YJM Photography

First off, I would like to say that Yves is not only one of the best photographers in the bay area, but his expertise and skill is only matched by his personality and professionalism. We hired Yves to be our photographer for our wedding. He was simply a pleasure to work with and he made our marriage process extremely smooth and easy.
We knew that Yves was amazing when the vendors and venue that have worked with him in the past had nothing but great things to say about him and his work.
It was very easy to schedule a time to meet with him. He was accommodating to our busy schedules and he guided us through the entire process, giving us great suggestions on how we could make our special day even more special. He did it all with a personable smile on his face, which made us look forward to meeting with him. And on top of it all, his pricing is competitively priced while receiving a luxury experience.
His work is impeccable, and he is a pleasure to work with: a great combination. We love our pictures and would hire Yves again for our other events.

My husband and I really enjoyed working with Yves on our wedding day. He was able to capture all of the shots that I had hoped for. The final pictures were absolutely fantastic. I would highly recommend YJM photography to anyone

Most people need to select a photographer for joyous celebrations like a wedding but I was in need of a photographer a very different reason. We had never splurged on a professional family portrait, but my husband was diagnosed with cancer in March of 2012. It was late stage with no treatment so the first thing I wanted to do was capture the memory of our family before his health declined. I found Yves, and although his schedule was full when I explained my unusual situation he showed so much care and compassion immediately fitting us in.
I knew my husband was writing a memoir to leave our friend and family, but not until he passed did I read it and find what he wrote about Yves and our photo session. Here is an excerpt from my husband’s writing:
It was immediately apparent that we picked
the right photographer. He put us in a spot he
selected, and then contemplated the composition
with arms crossed. With head tilted, and his index
finger firmly planted on his chin, he would
concentrate with a raised eyebrow. Then he would
fine-​tune the composition. «Alice, lean to the left.»
«Riley, turn your shoulder this way, and Adelle,
move your left foot forward.» «Conrad let’s try
putting your hands on your knee … Good!»
As we posed for that perfect picture, I saw an
artist at work. Yves’ nudging completed the
composition that made the difference between an
ordinary snap shot of people and a portrait that
captures the essence of a family
You can read his full story from this link (page 51 for Yves)
My husband passed away three months after the photo were taken, and Yves work has brought our family great joy.

YJM Photography is awesome! I absolutely love Yves, he is very welcoming and is very professional. When I first met Yves I was very impressed by his appearance and his professional manner. His photo albums are to die for! He really takes pride in what he does and that’s why we decided to go with YJM Photography. He is always on time and makes sure he knows the venue before you get there. What I also loved about him was that he was able to get everyone together to take pictures… if the groomsmen weren’t paying attention he always had a solution to get everyone together as he was determined to get me the best shots and I am so appreciative for that!
He is fun, professional, easy to work, and he truly loves what he does. If I could do it all over again, I would pick absolutely pick Yves & YJM Photography!

I highly disagree with the 1 star review below. Yves was great to work with! He was very responsive and gave great suggestions for different places to have our wedding pictures taken to ensure that we would have a lot of variety. I had a lot of family in from France and he even was able to speak to them a little in French! We spoke over the phone and via email several times before the wedding to ensure that we had the timeline down and to organize everything. After the wedding he even rushed to get us a few photos since of course we were anxious to see some shots. They turned out great! He always sticks to the time frames he provides which helps set expectations so you’re not just waiting around wondering when your photos will be ready. I would definitely recommend YJM Photography to any future brides and grooms.

Yves did photographs in connection with my son’s bar mitzvah, and I have to say the photos were wonderful. He was easy to work with, accomodating, just really awesome — and we had some limitations, last minute issues, etc. He was really great with everything — and even got my daughter (who doesn’t like being photographed) to smile a little. Given that skill, I’m hoping that he’ll be able to do my daughter’s bat mitzvah in a couple of years!

Yves was an amazing photographer to work with. Upon our first meeting he was able to show us a wealth of sample photographs to get a real idea of the kind of work he does, all of which are wonderful. Yves was also great about staying in contact and making sure he had all the specific details of the wedding to make sure no important shots were left out and that he had the names of everyone that needed to be in the photos. His demeanor was nothing but professional, and he was an absolutely pleasure to work with. We felt comfortable posing for him and he did a great job of letting us have our space and still getting the shots he needed. He was very prompt and arrived at the venue hours beforehand and stayed until the music stopped to ensure every moment was documented.
His pricing was very reasonable as well. Compared to most other photographers we looked in to, he was the most experienced and the most competitively priced.
Overall, I would highly recommend Yves to anyone looking for a great photographer for their wedding or event. He was amazing to work with.

We hired Yves to photograph our wedding in October, 2010. He was fantastic. We met with him at his studio before we signed the contract and it was so clear that he is a truly dedicated professional and an outstanding photographer. Throughout the next few months leading up to the wedding, he worked with us to understand what we wanted, let us know what he needed to be prepared, and exceeded all our expectations.
He arrived early on the big day and stayed late to capture every important shot. The style of his shots are often spontaneous, dramatic, and intimate; however, many of the formals are also the some of the best portraits I have seen. Our photos are beautiful and priceless (I see a few of them featured on his website) and I’m running out of superlatives to describe the album.
This is Unilocal so I’d be remiss not to point out some practical things we learned from the experience. Make sure to discuss with Yves his physical positioning in the actual ceremony, especially if you’re going to videotape the proceedings — in his pursuit of dramatic shots we found him popping up in odd places on occasion when we looked back at the film (though we didn’t notice him once at the time!) Also, as any wedding guide will tell you, set firm parameters on the post-​ceremony formals and work with Yves ahead of time to make a plan and then communicate it with those that will be involved in the portraits.
I would recommend YJM photography and Yves’ work to anyone.

We found Yves through a bridal magazine and we suggested to give him a try. I myself is an amateur photographer on the side. When he showed me his portfolio, i was so amazed and glad we found him. He is so fun and easy to work with. His shots are very dramatic and were taken at perfect angles. I highly recommend Yves as a party, family and of course wedding photographer.

We hired Yves for our wedding at Wente last year. He was great to work with, and the pictures turned out perfect. He’s great at making suggestions and getting the pictures that truly look good. I recommend Yves to anyone looking for a great photographer.

We hired Yves last year for our wedding, and he was great. He was very easy to work with and had an eye on how to get the good shots in a very artistic way. The wedding and engagement photos were beautiful. When I got my photo album, I was speechless. It was like a work of art.
While working with him, he paid attention to every detail — from poses, to makeup, to surroundings, to when the sun was in the sky, etc. He got all our family shots, all the wedding party photos, all the bride/​groom photos, and captured our precious moments on our wedding day. You could tell he loved his job.
We found him while looking for places to get married at in the Livermore, California area. The locations had many photo albums of couples who also got married at the locations in the past. We realized we wanted to hire Yves when we kept seeing that his photos were the best.

Simply wonderful! We hired Yves for our wedding in Sonoma County a few months ago, and we LOVED him! He was so easy to work with and professional, and his images were amazing. He had my bridesmaids and I laughing the entire time, and he made everyone feel comfortable, which really showed through in the photos! Our venue loved his photos so much they wanted to use them for their website, and they are something that we will always cherish.
Hands down, Yves is the best in the bay!

Yves was such a pleasure to work with! His photos are absolutely amazing and looking back through our album completely captures the day. He had so many unique ways to shoot and great angles that really shows his artistic ability. He was friendly and funny and really got us to loosen up. He wasn’t afraid to shoot the same pose or area several times to ensure that he got the perfect shot. He even stayed later for us so we could get shots as the sun set in the vineyards. I would recommend Yves to anyone and he was very timely as well. Our album is one of a kind and we have never received so many compliments!

Yves is an artist!
I’ve seen the cheesy photo albums that some people have made and that’s not what I wanted. I wanted something classy, timeless, and artistic, and that’s just what I got. He is a professional who knows what he’s doing and he was very open to my opinion on how I wanted my album laid out.
I would definitely recommend Yves if you want extremely professional done right.

When people tell you, you get what you pay for, it really is true. When I was in search for our photographer, I met Yves at a Bridal Fair and kept seeing his advertisements in many of my bridal magazines. I looked at his photos online and decided to make an appointment. He was the first photographer that we decided to meet with and were SO impressed with his work and artwork in his albums. We wanted to hire him right away, the only thing that concerned us was his pricing since we were on a tight budget for our wedding. We decided to do some more research, and meet with more photographers (and he also recommended we do this as well). I ended up meeting with four more photographers and found that although the pictures can be nice, the artwork in the final albums were not and vice versa. And the cheaper the price, the lower the quality of the photos and I could have gotten more out of the packages (more albums, etc), but if the pictures were ordinary (like my dad could take better photos), then it would defeat the purpose of hiring someone to professionally do it. Having a photographer with a great eye, and artistic and journalistic style was very important to us and in the end we both decided that no one that we met with was better than Yves at YJM Photograpy and he had everything that we were looking for. We decided that our wedding photos were important and wasn’t something that we wanted to compromise on so we made it work within our budget. When I was doing research on photographers, I found that his pricing was in fact fair for the quality of his work. He is not as expensive as the photographers in San Francisco, but his work is definitely comparable if not better than some photographers in the city. He also made us feel comfortable and took the time to get to know us (afterall he was going to be with us the whole day). He didn’t treat us like just some «clients», he made it personal, which we really appreciated and it made us enjoy having him with us for our wedding as well. The day of the wedding he showed up early and was very professional and fun to work with. He was not intrusive and everyone could tell right off the bat that he knew what he was doing and along the way he would let me see some of the shots on his camera and they were beautiful. He came very prepared with multiple cameras and all the equipment he needed for the various lighting. We are waiting to see our proofs still, so I will update my review once I see them, but I already know that I am going to LOVE our photos. I know that we made the right decision in hiring YJM Photography. :)

We used YJM Photography for our wedding thie past February. We found Yves off a recommended list from our wedding site and no wonder he was on their list. Yves is simply awesome! His personality along with professional experience is truely unbelievable. He captured every moment we could expect and more. We received our wedding proofs back and they were amazing. Yves always makes time to meet with us to discuss our options and always makes us feel comfortable. His work really shows why he was voted best by the KNOT!!! Highly recommend using Yves and we will definitely be using him in the future.

Voted the best by THE KNOT, and I know why! Yves is an amazing photographer. He is professional, kind, fair priced and an absolute pleasure to work with. He photographed my engagement session last Spring and the wedding last November. I still get complements on his work, how thorough he is and his creative style. I have recommended to numerous people and you would be a fool to not at least sit with him…

Yves is FANTASTIC! We met him at a wedding faire at our venue (Elliston Vineyards) last July, enjoyed talking to him, and immediately scheduled an appointment to meet him at his office. He was very thorough in showing albums of his work, on his computer, giving us different ideas for thinking of what we want. We were very impressed with his work, really liked his sense of humor and how down to earth he is. and booked him right then & there! Yves does amazing work– he was with us the entire day, but it never felt intrusive. He is extremely personable and family and friends enjoyed working with him. I highly recommend Yves… and would love an occasion to work with him again. If you want the best in the Bay Area, you’ve found it with YJM Photography.