This review is long overdue. My husband and I got married last October at South Coast Botanic Garden, and John helped us take some amazing pictures of our wedding. We also had him take our engagement pictures for us. My husband and I are not particularly comfortable in front of a camera, but throughout both the engagement shoot and the wedding, John made us feel so comfortable and relaxed. Dare I say we even had fun! He was accommodating and always timely in his responses. He even got our pictures ready for us earlier than anticipated. We're very happy to have worked with John!

Make no mistake, you get what you pay for in this world and John Yao is NOT your average, budget friendly, run of the mill, volumes mentality, wedding photographer. If you allow yourself to listen to John and are flexible with the vision of how you want your photos to turn out for your special occasion, you will not disappoint. It's almost like entering a relationship in my opinion because the way John handles your needs and inquiries makes you feel like you're in really good hands and yet he does not force himself or his opinions on you. Give him a free rein and he won't let you down (like Rick Astley). This guy's THAT GOOD. And humble. And caring. He's just a superb human being with a camera that captures magical essence of anything he points. My wife and I met him on 2011 and we're happy to say not only did we find an AWESOME wedding photographer, but became really good friends after that. He also gave us a beautiful session of our 1 year old daughter and that was phenomenal. I feel like the amount he charged us wasn't enough for the sheer dedication and professionalism he brought to the table.

Working with John, from start to finish for our wedding, was a great experience. He is very easy to contact and responds very quickly! John has great passion and an amazing eye to capture the beauty of our wedding. He was so fun to have around, and really helped to make sure we got all the meaningful and fun pictures to remember our big day. John is easy to work with, very professional, super talented, and we would highly recommend him!

John from SimplyTwo Photography is ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE!!! Seriously the best photographer out there. Hiring him for your wedding is the best decision you can make. For us, getting a good photographer was the most important thing in terms of vendors, and we are SO glad we went with John. He has a natural ability to make you feel comfortable in front of the camera and is so good at directing you on how to pose. We absolutely loved our engagement shoot with him, where we were able to go to many different locations and wear multiple outfits, and really just get as many awesome photos as possible. The photos turned out amazing of course, and were just a small teaser of what was to come for the wedding. For our wedding, John far exceeded our expectations. He has an eye for knowing what type of scenery and lighting will look good in photos, and he was able to pick out the best places for us to do our first look and bridal party photos. We also did dusk and night time pictures during our wedding and they turned out so incredible. John knows all the tricks of how to make photos turn out amazing thanks to his many years of experience and hundreds and hundreds of weddings he has done. He is seriously a magician of a photographer. He was very accommodating to our schedule and requests, while at the same time giving his professional advice on what would look good in photos. Not to mention he is incredibly fun to hang out with and has a fun, witty sense of humor that we and our bridal party loved. Do yourself a favor and go with SimplyTwo Photography!!! I promise it is the best decision you can make for your wedding!!!

John is fantastic at his job and is just overall a pleasure to work with. He sets a very fun, positive vibe and just lets us be ourselves while he works his magic. Another great quality was his work ethic and efficiency. Photo sessions always went by smoothly and at a quick pace, but without feeling rushed. Communication - whether via email, text, phone call, was always responded to and usually within minutes.

This review is long overdue...but simply put, John is awesome!!! We asked John to shoot our wedding and engagement photos after seeing him in action at a friend’s wedding as well as following his blog. For our engagement shoot, John worked with us to capture the locations that were special to my husband and me. In the process, we found him to be engaging, creative, and a strong listener. He took our ideas, blended them with his artistic abilities, and created photos and memories that we’ll take with us for a lifetime. On our wedding day, John came prepared, and more importantly, he made us feel comfortable on what could possibly be the most nerve-racking day in our lives thus far. His photos were remarkable and guests later complimented us on John’s personable demeanor and engaging presence during the wedding. He was not just a vendor...he helped make the wedding come alive for us and our guests, capturing pictures and maybe more significantly, memories and emotions. Administratively, he was very responsive and prompt. In short, John is fabulous!! We highly recommend John to anyone seeking a top notch photographer who goes above and beyond to capture the experience of your very special day. Thank you so much, John!!!

John is a wonderful photographer and true professional. If we had to do it over again, my wife and I would choose John again in a heartbeat.

We initially looked into John because my wife's sister was a huge fan of John's work (via Instagram). If you haven't seen John's portfolio, take a look and you'll be blown away by the epic shots he manages to create. After video chatting with him, my wife and I both felt comfortable booking him.

Throughout the months before the wedding, John was always very flexible and responsive. It's true that he becomes a friend along the way. When we finalized our day-of schedule a few weeks before the date, we realized we would need an extra half hour from what we had booked to capture all of the getting ready shots. We offered to pay for it, but John graciously came by earlier at no charge.

On the day of the wedding, John was the ultimate professional. He stayed on schedule and was able to magically come up with great shot ideas on the fly. Our entire wedding party had a lot of fun taking photos with John, and they came out *amazing*.

Thank you for doing such a phenomenal job capturing our big day!

John was one of the very first vendors we booked (pretty much at the same time as the venue)! I've followed his work for years on his website/blog and I've always known I'd want to use John as my photographer. He is an absolute professional and captured gorgeous shots. Most importantly, he made everyone feel comfortable. My husband and I are not the camera ready type but John was able to make it work! He put everyone at ease so that the photos come out natural. John is also great with wrangling all the family members for the family shots. He speaks Chinese so that made it easier for my side of the family. My husband's family had to re-do one of the large group shots since one person had missed the first shot, and John was just super patient and accommodating. I would highly recommend him and SimplyTwo for your wedding and engagement photography!

John is an awesome photographer: he produced very high quality pictures at our wedding, made our life very easy on wedding day, and was very personable with us. From our engagement shoot to wedding day photography, he made us feel very comfortable in front of the camera. Our wedding party, family members and a number of our guests raved about him throughout the night. We feel that not only did we receive good work from John, but also made a friend in the process.

We highly recommend his photography services!

STOP LOOKING! John has the finesse, experience, and talent like no other photographer (evidence: his portfolio). I’ve been following John’s work since my undergraduate years because we happened to be from the same university. I loved his pictures even before he started his SimplyTwo business. I knew from the start that I wanted him to be my wedding photographer HANDS DOWN. So that was like…8-ish years ago?? I kept him in the back of my mind all those years and it was totally worth the wait. He was the first thing I booked in terms of wedding items (that’s right…even before I had a reception venue). And praise God that it all worked out. We had one meeting over video chat to talk about any ideas we wanted to use for our pictures and places to shoot. We were worried about the timing of getting all our ideas and when was the best time to take the pictures (e.g. time of day). With John’s experience, he was able to help us develop a timeline and it made things so easy. During our engagement shoot, John was totally down to take the photos my fiancé (now husband) planned with the props that we made. He even threw in his own ideas and they turned out awesome. Even for the pictures where we didn’t have props, John basically led us in positioning us and tell us to try out different poses. Everything went smoothly and we both felt comfortable during the entire time. He even would tell me when my bangs had an awkward part in them so I can fix it (you girls know what I mean...MAJOR POINTS FOR THIS!) The pictures for the wedding day were also just as awesome. We were tight on schedule but John made sure he had a good amount of pictures of my husband and myself. I can definitely tell that his priority was to spend as much time as possible with us so we could have a good library of pictures to look back on. I’m so glad that I was able to work with John and would 1000% recommend him.