Meet All On Deck Photos | California Destination Wedding & Lifestyle Photography & Videography

We had the good fortune of connecting with All On Deck Photos and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi All On, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
Growing up as a kid, I was told to follow everything by the book. To always play it safe and follow the norm. All of this changed, when I picked up my first camera back in 2017. It was a hobby at first since I just moved out of my parents place, being a full time college student and working at my 9-5 job at the time. Photography helped me see the world through a different perspective. It also challenged me not only as a person but as a creative, I would say I was an introvert but now I can confidently say I’m an extrovert. Through this growth, I was able to help improve myself as a person by helping me get out of my comfort zone. It allowed me to be confident in speaking to big groups at weddings and lifestyle events, to also think outside of the box when it comes to the creativity end.

Photography also constantly challenges me everyday since there is no “one way” to capture photos in a certain way. I’m also happy to say back in 2021, I have been able to quit my 9-5 job to pursue my passion for photography full time. From here, my team All On Deck Photos (AOD) was made. I was able to meet my talented and creative team to help me capture my couples and friends special moments in life. Our team members come from various backgrounds, including performance, creativity, and makeup artistry. This diversity allows us to pay meticulous attention to the often-overlooked details of your wedding day. Our goal is to create meaningful experiences for you and your loved ones and ensure that you can look back on your wedding day with joy and cherished memories.

Our team and I all about building connections with our couples. We want to celebrate, educate and uplift you on your wedding day. We’re not just your “vendor” but your best friend, hype team and most importantly your biggest support system to ensure you can truly enjoy your big day while also being yourselves. What makes our team unique aside from providing photo and video services, we will help carry your train, double check you and your fiance have your vows before you leave for the ceremony and go to the dance floor with your family and loved ones. Everyday our team gets to live our dream to create art for you and your loved ones. We believe that your story is the best story out there.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
What sets aside our team from others is that we believe that weddings and events regardless whether it’s an intimate or big event of (300+ people) are not a one person job. You’ll need all hands on deck to make sure everything goes smooth as much as possible throughout the day.

Most Wedding photographers and videographers work by themselves, this is something I personally experienced from 2017-2020 when I first started by myself. I realized that there was a “cap” on how many of my couples and friends I can serve. Where as when our team was created 2 years ago in June 2021 to present (July 2023) we were able to complete 270+ weddings/events and counting. Through teamwork, we were able to grow our business in such a short period of time. We also know how important it is for our couples to have photography and videography services for their wedding day. What better way to go through than our team?

Our team also provides an assistant (Cat, Andre or Julienne) to help capture behind the scenes on their phone for our team to later create wedding content for our couples. We know that weddings are fast paced and whether it’s 8 hours or 2 day longs our couples can forget what happened during their big day. We helped them remember it through our wedding content that our assistant create while also ensuring that we deliver 24-48 hours wedding sneak peek photos. We also help out with posing guidance throughout their day. We know that being in front of a camera, with their families and loved ones looking can be scary. With our team, we walk through all of our couples making sure we capture them for who they are while also documenting the candids the whole day. Our couples also have the biggest peace of mind, knowing that everything is covered from when they first talk to our team until we deliver their wonderful photos and film to look at for them and future generations to come. To have the same photographer and videographer along with 2 husband/wife duos with assistants all in one team is underrated especially in today wedding industry. We wake up everyday excited to not only to work with the team, but to also serve our couples knowing that these photos and film that we deliver is not only a new core memory for them but their memories also becomes part of our team new experience.

We are very thankful of all of our couples, families and friends that have supported us since 2021. We wouldn’t be where we are because of them and for also trusting us to capture their once in a lifetime event. Their endless support in us, is another thing that inspires our team to continue improving and serving our couples.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
The Bay Area here in California is beautiful and here are some spots I would recommend going!

For food places I would recommend going to,

I-Tea: Great Boba spot with snacks and food options (if you’re hungry or on the road, they would be a great pit stop to check out at)

Joe Pho, San Leandro CA: For people looking to have great pho or when it gets cold in the Bay Area highly recommend this spot. Food and servings are along a big plus from my personal experience.

For places to visit while you’re here

Palace of Fine Arts: Very popular place not only for tourist, but to have a nice walk and even take photos if you’re ever in the San Francisco.

Oakland Zoo: For all of my animal lovers out there, this organization has been here for more than 40+ years, they take very good care of the animals here. I’m very big on giving back to organizations that encourages and educates the community about animal and community awareness. As a photographer, I’m very big leave no trace behind (LNT). To help minimize our impact and costantly better the way we live on Earth.

Rose Morcom Garden in San Jose, CA: I have been here multiple times for graduations, engagements and wedding sessions, it’s gorgeous in person. For those of you that wants to see the rose full bloom, I recommend dropping by early April to see these beautiful roses up close.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would like to give a big shoutout to my All On Deck (AOD team)! They have helped me capture 270+ weddings and events within the past 2 years. I’m very grateful for them since this is something that one person can’t physically, mentally and creatively execute in such a short period of time. I want to say thank you to the following people:

1. Joren Reyes and Cat Reyes , my professional videographer Joren and his wife Cat has been able to help me on these wonderful events. Having a husband and wife duo in our team has made a big difference since they have personally experienced their own wedding day. This experience alone, gives our couples that inquires with us for their wedding day a peace of mind knowing that not only were professionals from a creative ends but also knowledgeable on the wedding end too. Joren, also has been recognized as an award winning film-maker this past March 2023 in LA. I wouldn’t be able to capture half of these events without his creative eye and input for our couples weddings and beyond thankful of him. Cat is also a professional dancer and our assistant for the weddings and lifestyle events. Aside from helping Joren and I, she also helps choreographs our couple first dance for their wedding.

2. Andre Acosta and Julienne Reyes , I just want to say I’m very blessed to have find our team best marketing back court duo! Andre actually helped Joren and I in the beginning before Cat came in to record behind the scenes footage of us in action at our couples wedding. Back in 2017, when I first started I had no one recording the process of me capturing my couples and friends weddings and lifestyle session. This was a big game changer for our team and I when Andre started coming along with us for our couples weddings and events back in 2021. Julienne, on the other hand helps me with my marketing strategies on a weekly basis and it was actually because of her marketing strategies alone is what helped me leave my 9-5 job back in 2021 to become a full-time Destination Wedding/Lifestyle photographer to this very date. As a creative, I have no marketing background or experience, to have them on our team has helped fill in this area for us! The behind the scenes videos they both have made for our team, gives our couple an idea not only how our team works but also to showcase our team personality during the day. They along with Cat, attends our couples weddings and events so that we can create content for them while they’re waiting on the rest of the photos and film to be delivered from our team.

3. Christian Diaz and Jasmine Diaz, our team has not 1 but 2 husband and wife duos! I actually met all of my future team through my good friend Christian! We go back since 2018, he was a fellow photographer just like me and that’s how we became really good friends even to this day! A couple years later, I met Jasmine in 2020 who he was dating at that time, from there I was able to meet her siblings Joren and Julienne, the rest was history after that! Jasmine and Christian got married last year October 15, 2022, Jasmine is a professional vocalist, while her husband is also our professional photographer/videographer. In the past, Joren and I got overbooked with weddings and lifestyle events to the point we had to ask Christian to help capture our couples weddings for us. Jasmine also sings for our couples weddings whether it’s for their ceremony or reception. To have another photographer/videographer, professional vocalist and another husband/wife duo in our team has been helpful to showcase our team variety of backgrounds for our couples.

4. I also want to give a big shout out to my mentor Henry Tieu, he is a wedding and elopement photographer based in Seattle. I have been attending his workshops now back in early 2021 and have learned a lot from him. He has helped me elevate my wedding photography business but also uplifting my couples experience on their wedding day to the next level. His work, inspires me to to continue challenging myself everyday to “how can I improve not only from a creative end but also logical end”.

5. Last but not least, we want to say thank you to all of our couples that trusted our team from the very beginning. We know it’s not easy to get into wedding industry, despite this challenge it didn’t stop our couples from having us film and capture their special day. It truly means a lot to our team since we know how important this event is for our couples, they deserve nothing but the best and we strive to be better not only creatively but also on the customer service side too! We want to make sure our future couples have a peace in mind that our team can cater to their needs and preferences while also being able to enjoy themselves on their wedding day.

Website: https://aodphotos.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allan.aod/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@allondeckfilms1533/videos

Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@allondeckphotos?_t=8dkN83cHMzO&_r=1 The Knot: https://www.theknot.com/marketplace/all-on-deck-photos-castro-valley-ca-2073875 Weddingwire: https://www.weddingwire.com/biz/all-on-deck-photos/4c59b6568c9f0a3b.html

Image Credits
Photos taken and edited by: All On Deck Photos (Allan Famor Jr.)