A. O'Brien Photography

Austin and his wife are extremely kind, funny and great to be around. However, we used Austin for two engagement sessions and we were a little underwhelmed. He did take a lot of photos during both sessions, but quantity doesn't always equal quality. We did get a few photos out of the sessions, but we could tell that there were some lack of editing and post-production skills when we received our final product.

I don't want to discourage people from using his services, because for the price, it's wonderful for any bride on a strict budget. The review below for manologirl sounds true to the Austin we worked with, however, I did help her with editing her final photos, as they were extremely overexposed and required further enhancement.

Austin is extremely professional and courteous and I think he's a pleasure to work with. I hope that his skills will improve over time. :)

We booked Austin as our wedding photographer and we could have not been any happier with our decision! We got two photographers for our engagement session and wedding day. Austin grew up in front of the camera playing opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in "The Last Action Hero"; "Babysitters' Club" and "My Girl 2" his passion for film shows through his photography.

Although he doesn't have a "store-front" office not once did I have problem contacting him. Whether it would be via email, phone, or a meeting in person he was always prompt to reply and never tardy.

He has gone above and beyond to make our wedding run as smoothly as possible. When our engagement enlargements got lost in the mail. He personally hand delivered me new copies 2 days before the wedding. The day before the wedding I decided I need him half an hour earlier, he had no problems showing up to the hotel. He also stayed another half hour after we left the reception to get shots of our guests leaving. All without charge! He's also going to add a couple more shots of our wedding invitations as I forgot to bring them the day of the wedding.

We hired A. O'Brien Photography for an engagement session. I absolutely LOVE all of the photos from that session. He was very patient and willing to work with our ideas, and also suggested other fun and creative options that we had not thought about that just turned out great. In addition to all of this, he had the (un-retouched) photos up on a website for us to review within only a few days so we could pick which ones we wanted to order or have retouched. Also, We weren't really familiar with the area so we had him select a location for us within set parameters. The location he chose was PERFECT! I have NO complaints, in fact, we have requested that we schedule another session before our wedding to get another location with a different look. I would absolutely recommend him!!!

A. O'brien photography was fantastic! He and his wife work as a team, with her doing a lot of the directing, where he focuses on the photo taking. THey are both very friendly and professional, and work very hard to give you exactly what you want. Our pictures turned out great! You can tell he took a lot of time editing and enhancing all of the photos, and gave us a wide selection of poses and styles to choose from.
I'm surprised to see that another reviewer thought he was inexperienced: our wedding was nearly a year ago and Austin was experienced and great with post-production. He gives you a wide selection of styles but doesn't boss you around or get in the way of the ceremony or reception like many photographers do.
I couldn't have been happier with his performance during the wedding and with the pictures we got!

My future son-in-law decided to hire A. O'Brien Photography to capture their engagement and celebration. I am thrilled with the quality of the pictures, the creativity of the photographer, and the story his pictures told of that evening. The photos will help us always remember this special event.

Austin is one amazing wedding photographer! Planning a wedding while being in grad school was so fun but at times extremely stress-provoking - working with Austin was definitely part of the fun! I was really, really nitpicky when it came down to finding someone to take my wedding photos. I searched for a long time and interviewed multiple photographers before finding and choosing Austin.

He was an absolute pleasure to work with from the start and I am definitely looking forward to using his services again for other photo projects. He is really great in making me feel like my wedding was just as important to him as it was to me and always goes the extra mile to provide that personal attention. For example, he not only helped me to research locations for my preceremony photos, but also took the time to travel and check out some spots with me. He even made the necessary phone calls to arrange for permits and such. Austin was always really patient with any questions and concerns I had. The day of the wedding, he was so great with me, my husband, and our wedding party. We had a complete blast doing our own photo shoot before the ceremony. He also worked really well with my videographer.

After the wedding, Austin kept constant contact with me to keep me posted on the progress of the photos in terms of the editing, online proofs, and delivery of my negatives. He gave us a "teaser" view of our photos on his blog as he was working on them and I was in literal tears when I finally saw how wonderful they were. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my photos!! I wanted a candid, photojournalistic feel to my pictures but also needed some more traditional shots with family and such. Austin was very cool with understanding and being accommodating to those needs. He has a super fun, engaging yet professional personality that makes you so excited about the whole process. It was so nice to get off the phone with him and always have a smile on my face knowing that I could trust such an important part of the biggest day of our lives in his capable hands. Thanks so much, Austin!

Austin is awesome to work with. He is so easy going and easy to talk to, it's all about you and what you want. He does great portraits but I love his photojournalistic sytle and candid shots. You don't even know he is there just snapping away great photos. I used him for my engagment session as well as on my wedding day. We had to reschedule multiple times due to weather our engagment session and he worked around our shedule great. I was very please with our photos...close to 1500 of them.

Excellent, excellent, excellent. Austin recently shot my engagement photos and let me tell you, he's awesome. He made my fiance and I feel very comfortable despite the fact that he was following us around like a paparazzo. He's super easy going and fun to be around, which is important when you are spending hours with someone who you are entrusting your memories to. We shot them at the San Juan Capistrano Mission and even with all the beautiful spots already available, Austin made use of things we never would have thought to photograph. He has a great eye for colors and interesting shots.

In summation, here are the best things about this guy:
1. He shoots all his jobs personally. You get the name you are paying for. Unlike some big-name photography places where you pay the big bucks for some intern or newbie to show up.
2. He spends the time it takes making you feel comfortable and getting shots he really loves.
3. He follows up on everything. We had our engagement shots back in less than a week. No waiting around, hoping your photographer will get back to you. He's wonderful about answering questions, too.

“I was in awe of the beautiful work that you did. I really got lucky when I got you! The lighting, the composition of each shot…were all so beautiful.”

“EVERYTHING looks fantastic….you have managed to really “get” the emotion of the day!”