We loved working with Stephen for our family photos! The pictures turned out amazing, and we really loved the variety he was able to capture. He was also SO good with our toddler, who started off a little shy and fussy. Stephen was super patient and got him smiling naturally and brought his energy out throughout the session. He made the whole experience easy and fun. We're so happy with our photos and will definitely be working with Stephen again next year for our family pictures! read more

Our experience with Steven Cotton Photography for my daughter's senior portraits was excellent from beginning to end. Steven was professional in the intake process, fair and reasonable in his pricing, gracious with our schedule changes, an absolute pleasure to work with at the shoot, and was super efficient in getting the gallery to us. And the shots were absolutely beautiful - some literally took my breath away. He worked in some action shots, some candid shots, and lots of different backdrops and angles which resulted in a gallery of interesting and beautiful pics that we will treasure for ever. read more

Steven Cotton Photography - Event Photography Near Me - San Jose, California

See all

I booked Steven for my father's birthday party. I don't live in the area but found him online and was incredibly easy to book. Steven was so friendly, professional, and easy to work with. He was able to manage 40+ family members including 6 families, 3 generations, and more than 10 kids. He captured so many beautiful memories that everyone will cherish forever. Thank you Steven! read more

My children gave me a family photoshoot with Steven Cotton Photography for Christmas, and I am absolutely thrilled with the results. We were able to choose the location, and Steven had already scouted out the best spots when we arrived. We are not a particularly photogenic bunch and were all a little ill at ease at first, but that didn't last long. Steven's easy-going approach and great sense of humor quickly put us at ease--we actually enjoyed the hour we spent with him! The photos are candid, happy, beautifully lit, and truly reflect our family. I will treasure them forever and cannot recommend Steven highly enough. read more

We booked Steven's very reasonably priced "elopement" package for our marriage ceremony at the Santa Clara County Clerk-Recorder's Office followed by a photo shoot with our families at the San Jose Rose Garden, and it was great! He's very professional, friendly and warm, and he captured a ton of great photos of the day. We're so happy with how everything turned out. read more

Steven is an amazing photographer and is FANTASTIC with kids. He brings a bunch of props with him and gets the kids laughing which turn into the most beautiful natural smiling photos of them. My daughter can be a tough one to crack and halfway through the first shoot with him, he had her smiling. He's become our go-to for family photos, this year being the 3rd year with him and I love all the photos he's taken of us. He's so easy to work with. We had a few times we needed to work with my son to get him to listen and Steven was patiently waiting; never made the kids do anything they absolutely didn't want to. His pricing is upfront, no hidden charges, and very reasonable. He also has a huge list of locations that he's familiar with and we've done a different one each year. Oh and he's flexible with rescheduling; one year it rained on our scheduled date and we were able to easily reschedule the date and location. And despite how busy he is, he's very responsive and turn around time for photos is so fast. We love working with Steven!! read more

The photographer you want :-) I highly Steven Cotton for all your photography needs! We had a large family group of 11 people, and he was absolutely incredible to work with. He was so timely and caring, making sure everyone felt comfortable and had a great time throughout the entire photoshoot. Many of my family members commented how fun it was with Steven. Steven truly made the experience fun and engaging, and he took the time to get all the shots we wanted. Not only were the pictures fantastic, but he also turned around the finished images incredibly quickly. Group photos, candids, couples, individuals, head shots, he captured them all! We are thrilled with the results and the whole process was seamless from start to finish. If you're looking for a great photographer who is also a wonderful person, Steven is your guy! read more

Steven is an absolute dream of a photographer. From start to finish, he was attentive, thoughtful, and seemed genuinely invested in capturing an important event for our family (75th birthday party). His pricing was extremely competitive and the photos in his gallery were a great indicator of how beautifully the photos from our party would turn out. I really appreciated his approach at the party, too - he was super present and engaged (for example: he very generously rolled with some special photo requests from my family), and also seemed like he was constantly scanning for wherever a moment needed to be caught (and then magically appeared in that very spot). I would be thrilled to hire Steven again in the future and could not recommend him enough. read more

Steven was absolutely wonderful to work with for our outdoor maternity photoshoot. He was very responsive from the beginning and gave us so many beautiful outdoor location options, which saved us a lot of time researching. He was accommodating with last minute changes and came very well prepared. His experience really showed, he guided us through flattering poses, made us feel comfortable, and never rushed us. He even spent extra time to make sure we got the perfect shots. The photos turned out amazing, his pricing was very reasonable compared to others, and we received our gallery within the same week. Truly a 5/5 experience - we will definitely be working with him again! read more

We had such an AMAZING experience with Steven!! My family and I enjoyed our mini session at the Natural State beach. He made the group/individual family photos very seamless that he still had plenty of time to get some candid photo of us. He definitely caught everything I envisioned and more! We were worried about our morning session since it was at the beach but the weather actually turned out for the best for us and the pictures came out GREAT!!! THANK YOU so much! Such a great price, can't beat it. HIGHLY recommend him for family pictures! read more

Our son got married in Bangkok. We had a California reception for family and friends that couldn't fly as far as Thailand. I thought even though this was not a "wedding" it still was an important celebration with family and friends, and I wanted a photographer there to memorialize it. I actually found Steven Cotton on ChatGPT!!!! So I checked out his website, and loved his photos. Steven was great to work with. He was everywhere taking photos, and his turn around time was great. One of the best parts for us---the parents---was that we asked for photos of our son and his wife. Steven got them together and asked them questions, that turned into laughter, and you could see their love. It was genuine and that comes through in the photos. We definitely recommend Steven. read more

Steven exceeded our expectations! He captured what we were seeking plus more (for our wedding tea ceremony/family reunion). He did an amazing job at capturing everything important - from the big-picture decor, to the small yet significant details, to the emotions, and was impressively quick to snap the special moments. It was like he was everywhere at once and knew exactly what to capture. He has a wonderfully talented eye! We are beyond happy. He's the first photographer that I've worked with who I will 10/10 wholeheartedly recommend to anyone who needs photography!! Beyond his work, Steven is kind, professional, great at communicating, even arrived early to prepare. No notes, simply purely impressed and very happy! Thank you so much, Steven!! read more

Steven is an excellent photographer! I'm so glad I came across his business page in my last minute Google search for a photoshoot. He fit me in for a studio session within days of my booking request at a reasonable price and the shoot itself was so comfortable. He is very professional and has great energy. I also really like that he offers an option for rush delivery of photos, which I definitely needed. I am very satisfied with how the images turned out and will be recommending him to friends and family. read more

Steven did a fantastic job with our company headshots and group photos. He was perfect for our law firm - very punctual, professional, accommodating, and a pleasure to work with. He provided our proofs quickly and his quality of work is excellent. We would definitely recommend Steven. read more

Steven Cotton Photography - Event Photography Near Me - San Jose, California

I mean there is a reason for all 5 stars review for Steven. They are all real :) I had a smooth booking to photoshoot experience and the pics came out fabulous. Steven is amazing to work with and has a great eye for flattering photos and location! Our family portraits was just wow! Thanks Steven. One suggestion is that it is hard to reach you sometimes over phone or email, I understand you are busy but replying to emails shouldn't take that much time :) read more

See all

Steven is a fantastic photographer. We hired him to take photos during our post-elopement party. He was so kind, funny, and made everyone feel comfortable in front of the camera. He did such a great job capturing the "feel" of our party with his candid shots, and the portraits he took of our family are beautiful. We are so thankful we hired him to capture our event, and he will be our go to if we want professional photography in the future. read more

We recently worked with Steven for our son's senior portrait. It was such a great experience from start to finish. His scheduling and pre-portrait instructions are very clear and easy to use. He had some great locations available; my son looked through them and found a place he really liked. During the photo shoot, Steven was very flexible with us, accommodating some extra outfit changes (as we were very indecisive!) and a few extra poses at the end. He was very conversational during the shoot and kept it relaxed and upbeat. As a result, we have some wonderful shots, great smiles, natural poses, and beautiful lighting and composition in the setting. Especially as our son had some initial reluctance about doing a portrait at all, we were very pleased with how it went. Home run for us! We highly recommend Steven. read more

Steven took beautiful photos of many of our events and also I hired Steven for 2 personal photo shoots. You can see the pictures that he took last Christmas in Filoli Gardens. They are gorgeous! I used them for our business Christmas cards. I recommend Steven Cotton Photography for weddings, birthday celebrations, anniversaries, Bar and Bat Mizvahs, traditional and cultural events and social gatherings and family or individual photo shoots. Thank you, Steven for your wonderful work, kindness, flexibility and professionalism! Dina Bay Area Event Planner dinasdeluxeevents.com read more

See all

Steven is an AMAZING photographer. If you're like me and do TONS of research on Yelp before committing to anything, look no further - Steven is your photographer! I loved how natural our family photos turned out. He made us all feel at ease, and it shows in the photos. He's professional, friendly, and fantastic to work with. He's also great with kids! We look forward to working with him again. Thanks, Steven, for such a great experience! read more

Steven made us comfortable for each and every shot. He was very professional & punctual and even shared his very own experience and explaining what parenthood feels like. It was a wonderful and lovely gesture of him :) Will definitely book him for our future photoshoots too. And recommend him to all of my friends. Thanks a lot for the lovely photos Steven!! Happy that we found you for our maternity photoshoot. :) read more

Steven Cotton Photography - Event Photography Near Me - San Jose, California

We are family of 5 w/ a newborn and had our newborn family photo session w/ Steven, its fantastic! He's very friendly, flexible w/ high quality photos. We got delayed for a bit and Steven waited for us until arrival. Thanks Steven for flexibility and great photo session! read more

STAY AWAY STAY AWAY STAY AWAY!!! Yelp is making me give a rating. My rating is ZERO! I would advise you to read.... Me and my wife hired this guy three years ago to photograph our wedding and since I'm keeping it he did just an okay job. Who wants just an okay job at their wedding? NO ONE! The okay job still wasn't worth any stars. My rating is ZERO and that should speak for it self. The main reason for the ZERO this post is he promised us a wedding photo album and that was 3 years ago. We never received it. He told us when we asked about it his placed got robbed and needed some time to bounce back. We understood and let two years go by before reaching out to him again. You think as a good business man he would get back to us. Not once until I reached out again. Maybe he forgot. We gave him a pass. How many of you would give a two year pass? Now for the last 6 months emails have gone back and forth with him lying every chance he gets. Steven has told me numerous "Ive placed your order and should be done in a week" I let two weeks go by and nothing. This has been happening for the last 6 month. If you're looking for a photographer hes not the one! I know everyone has different experiences I understand that for sure. But bad business is bad business. If your okay with "okay" pictures and BS he's your guy! My advice is stay away from Steven and Find that photographer that takes GREAT PICTURES AND STANDS ON THEIR WORD!!!! #ZEROSTARS read more

Steven is an amazing photographer. I booked a family portrait session at his studio. He made us so comfortable in the studio. Photos came out so good that we loved each and every picture. I highly highly recommend Steven. read more

The pictures were excellent. The skill to be able to capture so many candids where everyone looks so flattering! I hired Steve for a post-wedding event and he picked up on small details like henna work on my wedding party showing his experience. He was extremely easy to communicate with and on the day of, had such a wonderful and easy demeanor, it was a joy to have him as our photographer. The turnaround time was super quick and I truly am in love with these photos, thank you!!! read more

Steven is an incredible photographer!! We have so many pictures to choose from for our holiday cards. The gorgeous scenes, natural and posed shots, and sheer quantity of high quality shots is stunning. We've already gotten so many compliments with the ones we've shared. The pictures are glowing, vivid and sharp. He is great with dogs too - had a prop that got our dog to look at the camera!! Steven was a pleasure to work with and we look forward to working with him again next time. read more

Steven took exceptional photos for our wedding, capturing our moments perfectly. We absolutely adore the pictures and are grateful for his talent! read more

Steven was a wonderful photographer! We set up some time with him for a 30 minute outdoor maternity photoshoot, he gave us a list of locations that were both convenient for him and us, before the shoot date he provided us with helpful information on maternity photoshoots as well as parking info. The photoshoot was both quick and relaxed, that suited us really well since I was in my 9th month of pregnancy. They were a perfect mix of posed and candid pictures, the outcome is perhaps the best couples photos we've ever had! read more

Steven was amazing. He put as at ease, generating natural smiles and laughs that translated into memorable pictures.

Let me start off by saying, when looking for a photographer for your wedding, DO YOUR RESEARCH and meet with each photographer to get a feel for them. Bring all your questions and remember that this person is going to be with you the entire day of, so you'd better like them! And that is where Steven comes in...from the first meeting with him, we were impressed with his professionalism and personableness. He made us feel super comfortable and answered all of our many questions that all couples have when planning a wedding. Steven knew names and little details of every couples' portfolio of photos he showed us, which assured us that we made the right choice of booking him. Now let's talk details...Steven's prices are very reasonable and he includes the engagement shoot in his packages, which was a HUGE plus! My husband is not a big picture person, but Steven made him feel super comfortable during our engagement session, which ultimately helped us out big time on the day of our wedding. We also LOVED that we had a client portal, which we could access our photos, make payments, and fill out our wedding questionnaire. Now with our pictures, we LOVED our engagement photos and are IN LOVE with our final wedding photos. Our family and guests could not stop raving about Steven and how friendly and personable he was. He was very patient with our guests and even offered to take pictures on phones. He also had us fill out a family photos list, so we could stay organized and get all of the family shots we wanted. We felt very relaxed and comfortable the entire time and Steven captured ever moment beautifully. Not only did Steven do an AMAZING job on the day of, but his work is altogether BEAUTIFUL. He also worked so well with our videographer and we had our perfect day captured perfectly. Our wedding photos were ready after about 4 weeks, which was VERY impressive! When we met with Steven, he ended up making us a beautiful highlight slideshow with music. And he had chocolates and drinks for us while we viewed the slideshow. And to top it off he made us a collage frame with some of our photos, which we will cherish forever. I would HIGHLY recommend Steven to anyone looking to book an outstanding photographer. We will definitely be doing the same in the future! read more

See all

I contacted Steven after looking at the 5 star ratings and wonderful comments on Yelp. Using their website it was easy to book an appointment and Steven also came early to our event. He is really sweet person. However, we had a very bad experience in reaching out to him over the call/email, his assistant use to transfer our call to him only to get disconnected. Our project was delivered 5 days after the date it was committed for and no one even bothered to inform us about the delay... even when we tried reaching out to them several times. Finally when I received the pictures I was disappointed to see how wide angle and poorly edited everything was. Either the editing was done in haste of delivering the project as they were already late or it was not done by the primary photographer. However, I had to crop, saturate and edit my photos to even share it with my family and friends. 2 - star for the good behavior during the event but 0 for the work. read more

Steven took our family pictures for a second year, and we definitely plan on setting up a session with him next year. From a service standpoint Steven is professional, prompt, and flexible. He is open to ideas while also having combinations ahead of time so that we could maximize the time. For a session involving two young children (6 & 4), his friendly laid back demeanor and warm personality were inviting and largely contributed to our children being comfortable and relaxed, ultimately resulting in natural smiles and a stress free time. As far as the photos, they look great and the online gallery is easy to navigate. Thank you Steven! read more

Still raving! Steven was a part of a all inclusive package for our wedding. Let me tell you, he is worth every penny and more! Not only is his work the best we have ever seen, but he is also the most professional, most personal, and really great at capturing the moments with amazing detail. People at our wedding were so impressed with him. He worked with us prior to every moment. He takes his time to get everything and things you wouldn't think of. He is always on it and prepared. He is very easy to talk to. We are so impressed with him that we won't go to anyone else. We will be coming to him for all the life moment photographs. Beautiful work Steven. Thank you again. read more

We had such a pleasant and memorable experience with Steven! Everything starting from figuring out his style, booking up to getting the final portraits was super easy. He is highly talented and was even great at making our 4 year old pose and smile! He guided us through all the creative poses and captured beautiful pictures that we loved. We would highly recommend Steven and would definitely book him again in the future! Go with him and you won't be disappointed! read more

My husband I hired Steven to capture our civil ceremony at the Santa Clara County Clerk's office, as well as family photos afterwards at the San Jose Rose Garden. Steven went above and beyond for the entirety of our shoot and made us feel very relaxed and at ease. He was very skilled at posing us and using different prompts to capture candid shots. We highly recommend Steven! read more

My family really enjoyed taking our photos with Steven. This was our first time taking family photos outside of a studio, and Steven made it such an amazing experience. We had so much fun, and the photos turned out great! He also did an amazing job capturing the genuine happiness of our family rather than just posed smiles. His interactions with the kids made the experience even more meaningful. This will definitely be an annual event for our family! read more

Steven Cotton Photography - Event Photography Near Me - San Jose, California

My husband and I met with Steven today to do portraits for our anniversary. We also brought our 2 dogs along! Steven was amazing in every way! His instructions for everything were clear and so easy to follow! He was so nice and we had awesome conversations the whole time. He made taking pictures fun and relaxing. We were at Vasona Park and we used so many of the parks features to take a ton of different photos. He was very professional, fun, and made the whole experience a pleasant one! On top of that, we've only been home for a few hours and he already sent us a few photos to look at. And they are beautiful! Thank you so much for the wonderful experience Steven! We look forward to having you take photos for us in the future! Very highly recommended! read more

Highly HIGHLY recommended. We hired Steven back in Feb 2018 for our engagement / pre wedding photoshoot. This was after a common friend asked for several hundred dollars for giving us 3 to 5 edited photos !!!! We took quotes from a lot of places but Steven's quote was the most reasonable - lots of edited images for a very reasonable amount. We also appreciated him driving for 2 to 3 hours at 5 am in the morning because we wanted sunrise shots (see attached photos) at a very specific spot. He did not charge anything extra for that out of the way drive either! I was impressed by his down to earth approach. I am writing this 3 years later because I still regularly come back and look at this images and I am amazed at how good they came out. read more

We used Steven Cotton for our engagement photos, our wedding rehearsal/welcome reception, and our wedding day, and we're so happy with our entire experience and love the final products. Steven was always quick to respond to any of our emails, and his pricing structure was simple and includes the ability to pay online with the flexibility to pay any amount over time until the wedding day. He has such a calm presence and was composed throughout our hectic day. His demeanor and ability to keep us on track was a huge part of helping our wedding day be an stress-free experience. We loved his excellent photo composition and that his pictures were tac sharp. His style is photo-journalistic which means his photographs were of more organic interactions and really captured the actual emotions and feelings of our wedding day rather than interfering and placing us in poses. I also gave him 25+ various family/friend groupings that I *needed* to have and he made sure not to miss a single one - for those he did pose us which worked better because we wouldn't have been able to coordinate all those groups otherwise. He takes his time and isn't counting hours during the event (despite the package being for a defined amount hours), instead he focuses on making sure he's captured everything the entire day. At the end we received 2,000+ photos digitally without any watermarking, copyrights, or having to pay per photo. We brought in a videographer who Steven had never met or work with before and they easily worked together with Steven taking lead but also ensuring my videographer got all shots he needed. The secondary photographer Steven also brought as part of our package was a great addition to our team and her photos were beautiful as well. I know one of my bridesmaids loved his style and working with him during my wedding so much that she even recommended him to one of her colleagues. I would definitely recommend Steven to anyone looking for a wedding, engagement, portrait, etc. photographer. read more

See all

Always enjoy our annual family portrait sessions with Steven and highly recommend him to anyone we know looking for photos. He's wonderful at capturing genuine smiles, candid expressions, and everyone's unique personalities in stunning outdoor settings. Can't wait until next year's session! read more

My husband booked Steven for our first ever family photo shoot as a Mother's Day gift. Despite our arriving late, Steven was incredibly gracious and understanding. He put us at ease during the whole session and most importantly was wonderfully engaging with our two-year-old daughter. He took tons of pictures in some really creative poses and we ended up with so many great photos that I'm excited to frame. Steven himself was funny and warm, which is a great quality if you're feeling self conscious in front of a camera. I would absolutely recommend Steven to anyone looking for professional photos to capture precious moments in their lives. read more

Steven Cotton Photography - Event Photography Near Me - San Jose, California