Q&A
The Basics
We are brothers, raised by a father who was a photojournalist and war photographer in South Korea. Photography has always surrounded us but became our passion entering college. After our first wedding photography experience, we fell in love with the craft and never looked back since.
Our journey has given us the great privilege of working with some of the best clients and event planners in the world; for that, we are incredibly grateful.
20 years. We began in Seattle where the overcast rainy climate trained us well in handling a range of environments. The growth of our clientele led us to shoot frequently in California where the sun shined as bright as our clients. Over time, we made the move to Los Angeles to expand our pursuit of photographic work.
We are honored to have Harper’s Bazaar name us one of the top photographers in the world, made possible by working with the world’s best wedding planners and discerning clients. Our wedding and private event clientele include:
- Sarah Hyland & Wells Adams
- Chris Pratt & Katherine Schwarzenegger
- Jennifer Lawrence
- Patrick Mahomes and Brittany Matthews (NFL)
- Kardashian-Jenner Family
- Justin and Hailey Bieber
- Jesse McCartney and Katie Peterson
- Jon Rahm & Kelley Cahill (PGA)
- Anthony Davis and Marlen Polanco (NBA)
- Russell Westbrook & Nina Westbrook (NBA)
- Seth Curry & Callie Rivers (NBA)
- Domantas Sabonis & Shashana Rosen (NBA)
- Hunter Mar and Zach LaVine (NBA)
- Tracee Ellis Ross and Diana Ross
- Christine Quinn & Christian Dumontet (Selling Sunset/Netflix)
- Sean Lowe & Catherine Giudici (The Bachelor/ABC)
- Jade Roper & Tanner Tolbert (Bachelor in Paradise/ABC)
- Selena Gomez
- Jessica Alba
- Leah Remini
- Lydia Hearst and Chris Hardwick
- Dr. Dre
- Michael Bay
- Ashley Benson
- Moby
- Fergie
- Jon Cryer & Lisa Joyner
- Jerrod Blandino and Jeremy Johnson (Too Faced Cosmetics)
- Isaac Slade & Anna Chiarelli (The Fray)
- Quentin Richardson & Miya Manuel (NBA)
- Nikky Whelan and Kerry Rhodes (Actress/NBA)
- Tara Lipinski & Todd Kapostasy (Olympian)
- Doug Christie & Jackie Christie (NBA)
- David Bakhtiari & Frankie Shebby (NFL)
- DeMarcus Cousins (NBA)
- Chris Webber (NBA)
We are accepting bookings as far out as one year before your wedding date. Certain Saturdays, only 9 months in advance. We will accept bookings further out if you are working with an event planner we enjoy working with.
Photography Style
Our work has a distinct editorial edge, characterized by cinematic elegance.
Our background in photojournalism and editorial fashion has shaped our ability to be un-obtrusive in the intimate and real moments, yet present in our guidance to create timeless portraits. It’s also important to us to honor the couple by being intentional with the details and provide a curated experience.
Because of our luxury clientele and as a general respect to our client and their families, we do not show full galleries of weddings.
We showcase thousands of images on our website. If you ever need to see a specific image, we can pull individual examples for you.
Thousands of images from recent weddings:
https://clients.johnandjoseph.com
Short answer – yes.
For family and group photos, please provide us a list so that we can assemble and plan ahead.
Pinterest or Inspo shots – Yes please. We’d love to take a look at what inspires you and talk about some creative moments we can capture for your wedding. It’s exciting for us to collaborate with our clients to create something unique and special.
A photo list that includes items such as “bride walking down the aisle, the first kiss, guests dancing, cake” are not necessary as we’ll capture them naturally.
Yes, we love to provide drone photos whenever possible and as venues allow for it. There is no charge for this as we believe it is an extension of a modern photographer’s toolkit. Some photo samples and our thoughts here.
We highly encourage all of our clients to do an engagement session. This is a casual or a formal photoshoot with your fiance/fiancee scheduled before the wedding at a location of your choice.
This allows you to get in front of our camera to become familiar with various poses and our direction prior to the wedding day, while getting some great photos to add to the lifetime of memories. Here’s more info on our sessions. Here’s more info on our sessions.
Logistics
We are committed to training our team ground up with our expertise and experience. Our team consists of photographers who specialize in portraiture, decor and design details, low-light, strobe, and are positioned appropriately for the type of event.
We love cameras, naturally, and use some of the best professional equipment available. We always ensure plenty of backups, and backup of the backups at every event. Specifically, we use Sony A1 series as our primary cameras – these cameras also allow for immediate duplication of files, which you can read more about in our geeked-out blog article here.
Our dress code is all black professional attire. If you have a specific theme (ie. all-white party), let us know and we can dress appropriately. (Check out our instagram for a behind-the-scenes view.)
Yes. Our shot will be the best one, so kindly let them know it’s useless for sake of shooting something.
On that note, we LOVE “unplugged weddings“.
If we have not been to your venue, then we arrive earlier to scout the location on the wedding day. New locations excite us and some of our best work have come out of venues that we have never worked before because of the fresh perspective we get to take with the lighting, architecture, surrounding views and even sunsets. A photographer’s style and work you admire will level up any amount of familiarity or lack thereof with the venue.
You can be assured that we never leave an event without checking in with your planner (or you if you don’t have a planner) to make sure that all is covered.
Yes, our business liability insurance covers $4M and we can provide insurance certificates to any vendor that requests it.
We’ll be in touch with your wedding planner for the final timeline, shot lists, and all other logistics to make sure everything runs smoothly.
We love being a part of a multi-day events for our clients. Just let us know what your wedding week looks like and we can customize a package to document everything for you.
Pricing + Packages
Our retainer is 40%. The remaining balance is due one month before the wedding.
Rescheduling: If clients need to postpone their wedding for any reason, just let us know which new dates you are considering. If we are available, we’ll transfer full retainer and same contract to any new wedding date. Rescheduling a wedding can be a big headache, so we’ll keep it as easy as possible.
Cancellation: No refund on cancellation for any reason.
Los Angeles & Orange County: No travel charge.
Other Southern California Counties: Reimbursement for basic lodging for our team may apply, please inquire.
Destination Weddings: We travel far and wide for our couples, and experience has taught us that each location and seasons can vary greatly. We will discuss all the details of your destination wedding and then customize a quote based on the location and the number of days we will be there to capture it. We will handle all of our own arrangements. Our clients will never receive a surprising travel bill. We keep it basic and simple for our team. We typically arrive 1-2 days before the first wedding event to properly scout and begin to take environment shots to set the scene of your story.
Yes. Customization is common, especially for our destination clients to change items such as an Engagement Session into additional coverage time on the wedding day. Let us know what your wedding day looks like and we can adjust a package for you.
Yes, here are some examples of our retouching work.
Weddings: Preview (link) within one week. Full gallery in 90 days.
Weddings – usually 2000-4000 edited images. The number generally depends on the length of the coverage, guest count, and decor.
Once the wedding proofs are released, these are the following steps:
- Digital downloads – Immediately available to anyone with the link.
- Purchased photo prints – Usually 3-7 days. Sooner upon request.
- Album – Once you have selected your favorite photos for the album, we design and produce the album layout for review. This process usually takes 3-8 weeks. Sooner upon request. Video and photos of our albums are here.
Yes, all of our photo galleries allow unlimited and free high-resolution downloads. All photos are clean without any watermark/branding allowing you to print on your own.
Let us know you’d like to move forward and we’ll send you our contract. Once we receive the contract and retainer fee, we’ll confirm the complete booking.
Other things
Yes, we have our own sister team – Cinesugi. We also love working with other professionals. (Aaron, Ari, Steve, Shannon)
When the video crew is professional and experienced, we can produce great work together as a team. If you have any questions about any potential videographers, shoot us an email with their work and we can dialogue about how their style will complement the way we work.
Our sister company Halogen Pictures provides a high-end studio portraiture experience. For all other types of photobooth experiences, we love our friends at Hashtag Photobooth.
Yes! We have 3 full time editors and 4 additional editors when the season kicks into high-gear. John and Joseph oversee all edits to ensure consistency and quality.
We place high importance on creating and handling all photographs, retouching, and design work in-house. The only third-party source we use are album crafters and professional photo-labs that specialize in printing and making books for our clients. All of our photographs will be exactly as we intend them to be.
