CalMax Studio

We hired Rika for a San Francisco City Hall wedding photo session for two hours. Rika arrived on time. She took as many photos as possible during the 2 hours session (almost non-​stop). San Francisco City Hall was quite busy on the day of my wedding, but she knows the place pretty well and lead us to great spots to take photos. She delivered ~350+ photos for our two hour session, including the time we went to get a wedding permit and the ceremony.
Photo quality wise, we’re pretty satisfied with the results. Being an amateur photographer and having taken wedding photos for quite a few friends, I’d say the lighting and compositions were quite nice. She picks good locations for nice lighting and background. She also was great at capturing the moments during the wedding. She also happily agreed to take customized photos (poses of our choice) for us. Last but not least, she has good gear (as mentioned by another reviewer) and she knows how to unleash the potential of the camera/​lenses.
To sum up, Rika is quite professional, and I’d highly recommend her service for event photography and general photo sessions.

I cannot recommend CalMax enough!
We approached them last minute for our wedding (about a month out — yikes!) but they stepped in and did a truly incredible job.
Rika is very professional, nice, personable & knows how to take amazing photos.
Not only did she take great photos, but the photos she took were a lot of special moments that most photographers would miss. She has a great eye!
We received all of our photos in a timely manner and had zero problems. From the get-​go Rika handled the wedding as professional as possible.
She came to one of our location meet-​ups to go over where certain photos would be best taken prior to the wedding.
She arrived on-​time and captured some of the most beautiful moments of our big day.
Don’t even think about it, hire CalMax right now for your wedding/​party/​event or for whatever you need photos for. You will not be disappointed!

Rika is amazing. I hired her for a birthday party. I got my photos and there was nearly 900 photos for only 4 hours. The photos were a variety as well. Not just similar shots. She captured so much of the day, I was actually surprised she got as much photos as she did. She definitely knows how to frame and capture the moment in each shot.
If there is a shot you want she was there. I’m still in amazement on the amount of great photos she got. Everything was tact sharp and clear. Everyone of my guests were captured at least 2 times. She got every detail of the decorations and food. Also several landscape shots to showcase the environment and some nice dramatic closeups. Her candid shots were also on point. The amount of work she did could almost pass as a 2 person job, but she did it all on her own. Amazing!
I actually practice photography as a hobby. I’m no where in the level as Rika, but I know the type of shots I like. Obviously you need certain type of equipment to do so. It is safe to say, she is up to date using the expected 5D MKIII and a variety of L lenses. Anyone can buy the equipment though, but not just anybody can have that «look» when taking shots. Meaning the proper framing and angle and perspective. Rika has all that. I was very satisfied with my photos.
I almost didn’t want to write a review so I can keep her all to myself for future events LOL. But at the same time I had to write a review because it was well deserved.

My husband and I hired Rika for our wedding and selected a package with video and photo booth. We were so incredibly happy throughout the entire process. Rika is professional, intuitive, and kind. She really has a talent for capturing those really unique and subtle moments that meant so much to us.
She really went above and beyond and did a very thorough tour of our wedding venue beforehand. On the day of our wedding she and her crew were really on top of every photo op, never missing a beat. We were so in love with our photos when we received them back earlier than expected. Our guests had such a great time taking photos in the photo booth and it was great to have all those photos as well. Rika is incredible, a true talent and professional. Highly highly recommended!

Rika is a talented, creative and gifted photographer. She has an incredible eye and sophisticated taste that shows clearly in all of her work. I contracted with her to do my wedding at City Hall in San Francisco. She truly knows how to capture the beauty of City Hall and incorporated it into my wedding pictures. She is familiar with every nook and cranny of all three levels of City Hall and knows where and how to get the best shots — not just at the foot of the stairs.
She was an absolute delight to work with, just such a nice person and very professional. Throughout the entire process she was courteous, timely, and more than anything a pleasure to work with.
Thank you so much Rika for a wonderful experience.

I don’t consider myself photogenic at all, but under Rika Itami’s camera lens, I’m freaking gorgeous! And I’m not the only one, everyone else in the picture is freaking gorgeous too! I seriously don’t know how she does it, but whatever she photographs turns to gold.
Not only does she have a knack for taking the mundane or generic and making it special and beautiful, she makes you feel that way too. She is genuinely one of the nicest people I’ve ever dealt with — she’s gentle and kind, but yet gives great direction. Also another amazing trait is that she was the only photographer there, but she somehow captured all the important moments, all the people, all the angles, shots I hadn’t even thought of, and then some! It was as if there were three other photographers at my wedding!
It’s really funny actually, I got the pictures back just thinking I’d be happy to have a few good photos. I had over 300 favorite pictures, and honestly all of them were good. That means I had to nit-​pick about which good picture was better than another good picture. How do you make a wedding album out of 300 pictures? I could make a stop-​motion movie!
In conclusion, I highly recommend Rika Itami for your once-​in-​a-​lifetime photographic moments. She’ll be sure to capture them.

Rika was our photographer for our wedding and we hired her to do our engagement pictures as well. She and her partner came early to our engagement picture site to scope out the best areas for our pictures before we came. Then they spent the entire day on our wedding day to capture every moment. All the pictures turned out SO beautiful and it was so hard to choose the best ones. Rika was a pleasure to work with, she is very reasonable and were so happy to have found her! We highly recommend CalMax for your photography needs.

We are very happy to have found Rika. She did a nice job taking our wedding photos. We are very pleased and the pictures came out really good. Service was great and the photo album, cd, and photos were just so much fun. Her price was right and she was easy to communicate with, always answer any questions right away, on the phone or email. Thanks Rika.

I invited Rika from Calmax Studio to provide Photography services for my wedding, and I have to say that she did a fantastic job! I feel that she went above and beyond the call of duty from what I was expecting from a wedding photographer. Not only that she brought her partner with her to the wedding, so we got twice the value in what we paid for her services. I would highly recommend her to anyone that is looking for a photographer for their wedding. I feel that I got a lot more then what I paid for, and we have lots of great photos to remember our special day by. I would also like to extend a big thank you to Rika and her partner for such a great service. Thank you.