ABOUT ME
MY WHY
Hi! My name's Shayna. I'm an Oakland based wedding & elopement photographer. If you're here and you're taking the time to get to know me a little- then I can already tell that you care about the connection that you want to have with your photographer. Just that alone means we're off to a good start
My purpose- my overall love for this job, stems from the relationship I build with each and every client. It's what makes you feel like you're just goofing around with a friend who happens to be good with a camera. It's what washes away the stress and anxiety of thinking you don't know what to do in front of a camera because I'll be hyping you up and directing you every step of the way.
I've been at this for 6 years now full time and I can tell you that I love what I do more and more with each passing year.
MY HOBBIES
Aside from eat-sleep-breathing weddings and elopements, my free time is spent getting out in the sun, roadtripping as much as possible, hiking (never without a film camera in hand), developing film at home, playing guitar and piano, lots of yoga and pilates, and my absolute favorite, cooking. My friends would probably describe me as someone who has a new hobby with each time we talk. I love learning new things, listening to new music, getting to know people, learn new recipes, etc. The world fulfills me the most when I'm tinkering with something I haven't picked up before.
Above everything I love spending time with my little bear, Mazzy. I love getting to show her the world through my eyes. We spend most of our time going on little adventures, taking photos, swimming, baking together, or watching an unhealthy amount of Bluey.
MY HOME
I've moved around my entire life. I was raised in a small town in upstate New York until I was 6, when my family relocated to the Gulf coast of Florida. I'd spend the rest of my adolescent life exploring the Sunshine State.
I finished high school in Cambridge, MA and decided shortly after that I no longer wanted to be on the East Coast.
A week before my 18th birthday, I up and moved to San Francisco on a whim. No friends or family out here to speak of. Legitimately just a suitcase, my beat up Toyota Civic (lovingly named the "Silver Bullet") and a dream of making a life in California. That was 12 years ago and I haven't left the bay since! I genuinely can't call one place "my home" as home can be found wherever my close family, my daughter Mazzy and my partner are.
MY REASON
I guess you could say that taking photos of people in love was something that naturally fell into my lap. Once I had my first session with a couple-it was like something immediately clicked. I loved every part of the process-from directing and shooting to editing. All of it filled a part of my love for photography with passion that wasn't there before.
Getting to capture real, raw emotions & moments in any capacity made me just generally giddy about my job. I didn't ever feel like I was working and still to this day don't because of how much fun I have doing my job.
At the end of the day, my passion comes from getting to know my couples, finding what truly makes them unique, and capturing it in a way that I haven't done before. And after I press send on the initial gallery email-all I want is for you two to not only love your photos, but come out of this experience even more obsessed with each other than before.
