Gonzalez J. Photography & Design Studio

We chose Jonathan and Ruth for two major reasons: comfortability in talking and connecting with them prior and quality of the pictures viewed. When we met with Jonathan and Ruth in their home we felt immediately at ease with them. Talking about everything felt like discussing with friends rather than a business decision. When we compared their photo albums with photographers' samples, we greatly enjoyed Jonathan's style and approach to photography more. While they were a little more expensive than other photographers, we determined that the benefits outweighed the cost here.
Our favorite part of the whole experience would probably be the night shots that they pulled us away for later in the evening. We loved how those photos came out!
We would recommend them without a doubt to any of our friends and family. Jonathan and Ruth worked well as a team, providing flexibility, friendliness, and professionalism. More...

Reviewed on Facebook

Jonathan is awesome! He makes his clients and models feel comfortable, he knows what poses work with the setting, he is always open minded and very easy to talk too (: I enjoy working with him! He makes me love photography even more! More...

Reviewed on Facebook

Amazing photography, even more fantastic people! SO easy to work with while making the photo session fun and comfortable at the same time. Photos turned out absolutely breathtaking! Thank you both so very much!!

-Andy and Ashley More...

Reviewed on Facebook

I don't think I could ask for a better photographer, working with Jonathan has been a pure blessing to my bridal portfolio. He Is VERY professional, proficient and creative when it comes to his photography craft. Thank you Jonathan for being the missing piece to my business. I DEFINITELY recommend Jonathan for all your photography needs!!!! More...

Reviewed on Facebook

My fiancé had a great time working with Jonathan and Ruth! They both had such great enthusiasm, which made it fun! We got shots that we never thought we would get in such cool places! Highly recommended and can't wait for another big event to use them! More...

Reviewed on Facebook

Simply amazing. Went above and beyond what we expected, and made us feel so comfortable during our engagment photoshoot. It was a pleasure working with you. Cant wait too see the final photos!! More...

Reviewed on Facebook

I loved working with Jonathan! He is such a fun, creative, and hard-working professional! He made me feel at ease and comfortable during our bridal shoot. I think Jonathan has his own unparalleled style that I'm sure will become his trademark in the wedding photography. He shoots from his heart and makes it a unique experience. I highly recommend Jonathan and would love to work with him again! More...

Reviewed on Facebook

Jonathan and Ruth were great to work with! They were very professional, made me feel comfortable right away, and even made sure to keep me hydrated while we were working! There was a little mix-up with the venue and permitting, but everyone rolled with it and we were able to continue the shoot. The resulting photos were beautiful. I'd definitely recommend Jonathan for your wedding and engagement photos! More...

Reviewed on Facebook

Jonathan and Ruth were awesome! They were so flexible on timing and moved our date around to work with the cherry blossoms. We were so impressed with how the photos came out! Our families are chomping at the bit to get their prints! We are so happy!! Thank you! More...

Reviewed on Facebook

Jonathan and Ruth are amazing people! And their work is even more amazing! They made us feel so comfortable in front of the camera. You would think we were professionals. The photos turned out superb! The colors were so vibrant and they captured the true spirit of our relationship. And their print products are unique and of high-quality. I highly recommend them to everyone looking for a photographer! More...

Reviewed on Facebook

Jonathan and his crew did an amazing job! I have to emphasize how much we felt at home with their welcoming and friendly personalities. They made it easy for us to feel super comfortable. They helped us pose and at the same time include our personal touch into the photographs. He put together a video with our favorite song and beautiful pictures, we loved it! On top of that he included on the blog little quotes from each other and the pictures. I highly recommend Jonathan to do the job! More...

Reviewed on Facebook

Jonathan is such a pro! Not only does he have the top-of-the-line equipment to take beautiful, clean-cut photographs, but his enthusiasm and dedication are quite evident in his work ethic! He will come up with a concept and fulfill it from start to finish, making sure all the details are there! As a professional makeup artist, I have worked with numerous photographers, and I can safely say that he is very good at what he does - he communicates his vision well while being open to other ideas and has an eye for strong conceptual work, while being detail-oriented, patient, excited, and very professional all at once! Not to mention, he has a very pleasant personality, so you will love getting photographed by him! More...

Reviewed on Facebook

From beginning to end, Ruth & Jonathan were amazing to work with. They were extremely responsive to emails and texts, and took time to set up multiple Skype sessions (since we live in Charlottesville and they live in DC) to discuss services before booking, reveal photos to us, and discuss wedding day details thoroughly. They were incredibly organized and I knew I could completely trust them to deal with all the details. Our engagement session and time with them on our wedding day was so fun! They were easy to talk to and fun to hang out with. Jonathan is so passionate about photography, which makes it even more fun to work with him and leads to stunning photos. Ruth is so organized and has great attention to detail. They truly are a dynamic duo and having them work together on our wedding vs just having a photographer was invaluable. Because they are a husband and wife team, they also had great insights and made us feel special. I felt the price was fair, especially for the quality of services. I would 100% recommend Ruth & Jonathan to anyone on their special day! More...

Reviewed on Google Maps

We had Jonathan and Ruth do both our engagement session (via a facebook special) and our wedding. When we did our engagement session my husband and I were nervous and uncomfortable at the thought of having a camera focused on us. Ruth and Jonathan did a great job of calming our nerves, directing us in different poses and reminding us to smile. Their professionalism is what led us to decide to use them as our wedding photographer as well. When planning our wedding we knew photos were something we didn't want to skimp on. Luckily we didnt have to break the bank for fantastic photos. They were able to make our DIY wedding look like a professionally orechestrated event. Since sharing our album with family on friends on facebook, I've seen many profile pictures and cover photos changed because Jonathan was able to capture the overall atmosphere of our day as well as the joy on each guests face. We've received so many compliments on the amazing quality and vibrancy our wedding pictures and I'm absolutely thrilled we get to have these memories to look through forever More...

Reviewed on Google Maps

Jonathan and Ruth were awesome! They were so flexible on timing and moved our date around to work with the cherry blossoms. We were so impressed with how the photos came out! Our families are chomping at the bit to get their prints! We are so happy!! Thank you! More...

Reviewed on Google Maps

Jonathan and his wife, Ruth, are amazing! From the beginning, their customer service was exceptional. I was worried that my fiance wouldn't feel comfortable in front of the camera. However, Jonathan and Ruth made us feel very comfortable and the photos came out superb. You would think we were professionals. Our family and friends keep commenting on how amazing the photos look. They constantly bring up how vibrant the colors are and how the photographer captured the true spirit of our relationship. I recommend Jonathan and Ruth to everyone!! I plan on using them for all my future life events. And another major plus, their print products are one-of-a-kind and high quality. Book them now! More...

Reviewed on Google Maps

Our session was wonderful! My fiance isn't one to pose for pictures for hours and hours, so we really appreciated the husband-wife team making amazing use of our short amount of time together. I was so pleased with the pics...but to be honest, I just picked up our pictures and DVD, and I'me blown away with the quality! Send the DVD to my future mother-in-law for Christmas or keep it for myself...hmmmm! More...

Reviewed on Google Maps

My fiancé and I were very hesitant to have engagement photos taken, but we didn’t have any nice images to use for our save the dates, so we decided we should go ahead and do it. A coworker of mine recommended Gonzalez J Photography and after looking at his website and Facebook page, we were immediately sold, as Jonathan’s artistic style is exactly what we were looking for. I spoke with Jonathan’s wife/assistant Ruth to get more information and to discuss possible locations. They were so flexible and were willing to do more than one location. I mentioned we needed a quick turnaround for the photos and that wasn’t a problem. We found their rates extremely reasonable compared to other photographers in the DC area. After we booked our session, Ruth recommended we create a Pinterest board with our favorite photos that Jonathan had taken of other couples so he could get an idea of exactly what we were looking for. We also received a few emails with helpful tips and instructions for our photo shoot. We ended up choosing the Lincoln Memorial and the National Gallery for our photos. Jonathan suggested we start early in the morning to try and beat the crowds. Jonathan and Ruth gave us a little tutorial at the start about different poses that work really well. Ruth was good about giving reminders throughout the course of the photoshoot about how we were posing. Jonathan had shot at both locations numerous times, so he didn’t need to scout around for the best locations. He was ready to go immediately, which we greatly appreciated! He is a very confident photographer and you can tell that he loves what he does. He would occasionally share a photo he really liked and he was so enthusiastic the entire morning. The reveal session was fun and we were so happy with our images. It was so hard to narrow down our favorites! We bought several 8x10 and 5x7 photos to give as gifts and we regretted not purchasing a few larger ones to hang around the house, because the quality of the printing is so incredible - much better than you could get from a photo printing place. As if having gorgeous photos was not enough, Jonathan also designed our save the dates. In one of their initial emails, they had mentioned that they could design save the dates, but we figured it would be way too expensive. But we looked at the many beautiful samples at the reveal session and realized they were comparable in price to what you would find at Minted, so we ordered them immediately. I was especially happy that we were able to choose from a variety of really high end papers for no additional cost. It was great to have them completely customized by Jonathan and we received them in less than a week! We have already sent them out and have gotten so many compliments. The photos and save the dates were hand delivered to us, which I thought was a nice touch. My only regret with using Gonzalez J Photography is that we did not call them sooner…they were already booked for our wedding date. We are getting married in the Midwest and they said they would have been willing to travel for the wedding had they not already been booked. We cannot recommend Gonzalez J Photography enough! We are so happy with our images and we got such wonderful save the dates. We were initially thinking about skipping engagement photos, but I’m so glad we did them, because we feel a lot more confident about posing for photos on our wedding day and we have a better idea of the kind of photos we will want. More...

Reviewed on Google Maps

My fiancé and I were very hesitant to have engagement photos taken, but we didn’t have any nice images to use for our save the dates, so we decided we should go ahead and do it. A coworker of mine recommended Gonzalez J Photography and after looking at his website and Facebook page, we were immediately sold, as Jonathan’s artistic style is exactly what we were looking for. I spoke with Jonathan’s wife/assistant Ruth to get more information and to discuss possible locations. They were so flexible and were willing to do more than one location. I mentioned we needed a quick turnaround for the photos and that wasn’t a problem. We found their rates extremely reasonable compared to other photographers in the DC area. After we booked our session, Ruth recommended we create a Pinterest board with our favorite photos that Jonathan had taken of other couples so he could get an idea of exactly what we were looking for. We also received a few emails with helpful tips and instructions for our photo shoot.

We ended up choosing the Lincoln Memorial and the National Gallery for our photos. Jonathan suggested we start early in the morning to try and beat the crowds. Jonathan and Ruth gave us a little tutorial at the start about different poses that work really well. Ruth was good about giving reminders throughout the course of the photoshoot about how we were posing. Jonathan had shot at both locations numerous times, so he didn’t need to scout around for the best locations. He was ready to go immediately, which we greatly appreciated! He is a very confident photographer and you can tell that he loves what he does. He would occasionally share a photo he really liked and he was so enthusiastic the entire morning.

The reveal session was fun and we were so happy with our images. It was so hard to narrow down our favorites! We bought several 8x10 and 5x7 photos to give as gifts and we regretted not purchasing a few larger ones to hang around the house, because the quality of th More...

Reviewed on Google Maps

Jonathan provides excellent, customer-focused service. He's was prompt at responding to emails and made an extra effort to understand our expectations before the photo shoot. The day of the shoot, he did all he could to make it just as we had hoped, while adding an artist's touch that was beyond our expectations. We now have high quality photos of our lasting and precious memories that without his talent would have been lost. More...

Reviewed on Google Maps

I was so thrilled to have the photographs Jonathan took from my wedding preserved forever as a memory of that beautiful day. He captured the emotions of that day so well that I can look back and remember how it all felt. I especially loved the shots he was able to get of me getting ready with my mom and sisters - quiet moments the morning before the wedding that captured our relationships and the love that was present. He also took the time to travel to the wedding site and snap pictures of my husband getting ready. It was such fun to see another side of the wedding day that I hadn't seen that day. I was tremendously impressed by his professionalism and expertise with lighting, even though we were outdoors. I think what I love most about the photos that he captured, however, is how he was able to capture not only the emotions of that day, but also the personalities of each individual. You can really see our personalities come through as he caught our faces in moments of joy and happiness. I'm so grateful that I have these moments preserved forever. More...

Reviewed on Google Maps