Me and my wife recently hired Joseph to be our wedding photographer recently. We did a small…read morewedding at the SF City Hall with just a couple of our friends - pretty much a wedding ceremony. So, the photos were supposed the main event and most important part of our wedding. Obviously, we went to City Hall to get the grand photos, but we also wanted to do something a bit different. Researching City Hall photographers, we went through a lot of them - and while most take really nice photos, if you go through them together one after the other, it all starts to feel the same. We wanted ours to stand out. That's when we came across Joseph's website. The minute we looked at it, we knew we had found our person - don't take my word for it, just check it out. His photos are beautiful, unique, and very artistic. He has an eye to catch those special moments between couples that immortalize them.
Joseph is one of the best out there, and you will be lucky to get him because he's so busy during wedding season. Despite this, he was very communicative since before we hired him, all the way up to our wedding. I highly recommend talking with him over a phone call, he will put you at ease for your special day, and you can discuss what you are looking for. He connects with you which makes the experience all the more pleasant.
Soo, the reason we went with him specifically was because we wanted something different and artistic - and while that can be a bit risky, he is the photographer for that. We planned to do the shoot at two locations, first at City Hall, and the second in North Beach area. On the day of, we were a bit stressed and feeling the pressure. The minute Joseph arrived, he was able to lighten up the mood, cracking jokes and created a fun, stress-free environment to relax us. You can tell he has attended a lot of weddings, haha. After that, things went really smoothly - he is quite familiar with City Hall, and knows how to take the good shots. He was able to get us all the stand out shots - the grand staircase, the elevator, the stairs, and the fourth floor. And the photos came out amazing! He did candid shots, elegant shots, grand shots etc. One thing I noticed is, lots of photographers are able to do close ups well, but struggle with wide angles - Joseph was able to do wide angles expertly, which is important for a venue like City Hall. When going to the second location, we had planned to do a shoot at a specific location but it was crowded so we had to improvise, and ended up taking photos in the street. This is where Joseph really shined - he was able to use the streets, graffiti, and the environment to take some extremely beautiful photos. And oh-my-god, those photos came out AMAZING!!! He made us look like movie stars, the photos were cinematic! We are so happy with our photos, we have been looking at them every weekend since getting married.
What I will say about the price is you will be paying a decent amount if you get any good photographer, and Joseph will look cheap when you understand what you are getting - he is definitely worth what he charges and more. More importantly, the advice I would give you is this - I know Joseph can and will get you the shots you want, but I highly recommend giving him a free hand and trust his artistic vision and his eye, you will not be disappointed! And feel free to express yourself and make things interesting - he is very open to trying out new ideas.
Joseph made our vision come true, and captured our wedding day beautifully - he made it memorable for us, which I feel is what every couple wants. For us, he is going to be the one capturing all our special moments going forward, so I hope you see the trust we place in him as a testament to his skill, vision and character. I cannot recommend him enough, just get him without thinking twice, you will not regret it!
We're a bit private so don't want to post a bunch of photos online publicly, but I've attached one that perfectly sums up what he can do.