As many of you already know or are starting to find out, planning a wedding can be a daunting task. When my now wife and I began looking for vendors, we decided to start with a photographer, knowing whatever he or she captured from our day would be one of the only tangible things we’d have forever. I was knee deep in researching different folks and their styles when I came across Rich and Clarkie Photography. I remember arriving home from work and immediately asking Ashley to look at his stuff. We fell in love with his ability to truly capture the simple beauty and happiness between every couple he photographed. We reached out that night and were delightfully surprised when we heard back rather quickly. We setup a time to meet in person and within minutes, Ash and I knew we had found the right person.

Interacting with Rich is more like hanging with a friend you’ve known for years. There’s an ease and lightheartedness to him that makes you forget about any potential insecurities or nervousness you have about being in front of a camera. His magical quality is reminding you exactly why you’re getting married. It’s not to put on a show or make other people happy. It’s to celebrate your future spouse and the love you have for one another. We were lucky enough to work with Rich for both our engagement and wedding photos and people aren’t exaggerating when they say hiring him was the best decision they made during their wedding planning.

Aside from his incredible talent with a camera, his presence evolved into an integral part of our wedding day atmosphere. We watched him interact with our loved ones with such compassion, we felt his protectiveness of us while taking photos in the unforgiving streets of DTLA, and we saw him bobbing and weaving on the dance floor, reveling in the band’s glory while capturing everyone’s moves.

Rich is an amazing photographer and even more amazing human being. Somewhere along the way he ended up feeling more like a member of our family. We plan to keep in touch and use him for all our future life events because no one else would feel right. We can’t thank you enough, Rich!!

Stop your search and book Rich immediately!

My husband and I are absolutely speechless over our incredible wedding photos. If you read nothing else in the review below just read this: Rich is beyond talented. He's so much fun to work with, and his photos breathtakingly captured the magic and joy of our day. A couple of years back, we had the pleasure of meeting Rich at our close friend's wedding and we were so impressed by their beautiful photos that we knew that he would be the first (and only) photographer we reached out to once we were engaged. Thank goodness the stars aligned and Rich was available for our wedding date, because I simply cannot imagine our wedding day photographed by anyone else. Working with Rich feels like hanging out with an old friend - he's incredibly down-to-earth, super fun to be around, and brought amazing energy throughout a very hot 100 degree day.

Rich's photos are truly magical because not only was he able to capture what seemed like every single element of our wedding day (seriously, it was so impressive), but he did so in a way that so perfectly depicted our personalities, emotion, and love for one another. It's difficult to put into words but his photos truly exude exactly who we are as a couple. Every time we look at them we get emotional.

Rich somehow managed to be in one hundred different places at once, and whenever we look through our wedding gallery (all the time!), we continue to be completely flabbergasted at how many incredible and unique shots Rich took. And every. single. shot. is special - we have no favorites because they are ALL favorites. It's seriously mind blowing how he managed to stealthily capture so many beautiful and intimate moments of joy and laughter in a way that feels completely organic and natural. When we received our gallery back, the slideshow Rich put together for us was so beautiful that we immediately broke into tears as we were transported back to our day. Many of our friends and family that we have shared photos with have expressed that they are the most beautiful wedding photos they have ever seen. Rich is so so talented, and we are just beyond grateful for the incredible memories he so beautifully captured for us.

Working with him was everything we were hoping for in our wedding photographer and more, and we would absolutely recommend him to anyone. Rich, you are the absolute best - THANK YOU!!

Retaining Rich as our wedding photographer was the easiest and best decision we made for our wedding day. He is doing exactly what he was born to do. A total professional from the start, we never had any doubts that he would do everything he could to maximize his time, but create breathtaking products (which he did). He was thorough yet unintrusive, sensitive yet clear, and a complete joy throughout the day.

Our images are priceless artifacts that, due to his keen eye and editing, could be magazine features.

I understand that wedding photography can seem like an indulgent cost, and I get that weddings are already very costly, but Rich is worth every penny and more. I have too many friends who regret skimping on wedding photography because, at the end, it is the only visual artifact from the day (unless you also opt for a videographer). The whole day goes so fast and you can't be there for every beautiful moment. If you can, you want someone with the care and skill that Rich has to document those moments. We will cherish ours forever. Thank you, Rich!

The photos we received were mind blowing. Adam and I both knew that we had made the right decision, even if we did get a few weird looks from family and friends when we would tell them we were flying a photographer in from LA.

Then came the time for our wedding. Communication was perfect, he answered any questions we had, and made us 100% comfortable. He arrived wedding day bright and early and was there throughout all the chaos. There was a moment where he even told me to breath, calming me down since my nerves were clearly obvious, moments before walking down the aisle. He just seems like he cares, he is passionate about his work, and for the day, is a part of the family even though he is there for a specific job.

My family and friends absolutely adored him. We have had nothing but amazing comments about how fun he was and I can't even put words to how much we love the gallery and slideshow we have now received from our big day. He's a photography wizard and deserves all the praise possible. Thank you so much Rich. Adam and I both appreciate your hard work and will cherish these photos forever.

While Rich’s pictures speak for themselves, what is equally remarkable is Rich’s professionalism, adaptability, incredible work ethic, friendliness, and fun demeanor. He so easily fit into whatever was going on and was all a pleasure to be around!

Aside from getting married and choosing for it to be on Catalina Island, where my husband and I met, Rich was the best decision we made while planning our wedding. While there is much to stress about during the whole process and especially on the day, having Rich as our photographer was one thing we never thought twice about.

His pictures are authentic (never forced or too posed) and he really knows what he’s doing. We will be forever grateful for his talent. Along with having amazing memories captured through his lens, we really had a great time with Rich and are so happy to have spent the whole weekend with him. We would hire him again in a heartbeat a thousand times over!

We can’t thank Rich enough for capturing what he did and for giving us the gift of pictures we will treasure forever!! We are so happy to have also made a new friend in the process.

My husband and I are beside ourselves over Clarkie's incredible photos from our rehearsal dinner and wedding day!!!! We will always remember the overwhelming amount of love that we felt flooded with on the most special day of our lives, but his photos really sealed the deal on that. We started our search really wanting to find a photographer who could capture the candid moments, and Richard delivered on all we could have hoped for, plus more. We cannot thank him enough for covering every single special moment, with such an honest and true eye for everything!!

His attention to detail, plus his ability to capture the big picture is UNREAL. In addition, my husband and I, plus our family and friends thoroughly enjoyed his presence. He seamlessly fit in throughout the day, making us and our guests laugh, while also helping us feel very natural and comfortable throughout the more formal, posed picture taking process. Not to mention, he did it all in 105 degree weather, without complaining once!!

My husband and I are so in love with all of these photos and we will most definitely be re-visiting the album we received from Clarkie, reminiscing for a veryyyy long time from now. His photos are truly works of art, and we can't wait to have our favorite images printed for our home, although I'm not sure how we'll be able to choose just a few from the 1,000+ incredible ones he delivered. If you're looking for a photographer for your wedding day, there is no way to go wrong with Clarkie! Book him NOW.

Rich was phenomenal to work with. When looking for the right photographer for our wedding, we knew we wanted someone who not only took beautiful photos, but who also took photos that had something to say. We wanted to capture the quiet moments, the funny moments, the unscripted and genuine moments that made up the story of our day and revealed something of the texture of our relationships. Rich delivered on every level. He was professional and tenacious, fun and funny -- all invaluable qualities when you spend 15 hours together on one of the most emotionally charged days of your life.

Our wedding was so much more than we could have hoped for or imagined, and the images Rich captured are authentic, intimate, and beautiful windows into it. We'd hire Rich again in a heartbeat.

Rich was easily one of the best decisions we made while planning our wedding, and you should hire him! Let me start by saying our photographs were VERY important to me. After talking to many photographers, my gut feeling was confirmed: Rich was definitely our guy. His work is a beautiful combination of skill and personality, and we loved the idea that our photographs would be both a keepsake and something we could display around our home as artwork.

Picking Rich meant we actually had to move our wedding date, and we regret nothing :) Someone had told me when I first started wedding planning that the single person you might spend the most time with on your wedding day — besides your future spouse — is your photographer, and in our case, that was definitely true. For that reason alone, Rich was the right person to work with.

He was so helpful and gave us the direction we needed (he even helped us figure out our ceremony so our photos would be framed well!), while simultaneously being a lovely calming force throughout the entire day. His light sense of humor helped us both relax, and he was just a pleasure to spend time with. When we got our photos back we were blown away: they are breathtaking, and they do a truly amazing job of capturing so many parts of our day. A spectacular shot of us aligned perfectly with the sun hitting the horizon at sunset? Check. Our brother-in-law staring at his phone with utter concentration while everyone else laughs because we made him DJ our ceremony at the last minute? Check.

There are too many shots to talk about. Rich captured the amazing, monumental moments with the same attention to detail that he captured the small moments with the people that we love and chose to have at our celebration. In some ways, my favorite shot of the day might be one of my best friend and her mom, laughing at something hysterically and silhouetted in identical poses. Everyone who sees our photos falls in love — we've even had friends say they wish they could do it all over again and pick Clarkie Photography. We so hope we'll get to work with Rich in the future!

Rich is incredibly professional and easy to work with, and you can trust him to deliver. He is very punctual and a clear communicator. He always responded to our emails in a timely manner, and took the initiative to check in and give us updates. He also took the initiative to arrive early and stay late, which means he captured moments of our wedding that even the videographer missed.

Rich is also very kind. My whole family loved him. Emotions were running high at the wedding because my family was dealing with a very recent death, and there were several difficult vendors having meltdowns. Rich was able to work with all of this chaos, adjusting his photography plans according to what was going on. He was also really honest and calming, which I truly appreciated! I was extremely stressed the whole weekend, but Rich made a point of telling me when it showed on my face, so we could have the best photographs possible. My husband and I both felt awkward taking couples photographs, which was compounded by exhaustion and hunger, but Rich did a wonderful job of encouraging us and instructing us on how to best pose

I cannot recommend Clarkie photography enough. His photographs are gorgeous and real. Our family and friends oohed and aahed over their beauty, and we were happy to have photographs that will always remind us of the details, big and small, of our wonderful wedding.

When my now-husband and I met with Richard the first time, I didn't expect to reach a decision so quickly. We immediately felt comfortable with him, and as soon as he brought out his sample wedding album I fought back tears as I reviewed the beautiful story before me. That's what makes Richard such an incredible photographer. He uses his camera to tell a story.

On the day of our wedding, Richard's calming presence was even more than we expected. He made everyone feel comfortable, which allowed him to capture raw and real moments. It was an incredible day, and he really was a part of that.

As I look through the pictures from our day, I see and feel the emotions all over again, and that is a real gift. Richard's pictures show so well what the focus of our day was-- the love and joy shared among so many people. The candid expressions, stolen moments, and unbridled emotions became the details that mattered, and his photographs tell that story.