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Susan Helgeson Photography

Santa Cruz, California

(34)
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‘19 Certificate of Excellence, 2019

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5/5

34 customer reviews

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17 November 2019

Susan was a wonderful photographer for our wedding. We got the package that included engagement photos, a full day of photos on our wedding day, a large album, and two small albums. The engagement photos came out wonderfully, allowing us to use it as a guest book at our wedding.On the day Susan and her assistant did a lovely job of keeping us at ease and getting all of the shots that will allow us to remember our special day in glorious technicolor. Susan posted the pictures online, allowing us to pick our favorites. From those, Susan put together our wedding album which we (and our mothers) are very, very happy with. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

1 July 2019

So excited to have my appointment with her. I was pressed for time and she fit me and and got back to me in a timely manner. She seems to have my best interest and gave me her professional opinion on what time would be best for pictures I am so lucky to have her take my pictures. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

5 May 2019

Susan quickly and efficiently got me some excellent head shots for casual professional/online use.  Thanks Susan!

Reviewed on Yelp

14 August 2018

Susan was such a pleasure to work with. She was sweet enough to wait for my daughter and I when we got lost in Santa Cruz looking for the photo shoot location. She worked excellent with my daughter during her senior picture shoot and captured some really great moments. She had a quick turnaround time, was reasonably priced, and was super easy to work with in regards to ordering. I highly recommend Susan as a photographer. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

29 May 2018

I had the opportunity to meet with Susan twice before my wedding day. Once with my Mom and the 2nd with my Fiance. I hit it off with Susan from the get-go. She was calm and confident in herself that just oozed radiance. Susan and Yve (her assistant) were magical. They were professional, fun, and helpful in getting the shots I wanted and then some! The were never intrusive and blended so well during the reception I forgot at times they were there. Susan even drove my husband and myself to the beach to catch the sunset for pictures. It was absolutely amazing and really the highlight of my night. I had second guessed going last minute during the reception in fear of leaving my guest. Susan reminded me how much I wanted the sunset shots and I felt like a little girl as we all snuck away to the beach. The beach shots are absolutely b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l and as I look back to that day, I am so grateful Susan reminded me how bad I wanted those pictures. It was one of the reasons we picked the venue!The day was nerve racking enough and Susan's calm energy helped balance my emotions. I would recommend Susan and I am blessed my parents provided me the opportunity to hire her! Suzanne Narog More...

Reviewed on Google Maps

21 April 2018

We chose Susan Helgeson to photograph our wedding at Seascape Golf Club in Aptos, CA. She was one of the best decisions of our wedding. Her and her assistant were very easy to work with both for the bridesmaids and groomsmen. As a bride she was very calm and easy to work with and took our engagement photos as well. She knew exactly when the best lighting was at the golf course and she was exactly right. We got the most beautiful pictures in the most beautiful lighting. And finally what really made the entire experience which was absolutely worth the money (and also reasonable comparatively for what she provides), was the photo album we received after. My husband and I were blown away with the photo album, especially the artistry (which I did not have to direct, I only chose pictures, she did everything else). It is the most heavy duty album I've seen and the iridescent glow and wrap around cover are incredible. I am going to add pictures here for reference because it is truly like no other album I've seen. The pictures were also not only beautiful but natural (no ridiculously fake touch ups). Thank you Susan we appreciate your work and we will cherish our wedding album forever and my parents and in laws shared the same sentiments about their albums. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

9 July 2017

Susan did our family/maternity photo shoot in Aptos, at the Seascape Resort.  She was very patient with my 2 kids, and captured great candid moments of them.  Although the place that we planned to take pictures was being used, she still managed to capture great photos of my family.  Thanks Susan I love all the pictures!!! More...

Reviewed on Yelp

8 June 2017

When my daughter Maia and I were planning her wedding, we heard from several people about what gorgeous wedding photography Susan Helgeson does. After looking at her web site and meeting with her, we were sure that she would be the right person to entrust with this important job, and were we ever right! Susan was a real pleasure to work with--she's relaxed and warm, and a total professional with an artistic eye and great sense of timing. We're all thrilled with the photos and albums, which captured the day perfectly and are a true family keepsake. More...

Reviewed on WeddingWire

8 June 2017

Susan is a wonderful photographer, she has captured our engagement, wedding and maternity photos and has done a wonderful job each time. The pictures come out better than I could have planned and Susan is such a pleasure to work with. She always gets your pictures back to you in a timely manner and they are very high quality. I can't wait to have her photograph my new baby girl when she gets here. More...

Reviewed on WeddingWire

8 June 2017

Susan is a wonderful photographer, she has captured our engagement, wedding and maternity photos and has done a wonderful job each time. The pictures come out better than I could have planned and Susan is such a pleasure to work with. She always gets your pictures back to you in a timely manner and they are very high quality. I can't wait to have her photograph my new baby girl when she gets here. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

28 May 2017

You guys are awesome!! You were so professional, and easy to work with. You made our day even more special and I can't thank you enough!

Reviewed on WeddingWire

19 July 2014

Susan Helgeson, is an amazing photographer. She did our engagement session and our wedding. Me and my husband wanted to feel comfortable with our photographer on the day of our wedding. She is professional, courtesy and makes you feel like a superstar. She knows how to deal great with Big portuguese personalities you know we all have an opinion! :-).....Shes great, does amazeing work! More...

Reviewed on WeddingWire

30 May 2014

Susan Helgeson captures your special events through a captivating lens that preserves these important moments forever. She performs her work in a calm, supportive manner and easily organizes people for photos such as family wedding portraits. I have worked with her several times throughout the years, and each time I have been more than satisfied with the outcome of my portraits. More...

Reviewed on Google Maps

2 May 2014

My Fiance and I were so pleased with our engagement photo shoot! Our experience was so wonderful we wish we could do all over again. We had such a blast working with our photographer Yve. She was so personable and so fun to be around. She was also very professional and took her time with us. This made us feel relaxed and reassured that our pictures were going to come out great! (from our little sneak peak they are so adorable! Yve truly captured our friendship and love story). Because we didn't feel rushed that helped my fiance and I to enjoy the moments completely. Thank you Susan Helgeson Photography for giving us a wonderful experience and beautiful pictures that will last us a life time!
Sincerely
Michael & Rebecca
More...

Reviewed on WeddingWire

11 February 2014

Susan and her assistant did a wonderful job capturing all the special moments of our wedding. Their albums had a quality that we have not seen at any of the online photo companies. We loved her pictures so much, that we asked her to make similar albums for both of our children. You can say that she's been documenting our life for the past 5 years :) More...

Reviewed on Yelp

8 February 2014

Susan and Yve were amazing to work with and our photos were perfect. So excited to see the album.

Reviewed on WeddingWire

1 June 2013

From my Grandma:They brought me a wonderful surprise. The photo album is just gorgeous. I thought I didn't want a whole album but I was very wrong. It is the most terrific record of a beautiful wedding and weekend. I have never seen anything like it. The artistic way it was done is unbelievable. I love all the collages of the different activity pictures but the big ones are just beautiful. The way they used flowers as background is amazing. The best part is that they picked my two favorite pictures for the cover and the next page. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

20 April 2013

Susan & Yves were amazing! They were right there to capture photos at every point and from different angles. They didn't try to takeover and were flexible and had great suggestions to capture the right photos. I liked that they captured photos in the moment as well as beautiful posed pictures. Very impressive! More...

Reviewed on WeddingWire

23 March 2013

I had the opportunity to meet with Susan twice before my wedding day. Once with my Mom and the 2nd with my Fiance. I hit it off with Susan from the get-go. She was calm and confident in herself that just oozed radiance. She also offered an album that was more traditional and exactly what I wanted. I liked that she didn't assume I was a modern bride and wanted  the "coffee table"  look album. She had ALL different styles from traditional to modern laid out for me to look at. I had interviewed about 3 other photographers aside from Susan. Susan never once asked me who else I had met with or who I was mtg. with within her profession (((thank you))). The other photographers really made it awkward / uncomfortable when they would ask me what other photographers I had interviewed. And they all kind of did it the same sly way at the end of the mtg... what gives? Susan and Yve (her assistant) were magical. They were professional, fun, and helpful in getting the shots I wanted and then some! The were never intrusive and blended so well during the reception I forgot at times they were there. Susan even drove my husband and myself to the beach to catch the sunset for pictures. It was absolutely amazing and really the highlight of my night. I had second guessed going last minute during the reception in fear of leaving my guest. Susan reminded me how much I wanted the sunset shots and I felt like a little girl as we all snuck away to the beach.  The beach shots are absolutely b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l and as I look back to that day, I am so grateful Susan reminded me how bad I wanted those pictures. It was one of the reasons we picked the venue!The day was nerve racking enough and Susan's calm energy helped balance my emotions. I would recommend Susan and I am blessed my parents provided me the opportunity to hire her! More...

Reviewed on Yelp

26 November 2012

Susan Helgeson Photography is definitely the right choice to work with you. I say work "with" you because that is absolutely what she does. We hired her for our wedding. We reviewed numerous photographer's websites before we quickly narrowed down to our short list.  After meeting Susan, we knew we found the right person to capture our wedding.She was able to capture emotion and style with her technical abilities and was an absolute pleasure to work with.  She's very easy to communicate with and really shows that she cares about her work. It's still an art for her, not just a job.Her professionalism and personal nature were the perfect combination to make us feel comfortable during the "before" pictures, and had the tenacity and people skills to control a large family for photos "after" the deed was done...We are so pleased with her work. She captured what we had hoped. Our best day with the best photographer...5 Stars, we would always highly recommend her! More...

Reviewed on Yelp

3 November 2012

I had the opportunity to meet with Susan twice before my wedding day. Once with my Mom and the 2nd time with my Fiance.

I hit it off with Susan from the get-go. She was calm and confident within herself that just oozed radiance. She also offered an album that was more traditional and exactly what I wanted. I liked that she didn't "assume" I was a modern bride and wanted the "coffee table" look album. She had ALL different styles from traditional to modern laid out for me to look at.

I had interviewed about 3 other photographers aside from Susan. Susan never once asked me who else I had met with or who I was mtg. with within her profession (((thank you))). The other photographers really made it awkward / uncomfortable when they would ask me what other photographers I had interviewed. And they all kind of did it the same sly way at the end of the mtg... what gives?

Susan and Yve (her assistant) were magical. They were professional, fun, and helpful in getting the shots I wanted and then some! The were never intrusive and blended so well during the reception I forgot at times they were there.

Susan even drove my husband and myself to the beach to catch the sunset for pictures. It was absolutely amazing and really the highlight of my night. I had second guessed going last minute during the reception in fear of leaving my guest. Susan reminded me how bad I wanted the sunset shots and I felt like a little girl as we all snuck away to the beach. The beach shots are absolutely b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l and as I look back to that day, I am so grateful Susan reminded me how important those shots were to me. It was one of the reasons we picked the venue!

My wedding day was nerve racking enough and Susan's calm energy helped balance my emotions.

I would highly recommend Susan and I am blessed my parents provided me the opportunity to hire her!
More...

Reviewed on WeddingWire

15 September 2012

We couldn't have been happier with Susan's services! She was always available to answer even the most trivial questions I had and her excellent service did not stop after the wedding. She followed through with every promise made and the hard-bound album she prepared is a true treasure. We can honestly say that flipping through the book puts us right back to that special day! We would recommend Susan to everyone.

Karen Cogswell and John Maenchen
More...

Reviewed on WeddingWire

9 June 2012

Susan Helgeson Photography is definitely the right choice to work with you. I say work "with" you because that is absolutely what she does.

We hired her for our wedding. We reviewed numerous photographers' websites before we quickly narrowed down to our short list. After meeting Susan, we knew we found the right person to capture our wedding.

She was able to capture emotion and style with her technical abilities and was an absolute pleasure to work with. She's very easy to communicate with and really shows that she cares about her work. It's still an art for her, not just a job.

Her professionalism and personal nature were the perfect combination to make us feel comfortable during the "before" pictures, and had the tenacity and people skills to control a large family for photos "after" the deed was done...

We are so pleased with her work. She captured what we had hoped. Our best day with the best photographer...

we would always highly recommend her!
More...

Reviewed on WeddingWire

23 July 2011

We found Susan online and were immediately struck by her website and beautifully shot, artistic photos. This was exactly the type of photographer we were looking for. We called Susan and booked her for our wedding. The package we ordered included 6 hours of photography, a disk of all of the photos and a $300 credit towards any pictures we choose for print. We met Susan about two months prior to our wedding day. At our appointment with Susan, we discussed the package we were interested in, we went over the wedding day plan, and we looked through her wedding albums.

On the day of our wedding, Susan came with her assistant. Both Susan and her assistant were so kind and so professional.
The pictures came out even better than we thought! The photos are amazing--even better than we'd hoped for! We loved working with Susan and would happily recommend her to anyone in the Santa Cruz area in need of a grade-A photographer.
More...

Reviewed on WeddingWire

14 December 2010

When my daughter Maia and I were planning her wedding for June 12, 2010, we heard from several people about what gorgeous wedding photography Susan Helgeson does.  After looking at her web site and meeting with her, we were sure that she would be the right person to entrust with this important job, and were we ever right!  Susan was a real pleasure to work with--she's relaxed and warm, and a total professional with an artistic eye and great sense of timing.  We're all thrilled with the photos and albums, which captured the day perfectly and are a true family keepsake. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

4 October 2010

I am a newlywed from San Diego, CA. My Husband and I decided to have our wedding in Santa Cruz, CA; our major source of communication would be via e-mail, phone and fax, which made it a bit tricky in finding the perfect vendors for our big day. We found Susan online and were immediately  struck by her website and beautifully shot, seemingly artistic photos. This was exactly the type of photographer we were looking for. We called Susan and booked her for our wedding. The package we ordered included 5 hours of photography, a disk of all of the photos and a $300 credit toward any pictures we choose for print. We briefly met Susan on a trip up to Santa Cruz about two months prior to our wedding day. At our appointment with Susan, we discussed the package we were interested in, we went over the wedding day plan and we looked through her albums of weddings she'd shot. In the car heading back I remember Brett and I discussed feeling satisfied and certain that we made the right choice with her.We were happy to take Susan's suggestion to provide her a list of the Wedding guests we wished to have together in our photos.  On the day of our wedding Susan came with her assistant (there was no additional charge, both Brett and I were pleasantly surprised that she included her assistant even though we hadn't paid for it). Both Susan and her assistant were so kind and so professional; I could immediately tell that we would be getting the artistic shots Brett and I had hoped for. The pictures came out even better than we thought! The photos are amazing; we loved working with Susan and would happily recommend her to anyone in the Santa Cruz area in need of a grade A photographer. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

22 May 2010

Susan was a delight to work with. She really makes you feel comfortable and beautiful when she's shooting. It's nice not to feel over-posed. We used Susan for our engagement photographs as well as our wedding photographs. Both came out just stunning! The perfect balance of candid and posed shots. I would HIGHLY recommend her to anyone for engagement/wedding photography. We're "so happy" with her work that she will continue to be our go-to photographer for future events. :) More...

Reviewed on WeddingWire

25 December 2009

We were blessed enough to have multiple photographers on our Wedding Day. I can honestly tell you Susan’s work far exceeds all others. She is an artist who truly captures the mood of the day. We proudly display her art on our walls and I even enjoy the pictures of “Me.” More...

Reviewed on WeddingWire

18 September 2009

We had Susan and her assistant photograph our Sept. 5th wedding. Much like the first review mentions, Susan is SO incredibly easy to work with. My husband hates having his photo taken, and even he felt entirely comfortable with the photography at our wedding. Susan is thorough, creative, and professional. Not to mention the BEAUTIFUL photos we got from her in such a timely fashion. On top of all this, she has a totally user friendly website, that anyone an order prints from- so all we have to do is send the link. I would recommend Susan to anyone looking for fantastic photography at a comparably reasonable price. More...

Reviewed on Yelp

5 September 2009

Easy to work with, beautiful photos and affordable, what more can I say!

Reviewed on WeddingWire

11 April 2009

We loved our photos, our album and they were so great to work with!

Reviewed on WeddingWire

28 July 2007

Susan's website portfolio attracted us to her, and she really delivered. She did our engagement photos and came up with a really unique location that we never would have thought of, and she and her assistant were nearly invisible at the wedding, yet somehow came up with hundreds of gorgeous photographs. She has a truly artful eye coupled with an innate storytelling ability. Looking at the proofs made me wonder why we needed a videographer because her work truly told the story of our lovely day. She was flexible and didn't demand too much of our time away from our guests, and she really listened to us to discover the feel we wanted for our day. More...

Reviewed on WeddingWire

14 April 2007

Susan and her assistant were fabulous! They captured so many beautiful photographs, yet I hardly new she was there. She made my husband and I very comfortable and we LOVED our album!

Reviewed on WeddingWire

2 July 2005

The photographs and albums were very beautiful, well done, but overall costly and we had to wait quite awhile to get them. She does a good job and was unobtrusive in photographing the event. She did well by the bride & groom, whom in the end were happy with the end product. More...

Reviewed on WeddingWire