Drew Bird Photography

We hired Drew to capture our Corporate Awards event last month and we were so pleased with him we asked him to do another event two weeks ago. He is very talented at ‘visual storytelling’, and portrays the events and people beautifully. We will continue to hire Drew for any of our events moving forward.

There is only one opportunity to capture the importance of an event like a wedding. Thankfully, Drew dashed our anxieties by quickly delivering an amazing set of photos from our San Francisco City Hall wedding. Initially, we were drawn to Drew’s photojournalism style and after reviewing the photos, we could not be more pleased with the results. He masterfully juxtaposed our ceremony with the amazing light and architecture of the SF City Hall building.
Prior to event, communication and planning went very smoothly. Despite neither party being based in SF, he had no issues meeting us there and even did some preliminary scouting the day before. With all the preparation, our photo session went very efficiently. We never felt rushed, and it left us plenty of time to enjoy our day.
After the event, Drew kept us up to date with the status of the pictures, and delivered them exactly when he promised (and for a very reasonable price).
Overall, we were extremely happy with Drew’s professionalism and most importantly the results. He delivered an amazing set of photos we will cherish forever.

We could not be happier that we hired Drew to be our photographer! Drew is extremely warm, kind, calming, patient, honest, knowledgeable, talented, and professional – basically, he is just the type of person with whom you want to share one of the most important (yet potentially stressful) days of your life!
Throughout the wedding planning process, Drew was an absolute pleasure to work with. A couple of weeks before the wedding, we set up a call to discuss wedding details and what we hoped for in our photographs. Drew was completely open to all of our ideas, but he was upfront about where there might be limitations based on timing, lighting, etc. He also gave us some good tips about how to move through portraits as quickly as possible and how best to schedule the day. The phone call left us feeling like we had a good sense of what to expect the day of the wedding and how to prepare to make things move along most efficiently.
On the day of our DIY wedding, however, we ended up getting an hour behind schedule. We were supposed to do all the portraits before the ceremony, and even though my intention was to be laid back about everything, things started to feel stressful. Drew assured us, however, that we shouldn’t worry and that we would still be able to get most of the shots we wanted. While he waited for us to get ready, he found some wonderful backgrounds for our portraits and shot lots of great candid photos of friends and family setting up the site, including some of our very favorite photographs of the day. When we finally started doing portraits of our families and wedding party, Drew moved us through the various configurations so efficiently that we were still able to get to the shots we thought we might have to skip. His calming demeanor also helped me chill out and start having fun again!
Drew caught tons of priceless, candid moments during the ceremony and reception, while managing to remain completely unobtrusive. After the ceremony, he was able to pull off an amazing overhead group portrait of my husband and me with all of our wedding guests, which was no easy feat given the number of guests, topography, and harsh sunlight at our mid-​day outdoor wedding. We are so pleased with that portrait and all of the other portraits, but the candid shots Drew took were probably the greatest treat for us to comb through after the wedding. Drew was able to capture in photos exactly how our wedding felt to us, and we could not be happier with the beautiful photographs we have to commemorate the day. We could not recommend Drew more highly!

I was lucky to be able to hire Drew on short notice to photograph a company meeting event.
He was delightful to work with, very easy going and professional when it comes to his work.
I can not thank him enough for his creativity with the incredible pictures he took and his ability to capture the culture of our working environment. (even just at a company meeting!)
I would highly recommend him and will be referring him to anyone that asked and also be hiring him again in the future.
He is a truly gifted photographer.
Thanks again Drew!

Drew was outstanding. He did an impeccable job capturing our favorite moments, and his photos really tell the story of our wedding. Every time we look through them we feel like we are reliving the day, and we always seem to discover something new! Not only is his work wonderful and creative, he is incredibly professional. He was somehow everywhere at once at the wedding, capturing all the key and intimate moments, but also unobtrusive. So many of our guests, especially those who recently had weddings (and their own photographers), commented on the fact that he blended in seamlessly, and those who he did interact with had nothing but nice things to say about him.
Drew’s professionalism also extended to the months leading up to the wedding. He always responded immediately to our emails, and he took the time to meet with us twice before the wedding to go over anything and everything we wanted to talk about. Those meetings went a long way in making us feel calm and comfortable about the photography and the event in general, and Drew never rushed us. He was patient and offered advice when we asked, but never intruded on our decisionmaking or told us that we had to do something a certain way. For example, we were not very into the idea of posed shots, and Drew suggested to us a few posed shots that he thought would look really nice, but immediately moved on to focusing on the look and feel that we were going for. We ended up taking the posed shots he suggested, and we are really glad that we did.
As you can probably tell from this lengthy review, we could not have been happier with Drew and would highly recommend him for any event!

Drew has an unbelievable eye for photojournalism, which is shown through his story of photos. After looking through his online portfolio, I knew he was exactly what we wanted for our wedding. We wanted photos with depth, with meaning, that would resonate an emotion with us even 50 years later. Drew was able to capture that, plus more.
Drew has a very laidback composure but is very serious and professional when it comes to his business and clients. We sincerely appreciated his thoroughness in planning and detailing the day. He was also great in recommending other vendors– which like Drew, were a dream to work with.
We highly recommend him– we still can’t pick out our favorite photo from the 800+ he sent us. There are just too many good ones!

What a pleasure it was to work with Drew! From the very first meeting, we felt so comfortable with him and could tell that he really loves what he does. He was very easy going, fun to work with, and got along so well with all of the various people involved in the planning process. We had a very large wedding and he and the 2^nd photographer that he brought in were able to nicely demonstrate the overall excitement of the large event as well as beautifully capture the more intimate moments of the day. We are so happy with the results and recommend Drew Bird Photography wholeheartedly!

Drew photographed our wedding in DC. We picked Drew after looking at his portfolio, loving it, seeing his prices and meeting him in person. He was so easy to work with and really took the time to get to know us and our style. The photographs completely represent that. I would recommend him wholeheartedly to anyone looking for an amazing, professional photographer.

I have worked with Drew more than a dozen times during high-​level visits of U.S. and foreign diplomats in the past 2 years. During these very stressful engagements, often with only 48-​hours notice, Drew (and his additional team members when necessary) maintained the upmost professionalism and flexibility.
The quality of his work and attention paid to my specific and often changing requests is only surpassed by his ability to improvise and always somehow be in the right place at the right time for the perfect picture in a room of hundreds.
I endorse Drew for small and large events equally as he has time and again shown an enormous capability to provide fantastic results in a timely manner for every specific request that may have been necessary for each occasion.

We can’t say enough good things – Drew was professional and very reliable. It was really important to us that we found a photographer who was amazing at their job (obviously) but also someone we felt comfortable with and wanted to be around — aside from each other, he was the person we spent the most time with on one of the most important days of our life. We had a fantastic time during the photo shoots and that’s evident in how comfortable we look in the pictures. He is the perfect mix of directive and setting up a few shots and journalistic and just capturing the moment. We couldn’t be more pleased with our wedding photos!

We hired Drew to take candid shots of a non-​wedding event for our organization. I looked at his portfolio to see the kind of photos he takes, communicated our vision and primary use of the photographs, showed him some mock ups of a web redesign, and then got out of his way.
By the way, this is a best practice for hiring professionals: vet them before, communicate what you are after, and then let them do their job.
Very pleased with the images, especially for this, our first foray into having a photojournalist document our work. As a start-​up organization, we are still developing a way to present and document ourselves to a wider audience. I know from speaking with Drew that he will be able to deliver photographs in the future that match our evolving needs.
Drew was exactly what I wanted from a professional of this nature: a terrific first shoot, and someone who will continue to meet our needs even as those needs change. I am looking forward to developing a longer term relationship with him.
Plus, he’s a just pretty cool guy.

Drew photographed our wedding in Washington, DC and Maryland this August and together with his partner for the day, Alexis did an absolutely fantastic job! We got married at an old church in the center of DC but the ceremony itself took place at Rocklands Farm in Maryland.
We both live in New York and did not have time to come down to DC to meet with Drew until only a few weeks before the wedding but just talking to Drew via Skype, we felt very comfortable with his professionalism and with his work of art.
We spent 1 year planning the wedding and I guess we both have a real passion to think through all elements of a wedding, from hand-​made paintings for each table, to a travel fund for friends coming from abroad, a hand-​made wedding Piñata or Mariachi band. But there are always some things that you just can’t fully control, photography is one of these things. Yes, you can make a list of must-​take photos but ultimately, if you want candid and non-​staged pictures of your guests, you need to leave it up to the photographers.
We thought our search for «the perfect» photogropher would take a long time but we quickly came across Drew’s portfolio and decided to go with him. The results speak for themselves (see below) and we were incredibly happy.
Just a few quick additional notes:
— the rights for the pictures stay with Drew, as is common practice with nearly all photographers. If you want to use pictures on social media etc. you need to link to Drew’s side and might need to check with him for permissions. Not everyone likes the idea of restrictions coming with their own wedding pictures but I spend many hours researching this and it just is the way it is. Photography is art and artist want to make sure their work is protected.
–It will take about 1 – 2 months until you get the final pictures. You really don’t need them right away, its great to see them after a few months when the memories are slowly fading. I am sure you could ask him to have them sooner but pictures require a lot of post-​editing.
Here is a small outtake from our wedding:

Planning a wedding in the area is expensive. We found a list of photographers at the WPJA and made a list of our top 6 choices. We gave our list to the best man and told him to narrow down the list. The best man is an amateur photographer and listed Drew as his top choice with the words «creative framing, nice story, great at capturing emotions of people and good retouch skills. Very well done.» Drew was professional at the meeting and all correspondence before the wedding. At the wedding, he was like a ninja. I never saw him, but seeing his product, it was obvious he was everywhere.
Pricing wise, I budgeted the photographer for X amount of dollars. Drew’s «Monet» package was $ 300 over for what I planned, but after seeing the product and comparing to other photographers’ pricing, Drew Bird Photography is an excellent value.

My wife and I first hired Drew to shoot our engagement photos with our daughter in Old Town Alexandria VA. Having taken several photography classes in high school, my wife has very high standards. Drew was incredible: he had the perfect mix of staged photos and impromptu shots taken at multiple locations. He also included our daughter by taking several pictures of her. We were so impressed we hired him to photograph our wedding in Chicago. Once again, Drew impressed: shots with the two of us, shots with the groom side, bride side, families, friends, he covered it all from pre-​wedding to reception. His eye for catching the perfect picture knows no bounds. Trust us, look no further; there is no one better.

We had a fantastic experience with Drew and Drew Bird Photography, and we couldn’t be happier with how the photos of our destination wedding in Puerto Rico turned out. Drew was a positive and calming presence on our wedding day, and was extremely easy to work with during the planning process (which was done remotely since we were in different cities). Everyone is raving about the photos, which truly capture the feeling of our wedding day. Drew managed to capture everything from the sweeping setting to the tiniest details, and I hardly knew he was there. We will treasure the beautiful photos he created for years to come. Highly recommended!

Drew was professional and very reliable. We really enjoyed spending time with him during the day taking photos. He is the perfect mix of directive and setting up a few shots and journalistic and just capturing the moment. We couldn’t be more pleased with our wedding photos!

Planning a wedding is an extremely stressful experience and my husband and I chose each vendor carefully. We were extremely lucky to come across Drew and were thoroughly impressed with his portfolio. Drew met with us multiple times prior to the wedding to discuss our style, the event and what our expectations were for the day and the wedding. On the day of, Drew kept us calm and collected as he constructed a beautiful «first look» utilizing our ceremony space and decorations. When Drew took pictures of the two of us, we relied on Drew to create natural pictures using the landscape. They turned out beautifully and don’t look like cheesy wedding pictures.
During the ceremony and reception Drew captured memories of not just the two of us, but all of our guests and the atmosphere and thoughtfully portray a story with his pictures. Since both of our families are large, I was shocked and impressed that Drew took charge to take the family pictures efficiently and beautifully.
Our guests loved the pictures and said it allowed them to see moments that they missed, which was exactly how we felt. I would recommend Drew to anyone looking for a creative, professional and talented photographer!

Drew is a true professional. He was very non-​intrusive and I could tell he was capturing some really cool moments on our wedding day. Drew was very organized, creative, and responsive to all of our questions, no matter how minor. He really worked well with us to make sure we got the types of shots we wanted, and gave some great insight and ideas during the planning process. We are so happyand grateful we had the opportunity to work with him in Virginia.
We really love all of our photos (and so do everyone we share them with)! If you’re looking for the perfect photographer for your special day, don’t look anywhere else. Drew is it!