Derek Wong Photography

We found Derek via Interwebs for my sister’s wedding in Honolulu. We were very nervous about the wedding since we had planned it all from LA. But Derek was the one thing we were at complete ease about because we were also fortunate enough to have him do my sister and her fiancé’s engagement photos during a rare trip to LA he had late last year. My sister had a super stressful day that day but after a few minutes with Derek she was smiling, having fun, and at ease. I’m so thankful to him for putting her in that happy space. Come wedding day, we all adored Derek! He makes the whole photographing experience fun and comfortable and was also a huge help with recommendations for us on other vendors and the lay of the land in Honolulu. He’s meticulous and clearly cares a lot about the quality of his work. He picked up on and adjusted everyone for even the smallest details on the day of the wedding. In other weddings I was in, photographers would just tell you to stand somewhere and then take some snaps and call it a day. Derek took his time making sure everyone — not JUST the bride and groom — looked great. We haven’t seen all the final photos yet but so far, the photos we have seen and all the engagement photos have been beautiful. My sister was super happy and that’s the best we could hope for. Thanks Derek! :)

Derek, Bonnie & team are amazing to work with and I’d highly recommend them for any wedding or special occasion. Derek is super friendly, professional and accommodating to specific needs (photo locations/​lists, big families, etc.). We weren’t sure what to do expect, but decided to splurge and hire a true professional — we’re so glad that we did!
We were planning our wedding from San Francisco, and Derek met us first over Skype and then in person when we were in Honolulu for the holidays. Each time he was thorough, answered all of our questions and had suggestions for things like time of day and scheduling.
Derek & team were very patient and focused throughout the entire day of our wedding. They are very precise with every angle and pose, which is totally worth it when the pictures come back and look amazing. Thank you again, Derek, Bonnie & team!

I can’t believe it’s been over three years since Derek had a review written about his business. Well for being a Unilocaler for the last six years and having this be my 500^th review, I’m beyond honored to provide Derek Wong Photography with a glowing 5-​star review for his 5-​star talent!
Planning a destination wedding earlier this year was a lot of work, more so when you live in the mainland and depend on emails to keep you on track with the number of vendors you hire for your big day. We already knew that aside from our hotel dinner reception, our photographer was going to be our next big budget vendor that we didn’t want to skimp out on. Check out the blogs and portfolios on his website, it’ll speak for itself and help make your decision an easy one with hiring Derek as your wedding photographer. His work in the photos he will capture for you will be worth every penny.
Derek is very responsive to emails and was very accommodating with our needs. We flew out to Honolulu six months before our big day to meet with all our potential wedding vendors and secure their services for our August wedding. We knew we wanted our engagement photos to be taken in Hawaii, so we had that done with Derek while we were there.
Our engagement photos turned out amazing. Despite my wardrobe malfunction and near meltdown prior to the photo shoot, we managed to have a great photo shoot with me wearing my ‘Plan B’ back-​up dress. Derek worked his magic and produced some beautiful pictures that we incorporated in our wedding invites, I’m just happy that I didn’t look upset in the pics like I was 15 minutes prior to the start of that, lol.
Fast forward to August 5, 2013. Derek and his assistant Cathy showed up at the bridal suite where my girls, Mom and I were getting ready. He just emailed us the photos last week and I cannot stop looking at all 760+ pics he took from our big day. He really captured those precious moments like any professional wedding photographer would. I told him that I didn’t want pics of me getting into my dress with the help of my bridal party, I wanted it to be a private moment between me and my Mom. He said no problem and snapped away after he came back in the room and Mom helping me with my «something borrowed’ jewelry.
My hubby and I are beyond happy with our photos, the quality of his work and his simple talent of capturing the moments throughout our big day speaks volumes of his ninja like professionalism.
All brides and grooms I spoke to always told me that the day will go by so fast, they were certainly right about that. However, I’m so glad that Derek was able to take a ton of pics to remind my hubby and I of the fun, love and laughter we all had in beautiful Hawaii nearly four months ago.
We plan on returning back to Honolulu many more times in the years to come and would not hesitate in hiring Derek for some future family photos we hope to have someday.
Mahalo Derek, you are simply the best!

I signed up for a Unilocal account for the sole purpose of sharing what a wonderful experience my husband and I had with Derek Wong Photography for our May 2012 wedding. I think that Derek’s work speaks for itself so will focus on the other aspects of having Derek as your wedding photographer.
To start, Derek is very timely and responsive. The contracting and payment process was extremely efficient. In addition, Creative Director Bonnie Kam was fantastic to work with. She and Derek provided invaluable guidance in setting up a photography schedule, and then patiently worked with us as we changed the «getting ready» location at the eleventh hour and caused the photography schedule to need a re-​write.
On the day of our wedding, Derek, Bonnie, and assistant Cathy arrived at the «getting ready» location early and immediately got to work. Their professionalism was apparent from the first photo. Importantly, they all have an amazing ability to put their subjects at ease. I have never enjoyed being photographed but Derek et al. made me feel so comfortable that I actually had fun (a good thing for your wedding day)! They were very organized and we shot in several locations on the property in a short period. It was clear that they were incorporating as many different looks, feels, colors, formalities, and compositions as possible in our photos. They were also very good at keeping to the time schedule, and made sure that we arrived at our ceremony location promptly.
At the ceremony location, Derek took great shots that captured the moment perfectly. In particular, I like the movement of Derek’s photography. Derek also took several lovely family photos and numerous «bride and groom» shots. Of all of the photos, however, the reception photos were the ones that I was most looking forward to seeing. Due to time budget issues on our part, my husband and I didn’t have a chance to walk around to all of our guest tables. It seems, however, that Derek managed to get a great shot of just about everyone in attendance. We love that the photos tell the story of all the things that we missed. I am also really grateful that Derek listened attentively to our thank-​you speeches and endeavored to photograph all of the people that we made special mention of in our speeches.
We truly couldn’t be happier with our selection of wedding photographers. Derek is the best that there is at his craft and we feel so lucky that he was available to shoot our wedding. Derek Wong Photography helped to make our wedding the most perfect day of our lives, and we love that our photos will enable us to re-​live that day in all the years to come.

I recently had a small destination wedding in Waikiki and Derek and Bonnie were amazing to work with for my wedding! They made planning from afar easy and worry free. They were my only vendor who offered to come to my rehearsal to meet me which is a plus for a destination wedding because of the time you have to spend running around meeting all your other vendors when you arrive. They were able to give us tips for the wedding day which are very appreciated because none of us in my party are photographed often. The team chemistry between Derek and Bonnie is noticed immediately. Their professionalism and timeliness was unmatched compared to any other vendor I used in Hawaii. Mahalo for making that part of the day smooth and effortless for all of us! I highly recommend you consider using Derek Wong Photography for your photography needs.

I’m from San Francisco. So, don’t let the fact that Derek is based in Honolulu deter you from hiring him as your wedding photographer!
Derek was totally awesome to work with. He and Bonnie came out early to our site (in Burlingame, CA) to find the best areas to photograph us/​our wedding party and put a very «vogue» spin on our wedding party photos. No boring standing in a line photos with us! (Did I mention our wedding party was 17 people, not including my husband and I?)
Derek put me at ease the whole day, our wedding party loved him, he was extremely patient when we couldn’t find our groomsmen who were busy getting sh*t-faced, gave me my photos at a decent time… and did I mention that we loved every single photo he took?
I noticed some people complaining that it took awhile for them to receive their photos… please note that Derek went through every single one of my 800+ photos to hand correct them. He somehow found the time to do this in like 3 months. I got my prints all within 4 months. I don’t think this timeline is ridiculous, since I know some folks who waited 6 months for their prints.
Anyway, feel free to private message me (brides!) if you have any questions! I am totally using Derek again when my husband and I take our «family» pictures in Hawaii and someday when we have children. Love him!

We just got our pictures from Derek and I can’t stop looking at them. I would like to think it’s due to his awesome photographic skills and not because I’m vain or obsessive.
Derek was great to work with, he put everyone at ease and we never felt that he was intrusive. He was there early and stayed late. We also asked Derek for one picture so we could use it for our Thank You card. We received so many compliments that I was on pins and needles waiting for the rest.
With so many things going on on our wedding day, it was hard to remember everything. I’m glad that Derek was there to document the day so we could have a constant reminder of our perfect day.

Derek, Derek,
My husband and I cannot thank you enough for capturing our wedding. We keep looking over our photos and have received several compliments on them. Our wedding album really is beautiful. Everyone is always shocked to see such a modern and fashionable wedding album. Presentation is definitely 5***** Derek took the time to select our wedding photos and it looks spectacular.
We did plenty of research before deciding on a photographer and Derek was one photographer that stood out because of his pristine eye for photojournalism and his group shots. I agree with the other reviews that he was excellent to work with. He was very professional and many of our guests and wedding party found him very personable. We had no problems with the delivery time as he’s very clear at the beginning that it would take about 2 – 3 months. As well, we were in no rush to receive them back. Apparently for real professional photos, it does take 3+ months as I did my research!
We had mostly color and a few black & white photos. Derek individually color corrects each photo himself and really puts the care into each photo. We really love the black & white photos as it looks very classic and is definitely one to frame that won’t look dated. Well, that is until we age! As well, we did request for one photo after our wedding for our thank you cards and he had it ready for us within a week which was really helpful.
I am recommending Derek Wong Photography. He had an assistant that was excellent to work with as well and was extremely creative when it came to group shots. They make a great team and it really shows in their work.
Thank you again for giving us forever memories of our wedding day.

First of all, DW is seriously a nice guy, he took a lot of pictures, helped us capture a wonderful day, and many of his pictures are great. I think if we had worked through the two issues listed below I would highly recommend him:
1. Day-​of time line. The timeline that we had did not allow for a lot of couple shots. This being our first marriage and all, I would have appreciated more input about our timeline and whether it was enough time to get couple shots.
2. It took 5 months to get our pics — 2 mos for them to be availed online, then 3 months after that (due to contractual obligations with the website). I didn’t know about the 3 additional months, so that was highly disappointing.
The good thing about DW is that 1) you own the pics so you can print them as you wish, 2) quality is great, and 3) he’s really pleasant to work with. Just address the aforementioned issues beforehand.

We hired Derek as our photographer for our wedding in May ’07. We live in San Jose, CA so it was slightly more difficult to plan our destination wedding in Hawaii. Derek was incredibly helpful and we never had a doubt our wedding would be shot beautifully and professionally. He was very familiar with our sites and was more than willing to go with the flow when we had a crazy idea or two about what we’d like to shoot. He was prompt in his communication with us and felt more like a part of our wedding than just another vendor.
During the wedding, he was direct, but not bossy. He didn’t try to change the flow of energy or manipulate what was happening. He’s got a vision for what he’d like to see, but he was more than willing to work with us to get that perfect shot we wanted. He was at the fore when we wanted him to be and faded back to observe when he needed to be. It was uncanny.
His talent and care for his craft are very apparent in his photos. We did have to wait about 5 months for the photos, but loved the total package and our friends continue to rave about the picture albums we put together for them. It was a pleasure to work with him.

Derek did the photos for my July ’07 wedding. He is a great guy– very easy-​going and he makes you feel comfortable when you work with him.
My husband and I were mostly happy with our photos except for a couple things: 1) There were a lot more black and white photos than we expected– all of the photos of people walking down the aisle were in black and white. The vibrancy of the red bridesmaids dresses, as well as the leis and assorted flowers was lost. That was disappointing. Because these photos were shot in black and white, developing them in color was not an option. 2) Our photos also took quite awhile to come back to us. It was almost five months to the day when we received our photos. On the upside, Derek individually color corrects each photo, so this explains why the process takes such a long time.
I would still recommend Derek, but you may want to have a conversation with him about when he plans to shoot color and when he plans to shoot black and white so that there won’t be any surprises.

Derek actually took some portraits for my family. His work is excellent. He specializes in weddings but he does do portraits on the side. Since he has a background in photojournalism his pictures are much different than the same old same old, school picture like photos.
We’re very happy with our pictures!