has edited. 4. The price was very reasonable. 5. We had another reception in Taiwan 3 weeks after our wedding. My father asked last minute if he could get us some of the pictures for a slide show at the reception, and he totally did it. He did such a great job that other couples at our wedding also got him for their wedding photographer later. read more

Matt was great to work with. He took tons of photos at our wedding and they turned out fabulously. On his website you can see lots of photos from each wedding--not just highlights of his work from lots of different weddings. Being able to see so many photos from each wedding really helped me to be assured that my photos would also come out well. read more

Be careful. Maybe 2 stars is generous. I have been looking for a way to review Matt Kim since my daughter's wedding in San Francisco about 3 years ago. Glad I found Yelp. Unfortunately, our experience wasn't everything the others wrote. To be fair, Matt does pretty good photojournalism, and we came out with some very nice shots. But overall, it was not a good experience. I wish I had hired the other guy. Here are the problems: 1) Nearly all of the digital images he sent us on disc were very, very orange. We bought only digital images on disc from him since I create magazine albums myself. I think he was angry that he could not sell us the album. He was also contracted to edit 150 of the 750 images that he sold us. Even the 150 "edited" images he sent us had many that were still very orange. I literally spent months using various programs to get the colors adjusted on most of the 750 images. Still there were hundreds that were just unusable. 2) The images he sent us were not full resolution. 3) We contracted for 150 edited images and 600 unedited. He did not bother to do any color correction whatsoever on the 600. And they were very badly off-color. I cannot imagine a photographer sending out such poor quality work with his name on it. 4) We were not able to select any of the 150 edited images ourselves. They were all his choice alone. Of these, many featured the bride with her mouth wide open. Literally you could see the back of her throat. Once, again I think he was mad because he was not able to sell us any hard photos. 4) My other daughter had to set up the romantic bride & groom couple shots for him as well as all the group shots. He wasn't going to do any and told us that he didn't know how to. I understand photojournalism very well, but there has to be more to wedding photography than just candids. 5) He did not take even one family shot (just 6 of us) with me (the mother-of-the-bride) in it. I had to create a family group shot using Photo shop. 6) Pre- and post-wedding communication (mostly email, which is great for me) was very difficult, and it was difficult to get him to reply or respond. He was quite rude to me. I was the point person and the one paying for the package since my daughter and son-in-law were coming in from out of town. 7) He took an inordinate number of shots of "cute young things" who had no relation to either side of the family. In the end, I was able to rescue many beautiful shots, and the bride and groom have a beautiful album that I created for them. However, it was very stressful over all. Someone without the editing skills and sophisticated programs we have would have not been able to salvage the wedding pictures, and coverage of the event would have been spotty at best. P.S. After reading Mr. Kim's response, I stand by what I have written above. The main objection was the color of most of the pictures, which were extremely off-color. By the way, I create wedding albums professionally for clients and have never seen original wedding photos as badly off-color presented to clients. The other parents and the couple most certainly were not happy with the results. I did indeed have to create in Photoshop the only group shot that I had specifically requested. There were many lovely shots, and I did create a beautiful album, which I sent Mr. Kim electronically as a gift, after editing the photos that he did not color correct. This was our experience, but I understand others have had more positive results. read more

We love Matt's work. He's extremely creative and has an eye for his surroundings that no one else typically catches. We used him for our wedding and then again for our family pictures. I don't remember receiving so many compliments about one of our Christmas cards before as compared to the one we sent this year with one of Matt's pictures. He'll do the conventional pictures if you want, but his non-conventional work is amazing. I always recommend him for all occasions. read more

Matt volunteered his time to photograph blueEnergy's non-profit fundraising event in September 2010. We were thrilled to have his expertise during the event and delighted by how the pictures came out. They were crisp, beautifully framed, and unique in their perspective. The pictures conveyed the evening's exciting atmosphere and elegant setting perfectly. Matt came early to capture the set-up process and stayed through the end of the live auction (over 4 hours in total) to make sure he caught all aspects of the event. From candid shots of the Executive Team, to posed group shots, and pictures of the event's decorations, Matt did a wonderful job capturing the entire evening in both black-and-white and color lighting. He was very responsive over e-mail and responded quickly to questions and requests. We received a lot of compliments from donors afterwards for his professionalism during the event and the photo results. Thank you for your generosity in donating your time, Matt, and for the photo legacy you have given us. read more

Experts say the first thing you should ask for when selecting a wedding photographer is an example of all of the shots from a previous celebration. That's the best way to get a sense of how most of the shots will turn out if you hire this person for your wedding. When my future husband and I saw Matt's website, we knew immediately that he was the photographer for us. Instead of the few cherry-picked and overprocessed images featured by other wedding photographers, Matt depicts dozens of photos for each wedding, and shows he can handle every kind of shooting condition you throw at him. Low light, glare, dappled shade, running kids--you name it, he's got it covered. Matt did not disappoint at our July wedding either. He's low-key and relaxed, yet as one guest said, "I can't believe there's just one of him--he's everywhere!" It's true. He photographed everyone at the wedding, mostly when they were just having fun. As another bride mentioned earlier, he's not so big into posed photos, though he will take every one you request. His true talent is capturing the emotions of the moment--the laughter and the joy, the zany bits and the upwellings of feeling that happen with touching frequency during every wedding. He gets them all, with interesting camera angles and amazing timing to boot. You might not even notice he's snapping you while you're having you're wedding, but you'll get some amazing shots back on your CD. And his photos far exceeded the best images I've seen taken at our rather shady venue for creativity and technical excellence. Also, his prices are eminently reasonable; you get a CD with thousands of shots, with a few hundred processed and ready for printing. We love so many that we're having major trouble deciding which to print and send on to friends and family. And after hearing horror stories of friends whose photographers disappeared from contact for months, leaving them without photos for nearly a year, I was so pleased when Matt delivered online previews of our photos within 2 weeks, followed by a disc of thousands of images shortly thereafter. In short, if you want sepia-tinted fashion magazine-like photos of your wedding venue, go someplace else. Matt captures the people you love and the spontaneous moments you want to remember. And isn't that really what weddings are about? read more

We couldn't be more pleased with our wedding photos. Matt is superb at his specialty (photojournalistic style), capturing so many emotion-filled moments that otherwise would have passed us by. He is a total professional - we never got the sense that he was one of those photographers who was working weddings only until he gets hired by National Geographic. Compared to other photographers we interviewed, Matt did not seem over-the-top artsy (doing Photoshop edits on every other picture to create sepia-tone photos with just that one rose boutonniere in full color), and did not push us into buying albums (in fact, I don't think he evens offers any). As far as we could tell, his sole emphasis seems to be getting beautiful photos -- people first and details second -- to tell your story. On top of it all, Matt was within our budget -- $3000 is not chump change for wedding photography, but certainly better than the $4000-5000 that seems to be mid-range in the Bay area. And he was just a great guy to work with - organized and experienced enough to know how to keep things moving along so you don't have to worry about missing a particular photo op, serious about his job, but not above cracking jokes to put you at ease. Our wedding day schedule was pretty tight, but Matt started right on time with the girls getting ready, then arrived ahead of us at the Stanford campus to scout out logistics of our portrait shoot (necessary to avoid colliding with all the other wedding parties -late June Saturday = peak wedding season). Looking back at our Stanford photos, we are always amused at thinking about just how much work Matt had to do with military precision, lugging around his two big cameras while keeping a sense of humor the whole time and trying to get the guys to loosen up! For those of you who see the easy-breezy poses of wedding parties strolling down the street, or jumping up with arms over the heads, here's a secret: the process of getting those shots is NOT easy-breezy. There is a lot of coordination, walking and talking back-and-forth, much like shooting a 5-second scene on a movie set, over and over again. Before the shoot, Matt literally gave us a 2-minute lesson on where each should be according to his orders of "Formation 1", "Formation 2", etc., and so then whenever we moved to a different location, we didn't have to fumble and waste time figuring out where to stand. Not to say it felt like work, because we just had to listen and smile... All that said, the portraits came out great, with some fantastic close-ups, and I think that is a testament to Matt's effectiveness at getting the wedding party to gel together, and to get the best out of everyone in an admittedly more formal atmosphere. At the reception was where Matt really shone - we had less than an hour to get family photos during cocktails (between the ceremony and dinner reception), and Matt was formidable at rounding up the different parties and lining folks up, and moving on to the next set, all the while getting some great candids of guests. He finished with the posed photos a lot sooner than expected and offered to run through some more combinations (we had prepared two lists ahead of time - "must-haves" and the "nice-to-haves"), but we decided that a dozen or so of the must-haves were enough for us, as we preferred to be free from photos obligations so we could enjoy the company more. Throughout the dinner and dancing, Matt went around and around the ballroom for the most comprehensive coverage. The entire night, from our entrance to the last dance, I never really noticed Matt's presence, yet it was only when I first saw the hundreds of close-ups that he got of us - sitting at the table listening to speeches, getting our food, dancing, visiting other tables, cutting the crème brulee, and dancing some more - that I realized how he never stopped clicking away. That's how unintrusive he was! A month after the wedding, Matt mailed us a DVD with about 300 touched-up JPGs, and over 1000 more JPGs. All files were very high resolution. We have gotten so many compliments on the results - we just can't thank Matt enough. Check out his many online albums of full wedding coverage - you'll see what we mean! read more

We hired Matt Kim to shoot our wedding in Carmel in June 2009. We were very impressed with the many examples of weddings he had shot on his website. Because Matt was driving from the East Bay to Carmel, he drove down the night before the wedding and offered to shoot our rehearsal dinner for no additional charge. It was so incredibly nice of him. His photographs of our rehearsal dinner and wedding are exactly what we wanted - beautiful candid shots of us and the guests that are of tremendous visual quality, as opposed to tons of cheesy, posed photos of the wedding party. The best thing about hiring Matt is that his rate includes hundreds of processed digital photos, plus hundreds more unprocessed digital photos. We were able to have prints made and made our own wedding album without having to pay the photographer for the rights or for prints. All our wedding photos are ours and we love them. We now have a baby and we're having Matt take photos of our baby for our holiday cards because we love his work. read more