Janae Shields Photography

We got married in October 2014 at Nestldown in Los Gatos, and Janae took wonderful pictures for us. We also did our engagement shots with Janae at Lover’s Lane in SF. Throughout the process, we were constantly impressed by Janae’s patience, attention to detail, and kindness. Like many couples, this was our first «photo shoot», and she really did a good job of making us feel comfortable and capturing some really great moments.
This review is pretty late, but I hope it helps someone find a great photographer like we had.

As a former art director, I’ve worked with at least 30 photographers and have very high standards. Janae is fabulous. Her shots are impressive technically, but also emotionally. In just an hour and a half with us (way more than our toddler son can usually take), she captured so many moments. When it comes time to do our work photos, I’m calling her again.

We hired Janae for a family photo shoot which no one was super excited about except for Mom! Well, that changed because of Janae! We ended up having a great time, feeling super comfortable and the photos are absolutely gorgeous! We love our photos, Mom is so happy, and I have Janae to thank for making what would normally be a painful, awkward couple of hours and making it fun!

Janae was an absolute pleasure to work with, professional, reliable, and creative. She is truly talented and so much fun! We couldn’t be happier with our experience working with her for both our engagement shoot and wedding. Janae even had great ideas related to color schemes that photograph well when I’d reach out to her for feedback. I highly recommend Janae Shields Photography!

Janae photographed my wedding and I could not be happier with the results. I knew I wanted to hire Janae the minute my husband and I first met with her. She was easy going, friendly, and had a beautiful portfolio. She also came across as extremely professional and had shot at both of the venues we were using.
My belief that we had made the right decision was confirmed when we did our engagement shoot. She immediately made us feel comfortable and relaxed. We knew we were in the hands of an expert as she directed us through the shots with ease. When we got the pictures back we loved every shot! We used the pictures both for our save-​the-​date card and for our guestbook.
Janae responded quickly to my e-​mails and phone calls. She also made sure that we communicated before the big day and established exactly what shots we wanted and what the timeline was. When it came to the actual wedding day Janae and her assistants were there on time and made sure that we were on schedule. She did so many beautiful and creative shots and really incorporated the surroundings to make our pictures unique. When it came to cut the cake my husband and I just stared blankly at it as we had no idea how to proceed. Janae quickly jumped in and told us exactly what to do, which we really appreciated. She helped ensure that the day went smoothly.
I was so excited to see the wedding pictures. When we received them, ahead of schedule, we were thrilled with the results. She had told our story beautifully. The only problem was narrowing the pictures down to create the custom photo album. I wanted to use all of the pictures because they were so gorgeous.
After the wedding multiple people commented on how professional Janae was, from her ability to quickly direct group shots to how extremely pleasant she was. Several of my friends who got married around the same time I did lamented the fact that they had not hired Janae for their wedding (especially after they saw the pictures).
Janae was a pleasure to work with and produced truly beautiful pictures that told the story of our day perfectly. I would recommend Janae to anyone. I will use her for any other events I want professionally photographed.

From my old Unilocal account back on 1÷9÷2008
Janae was an absolute pleasure to work with & we couldn’t be happier with our wedding photos. We get so many compliments! It was so hard to pick which photos to use in our album because they all turned out so well! People often comment our photos look like they are straight out of a wedding magazine and some even mistake the wedding photo I have on my desk as the one that came in the frame. They can’t believe it when they realize that it IS actually a photo from my wedding.
Not only is Janae a talented photographer she has a great personality and is an absolute professional. She helped us work out our wedding day timeline so that we could be sure to capture every shot we wanted. I also appreciated how smoothly and kindly she handled family members who in their eagerness to get their own photos were intruding on the photos Janae was taking.
Janae has a way of making you feel calm and comfortable, even on the day of your wedding when you are anything but calm! We definitely made the right choice with Janae.

A good friend of mine had recommended her wedding photographer, Janae Shields, to me. And I am so glad that she did!
Janae was the first photographer my fiancé and I met with, and after meeting with her, she was the last. That is typically not my style – I usually like to meet every person, weigh every option, compare every price list. But after our meeting, my fiancé and I were certain that we wanted her to shoot our wedding day.
Janae showed us samples of her work, as well as the different styles of albums that were included in the various packages. The albums were gorgeous, and very high quality. When she showed us her albums and some samples of her work, we were very impressed. What struck us most was that the photos were so beautiful and really told the story of the events of the day. It made us feel like we were there at the event watching it all unfold.
Janae has always been a pleasure to work with. She responded quickly to our emails and questions. She was extremely helpful in the early planning stages, helping me map out a timeline of requested shots. On our wedding day, she and her assistant arrived on time and did an amazing job of capturing all the photos that we had wanted, while working with a huge list of family shots!
We received the image gallery and a lovely slideshow of the day a month to the day of our wedding! I can’t wait to find some time to choose which photos we would like our custom photo album to have! There are hundreds of great shots to choose from…
Janae is a great pleasure to work with and an excellent photographer who will capture the emotion and all the events of your big day. I have gotten TONS of compliments from friends, family, and colleagues on our wedding photo gallery and the slideshow. I highly recommend her!

Photography was VERY important for me and I knew I would be very picky about choosing a wedding photographer. I looked through hundreds of wedding photographer’s websites and blogs, and narrowed down to a handful and started meeting up with the potential photographers for our wedding. I liked Janae’s soft/​romantic style, and that her pictures did not look too posed but very candid/​natural. We setup a meeting to meet with Janae at her home office and felt really drawn to her personality, energy, and positiveness. We booked her soon thereafter.
Janae was so great in her communication! She always responded very timely and responsive, which was great, and I loved how professional she was. I could always count on her replying to my email the very next day. We booked her about 1 year before our wedding, and all throughout our engagement we kept in touch. Our engagement session was great and we were very pleased with how the pictures turned out. She gave great, clear directions and made the session very easy and fun! She also sent me a questionnaire before the wedding where we outline the timeline, orders of pictures, etc. It was so cool that during the day she had familiarized herself with the name of our family members so the formal portraits went very smoothly. Again, taking pictures with her was just so easy and it really made for great, natural pictures.
She delivered the pictures earlier than expected, and we were SO happy with how they turned out! We immediately got working on the album and again, she delivered it timely and we love our wedding album. Overall, my husband and I were absolutely pleased with Janae and would definitely recommend her.

AMAZING! That word may be over-​used, but when it comes to Janae Shield’s Photography it is so true. We chose Janae to be our wedding photographer after a blind test from our families and wedding party. We sent them samples of 3 photographers without any price or contact information and asked them to pick their favorite. Out of 12 picks, Janae was #1 for 11! After meeting with Janae, it was the easiest choice we would make. Her professionalism, responsiveness, and flexibility were second to none. One of my favorite parts of planning with Janae were her ideas! She has so much experience to draw these creative and unique ideas. She really took the time to get to know me and Matt to make sure she captured the day as we wanted.
The day of the wedding was great. Her and her assistant were great to work with and half of the time I didn’t even notice they were there. She was great with the family pictures (which is never easy with 2 large families). We did a photo-​shoot on 17 mile drive after the wedding and it was exactly what I wanted.
When we got the pictures back, we were in awe! They completely captured the feeling of the day. They were more than photographs, they really told the story of the day. When I showed people from home who were not able to travel to California for the wedding, they said they felt like they were there. We love them!
The only slight (and very slight) negative is that the wedding album prices are out of our budget, so we are waiting to see if we can save and order one at a later date. We do have all of the negatives and are able to print them and do what we want, but the cost of the albums is high for us at this time.
However, if I had to do it all over again, I would pick Janae every time! If you decide to go with her, you will not be disappointed.

I was fortunate enough to inherit Janae from a friend who got married earlier this year. After seeing my friend’s pictures, I didn’t even interview anyone else.
Janae is awesome. She does a great mix of all the shots you are «supposed» to have along with fantastic candid shots. And those are the best at capturing the moment. As everyone else has commented, Janae’s laid-​back personality was such a pleasure all along the process but especially the day of the wedding. She handled awkward divorced-​family moments with ease, didn’t bat an eyelash when our schedule ran a little behind and relaxed both me and my husband all day.
If you need proof, check out Janae’s blog. She posts photos from nearly every shoot she does.
Highly recommended!

Janae did the photography for our wedding. The package that we chose included an engagement session and release of all photos after 6 months. Janae did an amazing job with the engagement session and on the day of the wedding. She was a pleasure to work with throughout the wedding prep, during the wedding, and afterward as we worked through prints and albums. It’s apparent that Janae loves her job and is very talented. I doubt that you will find a better photographer in San Francisco.

Janae was the photographer for our ⁷⁄₁₁ wedding. Everything about our experience with her was perfect. First and foremost, Janae takes amazing pictures! She has such a creative eye and she made us look so natural in all of our pics. Her style is photo journalistic so the photos tell a story. We loved all of our engagement photos and our wedding day photos. And she works with a Japanese company called La Vie that makes the BEST wedding albums ever. Not only is Janae a master of her craft, she is also so easy to get along with. She makes you feel very comfortable in front of the camera. All of our friends and family loved Janae as well… she interacted with our guests without being intrusive or overbearing. If you’re looking for a talented photographer who will make you feel like you’ve known her for years, go with Janae. We love you, Janae!

OOOOOMMMMMGGGG!!!
JANAE SHIELDS ROCKS!
D-​Day was Oct. 18^th and Janae and her assistant captured all the important moments– expressions on our parents faces, the kids throwing petals in the air, our officiant cracking a joke that got our guests laughing, I could go on & on.
If you’re looking for a professional photographer who has real passion for her work and takes a genuine interest in you she’s the one. Her customer service is amazing (I swear I have no idea how she’s able to follow up on my questions– which were many! — so quickly, especially because I knew she was booked for several weekends one after the other. She is open to hearing your vision and gives you feedback if you ask. And her enthusiastic/​engaging personality helps her get along with just about any personality among vendors and guests (trust me, this is huge). Finally, she put together an amazing slide show (with music!) for us that we forwarded out to friends who all loved it… we felt like celebrities.
If you’re on the fence between Janae and another photographer I wholeheartedly recommend Janae, I can’t say enough about her and would give 10 stars if I could.

Janae shot our wedding and our entire experience (from meetings, to the wedding day, to the photographs) was excellent. We contacted several photographers and met with a few, but Janae was the most personable and professional. I got a warm fuzzy feeling from her the day we met her for our first meeting and I knew I’d feel comfortable having her photograph such a huge day. It was important for me to have someone that I connected with given that I thought the day would be so emotional that I’d need a calming person photographing me.
She was extremely professional throughout, flexible and easy to work with on our wedding day. The whole bridal party was impressed after I had us go to Nob Hill for some pics and Janae was super coordinated in getting all of the shots we wanted in the neighborhood.
Janae sent us the link to our pics and a slideshow less than a month after our wedding date. Everyone has been impressed with our pictures and we are very satisfied with the results. She is very talented and I am so happy she worked with us.

Janae is AWESOME. We love her and couldn’t be happier with our choice to use her for our wedding day.
I interviewed a lot of photographers. It was a choice between Janae and Michelle Walker, who also seemed excellent. Michelle was $ 4000 more expensive but she does have more experience and did a great slideshow. Janae offered amazing photo albums that most others did not, she was cheaper, but she also agreed to do the slideshow for us. With that promised to us, we decided to go with Janae.
Janae has been so sweet, warm, organized and super professional throughout the engagement session, the wedding, and after. I love working with her — she’s always very responsive and easy to reach. The photos were online in just a couple of weeks, the slideshow was done too, and we were able to enjoy our photos right away. Our album is gorgeous too! She took so many photos so we had enough photos of everything we wanted. She was excellent in directing all of us in the photos. Most impressive was how she managed/​directed the entire family portrait shoot — not an easy feat by any means. She was so patient and made sure everyone was looking at the camera and posed correctly. All of our other vendors and guests commented on how great she was too.
I can’t wait to have her take more photos of our growing family. You will not go wrong if you choose Janae!

We hired Janae and it was undoubtedly the best decision we’ve made so far for our wedding. Our engagement session photos are gorgeous and we can’t wait for her to capture our big day!
Aside from her talent as a photographer, she’s just a COOL person. She makes you feel completely comfortable and lets you have fun. She is totally prepared and plans ahead for things you don’t even think of. A true professional and one with exceeding talent.
A special thanks to all the Unilocalers out there — it’s how we found her in the first place.

I totally agree with Kim S. Janae is the best photographer out there! I found her from Cinnibar Hills stacks of wedding photo albums. Janae’s stands out. I couldn’t find anyone else’s that look any better. I really like her journalistic style. As it turns out, she totally exceeded my expectation. She posted the pictures during our honeymoon. I showed the slideshow to one of our tour group members and she later commented on how amazing my photographer was. And that was just the beginning. After I sent out her links, I got tons of feedback and 9 out of 10 specifically complimented my photograher. They told me that Janae totally captured my wedding day. She got the spirit and the moments of our August wedding. She got that day down like no others.
She is also very easy to work with. She guided us with good examples of schedules, with helpful questions. She was calm and in control. She was also very nice and patient with my guests while asking them to get in position. One guest also told me how she liked my photographer because someone else had a very demanding and rude photographer.
all and all, Janae is great. I highly recommend her!

Janae is a photography goddess! My husband and I had the good fortune of finding Janae (hidden beneath a mountain of mediocre, cranky SF wedding photographers) and she is truly a stand-​out in the often over-​rated wedding industry. Janae did a fantastic job of capturing every moment of our July wedding, and blending in seamlessly to our day. It was like having your best girlfriend from college there with you… she was patient, calm, organized, confident, and helped out with whatever we needed. There are very few women that I would want around when I was getting primped and stuffed into my wedding dress, and Janae took pictures of the entire thing with grace and respect. Getting married means having a crew of «helpers» with you for 12 hours straight, and Janae and her assistant were such a calming presence. They arrived early, kindly let us know when it was time to catch some great sunset or moonlight pictures, and took advantage of all of the amazing scenery. Janae’s creativity led to some great FUN shots that are so classic and timeless looking. They gently guided us through the shots they needed to take, and then quietly stood back and got the candid shots that told the most poignant behind-​the-​scenes story of our day. Janae’s skill in capturing the perfect shots made us all look like glowing, sexy, wedding models.
I was amazed when we got home from our honeymoon and Janae had already posted all of our wedding pictures to her website. As an added bonus, she had put a «best of» slideshow together with the amazing pictures from that day, and had read my mind by setting the slideshow to my favorite song. Janae’s pictures are stunning… beautiful lighting techniques, dramatic (yet tactful) poses, and tearfully sweet candid moments that truly capture the magic of our big day. I’m embarassed to admit that I have watched our slideshow 20+ times, and I still get chills when I see the gorgeous, romantic shots that Janae has crafted. She documented EVERYTHING, from my lost-​in-​thought getting ready face, to my open-​mouthed screams of joy after being pronounced husband and wife. Little kids peeking out from doorways, the look on my mom’s face when she walked me down the aisle… Janae made sure to capture every second. After all of the horror stories you hear about wedding photos, Janae was the 3 carat diamond in a sea of cubic zirconia wedding photographers. My new hubby and I feel so lucky to have found her!

If you’re looking for a wedding photographer, I would highly suggest Janae Shields. She’s really cool and easy to work with, and is an amazing photographer. I am in LOVE with my wedding photos, and, compared to most of the wedding photographers in the city, is pretty reasonably priced.