5 out of 5 stars and 24 reviews Best of Weddings (1x).
5
(24)Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, Worldwide
About this vendor
My approach to photography is to be inventive and authentic. My style is photojournalistic and noninvasive. My hope is that the photos will transport you back in time to relive those moments and even see the ones that may have escaped you. I'm constantly looking for new angles and innovating new techniques so that I'm able to create something that is artistic and unique.
I can't wait to meet you and partner with you in telling your story!
Details
Destination Weddings
- Destination Wedding Packages
Photo Shoot Types
- Bridal Portraits
- Day After Session
- Engagement
- Trash The Dress
Photo & Video
- Digital Files
- Film Photography
- Online Proofing
- Photo
- Printed Enlargements
- Printed Proofs
Photo & Video Styles
- Artistic
- Documentary
- Dramatic
- Lifestyle
- Modern
- Vintage
Wedding Activities
- Getting Engaged
- Rehearsals & Parties
- After Party
- Wedding
- After Party
Awards and Affiliations
Reviews
Your trust is our goal. Our community relies on honest reviews to help
you make those big decisions with ease.
5
out of 5.024 reviews
Love Studio Kibo! Jon is very professional, responsive, transparent, and overall just easy and a pleasure to work with. 5 stars right there! Where Jon stands apart from all the oth...
er wedding photographers I see are: attention to detail, and capturing imaginative snapshots.
Attention to detail: sure you can snap a thousand photos, and a handful are great, but Jon sets you up for success. He coaches you with posture, positioning, how clothes drape, your hair, how to walk towards him properly, how to hold each other, exactly which angle to look towards, stand on this exact spot, etc. He knows what will look great, and what needs to change to bring it to amazing. He's also taken enough SF photos that he knows exactly when and where to be!
Imaginative snapshots: Jon takes a lot of candid shots, as well as shots with striking lighting or unique framing or from behind a bush (!!!). We enjoyed these shots, and thought they looked fun! Definitely distinctive, and one of a kind. However, when we started putting together an album with all our photos, we realized just how meaningful these shots were. We realized these images created flow, a story, and at the same time, a break. They added the spice of life, and our album felt a lot more emotional as a result.
We hired Jon for our wedding and recently did our engagement shoot with him . From the start, Jon was very professional and responsive and listened and answered all my questions an...
d concerns. We postponed our wedding twice due to covid and he was both understanding and accommodating and did not give us a difficult time rescheduling. In fact, he was probably the nicest vendor we worked with.
Although he hasn’t done our wedding photos yet, I am absolutely in love with our engagement photos. It exceeded my expectations and I could not ask for a better photographer. My fiancé and I rarely take photos together and have no clue how to pose (I normally look awkward or have sort of a rbf face ahha), but the photos turned out great due to Jon’s directions. I also loved that Jon took candid photos as well as the typical portrait/ Instagramable photos. Our photos turned out naturally and not overly staged and the candid shots really captured my fiancé and I’s personality and the way we interact with each other. I cannot wait for him to photograph our wedding. I would recommend Jon to anyone !
11/10 would recommend – Jon was so professional, creative, measured, and obviously talented and gifted in what he does. My fiancé and I have never taken professional photos but he ...
made us feel comfortable in front of the camera with his casual conversation and funny jokes. He took his time to get to know us, and for us to get to know him and his process. He was so willing to drive to Yosemite, and trek through the snow to get the right shots!!! It was amazing, and more than I could ask for. On top of all this, his communication was always on time, and his turn around time for delivering photos was insanely quick. Thank you Jon, we will treasure these photos forever!
Highly recommended!
Jon is an incredibly talented photographer, able to tell so many stories in a single image. In addition he is a very professional event vendor, a trait just a...
s important in a wedding photographer. We did not have to even think about him, he was always in the right place at the right time, without ever intruding or manipulating the scene.
Stunning images and easy to work with...what more do you need?
I sincerely recommend Jon to anyone who is looking for an amazing photographer. Jon was professional, easy going, and a ton of fun to work with.
We had our wedding at a state par...
k, complete with tricky lighting and weird angles. Jon was super generous with his time and expertly directed us through a range of shots.
I usually look awkward in photos but with Jon's expertise, our photos turned out amazing!!! His masterful photography skills add a touch of magic to every moment. We loved seeing the world from Jon's perspective, and all the range of emotions captured on our big day.
Our wedding photos received so many compliments from our families and friends, and we'd love to work with Jon again!
Groom: Jon is an old family friend of my wife's, and we worked closely with him for our wedding photography. He was superb, and we could not have asked for a more experienced, prof...
essional, and imaginative photographer. We were impressed by the quality of his work and gallery online when we first started researching photographers. Choosing him as our photographer was one of the best wedding decisions that we made. Our wedding party, our families, and us really enjoyed working with him to establish the shots for our wedding. Photography is art, the visual documentation of a truly unique and special day. We look forward to seeing the rest of Jon's art.
Bride: When it was time to look for a photographer, my brother a retired professional wedding photographer recommended us to book Jon, a old family friend. Upon looking at his portfolio, my husband and I was impressed with his work, his style, and his creativity. It was great to work with him. Although he was located across the country, it was easy to be in touch with him and call him for shot meetings. His surveys were really helpful to focus on what we wanted. We were a bit concerned that we only hired him and not another shooter or another person to help lug his equipment around but Jon being such a wedding photography savent worked quickly to get all our shots and more! During the reception, he was always nearby to capture our group pictures. He even finished getting all our wedding day shots within 5 days. He is a quite a talent and we were so blessed to hire him for our wedding day!
Hiring Jon as our photographer is the best decision we made in planning our wedding. He didn't hesitate for a minute when we asked him to do our engagement shoot at the SF MOMA, wh...
ich even from our point of view was an incredibly challenging ask (the photos turned amazing by the way!) Jon is also not just simply a wedding photographer, if you look through his portfolio, you will notice that he has an amazing eye for capturing exactly the right moments, and the right emotions, all wrapped up in some of the most beautiful and creative light I've ever seen from any photographer. Above all of that, Jon was very responsive in our communications (kept us in the loop the whole time, timely in delivering the final photos back to us, overall just an extremely pleasant person to work with and we basically did not have to worry about Jon at all, which was huge as we had a million other things on our minds.
Long story short, 1000% recommend Jon as your wedding photographer, you will not be disappointed, and you will end up with a set of beautiful pictures that you'll cherish for life!
I can't thank Jon enough for being so professional and accommodating for our very hot (110 degrees!) wedding. He has a very calm and relaxed demeanor with a great attention to deta...
il. Our photos turned out great and he had a very transparent pricing structure. Highly recommended!
Jon is simply amazing! He takes beautiful photos and had the utmost patience when dealing with my crazy family. I highly recommend him and would use him again for any photos I want...
in the future.
I'm a photographer and I've seen many friends and colleagues and their wedding portfolios. Everyone is different but at the same time everyone is similar. Jon I felt had a differ...
ent approach.
Jon is a friend of my wife so I never met him until we sat down with him while going through different photographers. He showed us his work and explained a bit of his methodology when looking for shots. He knows how to canvas each scenario and environment and does his best to make you feel comfortable while looking for that artistic shot.
Jon was really easy to work with and managed to get amazing "in the moment" shots without anyone even noticing he was there!
Jon was our photographer for our wedding last year, and we were so thrilled with the photographs that he captured from our wedding.
We were drawn to Jon's work because we wanted s...
omeone who could uniquely capture the intimate moments from our day. My husband and I wanted something that told our story and captured the emotions in an organic way. We felt that the photos Jon presented to us in his portfolio were just what we were looking for.
Jon was fantastic to work with. He was always professional, he responded quickly when we reached out to him, and was punctual. He worked really hard the whole day to capture some amazing and precious moments for us (literally sweating from running around and also because it was so hot!). He also had an awesome second photographer who was present on our wedding day.
We were out of the country when our photos were finished, and Jon uploaded them online for us just so we did not have to wait until we returned home. They were stunning and we couldn't be happier with how they turned out, especially the photos from our ceremony and our first dance. They were especially lovely.
Jon is really talented and we're very happy and grateful to have had him photograph our wedding! We highly recommend him and his work.
We went with Jon because we love how candid and artistic his work is. Jon works his butt off and, as others have mentioned, it is almost like there are two of him!
The end product...
is amazing, people have gone out of their way to tell us how beautiful the photos are - we are so happy.
Jon meets the deadlines he sets forward and even touched up a few additional photos upon request. I would highly recommend using him!
We've only had our engagement photos done so far, but we definitely have Jon locked down for our wedding! He was amazing! He was very patient and paid great attention to the detail...
s. I wasn't feeling well and was all bloated but the pictures still turned out great! I can't wait to see what he does for our wedding pics!
**post wedding edit**
I absolutely love that we have beautifully shot pictures that aren't just the standard staged shots. John and his partner stayed out of the way - I barely noticed them - yet, somehow, they got all of the important moments. The photos were so amazing, they just emanate the love that filled that entire day. This is what you want, ladies, because the photos and videos are forever!
If you are looking for your wedding photographer you need to stop looking and book Jon today. I really wanted a very unique set of wedding photos and not the typical cookie cutter ...
ones and he exceeded all my expectations! He made my fiance and I feel very relaxed and got so many great shots. He has such a unique and artistic eye. Before the wedding he was great about communicating with us and answered all my dumb questions. Photos were quickly delivered. Well worth every penny!
Jon was fantastic to work with. It was super easy to communicate with him in the months leading up to our wedding, as he was always prompt to reply to email. Jon was extremely flex...
ible with the day's schedule as it changed, and on the day of, he was unobtrusive, photographing candid moments without drawing attention to himself. We love the pictures he's taken of our wedding!
If you’re looking for someone who has an artistic eye while capturing those candid moments, then Jon is the guy for you. My experience with Jon was not only fun and laid back, but ...
he showed up on time and remained professional throughout the entire day. I'm glad that he took tons of photos just to be sure that he got every possible shot. My pictures turned out beautiful, and he was able to send them to me in black and white and in color. The most important thing to me when I chose a photographer was figuring out if they were willing to share ownership of the photos with me. As a DIY kind of person, I wanted the chance to make my own prints, and photo books, and Jon was completely open to sharing ownership. If you prefer him to make your prints and photo albums, he’s able to offer that in his services as well. Believe me, you won’t be disappointed!
Literally the most incredible wedding photos I have ever seen! I'm not just saying that because they are mine. (Haha!) Jon did such a wonderful job of capturing each and every spe...
cial moment throughout the day. The pictures were not just photographs but works of art! He definitely has an talent for capturing light and making everything look outstanding beautiful, I'm so happy with my photos ! Would seriously SERIOUSLY recommend!!
I cannot say enough about Jon and his photography. Not only was he so wonderful to work with but his images of our wedding were incredible. He really captured the feeling of the ce...
lebration which was what we were really hoping. I'm very camera-shy and I also don't like posed photos as I feel they don't convey much feeling. So when I saw Jon's photos online and how candid and beautiful they were I knew I'd found the right person. When we sent our guests the photos, so many people wrote back saying that they were they most beautiful wedding photos they'd ever seen. He really is an artist. His photos really tell a story and they're cool enough to frame because some of them are really art pieces in themselves. And here's the perk...he took so many beautiful photos and we didn't have to leave our guests once for that to happen. Thank you again Jon! We feel so lucky to have found you.
Jon was amazing!! His calm demeanor was such a blessing as we wrangled over 20 family members together for photos. Jon captured all of the most amazing moments of our day without ...
ever over staging or forcing any moments. He let the celebration unfold naturally and captured some amazing intimate moments.
Jon did a gorgeous engagement shoot that we already cherish so much! He edited the photos within a week and sent us all the digital files, no watermarks or restrictions. He was a j...
oy to work with and incredibly talented. Outstanding value! We can't wait to work with him for our wedding!
Jon was our wedding photographer and he was absolutely fantastic! He is the best. Period.
Jon was punctual and warm --he joked with us, loosened us up, and was extremely charmi...
ng towards our families and friends. All of our guests loved his presence. We also didn't have to wait long for the results (we were so pleased with his timing) and, more importantly, we are absolutely ecstatic about the results. The pictures are gorgeous!
I trust Jon completely and would recommend him to anyone. As a matter of fact, we were so thrilled with his work that my parents hired him for a family photo shoot straight away. We have four rescued dogs, and Jon got along with all of them. One of them is especially difficult to manage, and Jon worked his magic on him beautifully. We couldn't have asked for a better photographer. Those of you incorporating dogs in your wedding, hire this man immediately!
If you want a great photographer for your special day, choose Jon. He is a true talent, indeed!
Jon worked his @$$ off ALLL wedding long. He got all the shots we wanted and MORE. He was also prompt in editing and sending the photos to us asap. We were MORE than satisfied with...
his work. He has a great eye and takes unique shots. HIRE HIM.
Jon at Kibo Studios did a great job with our smallish wedding (about 40 guests). I had checked out his website & loved his style and am so glad we went with him. This might not be ...
typical, but we received some of our edited images about 4 days after our wedding, which was a really fun surprise (he'd said it would be about 2 weeks, which is completely reasonable)! I had some specific requests in terms of what photos I was hoping to have, and he managed to get them all, like he was in two places at once. Very unobtrusive and friendly, I would 100% recommend him to a friend.
Contact
Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, Worldwide
Studio Kibo's photos