Today we’d like to introduce you to Jason Abraham.
Hi Jason, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
It started with a camera and a kid who couldn’t stop moving around a subject to see what changed. In middle school I saved up for my first film camera, a Minolta. By high school I was in the darkroom pulling black and white prints, and by college I’d moved to a DSLR and shot my first wedding in 2012, at a winery in San Diego.
The years after that were the real education. Music events taught me the most. The lighting changes every few seconds and none of it is yours to control, so you learn to move fast, adjust on instinct, and keep shooting — chasing the energy in the room rather than waiting for a clean frame that’s never coming. That habit never left me, and it’s why I can work a wedding reception without needing anything to slow down for me.
By 2019 I was freelancing, photographing large-scale events for the City of Santa Monica and working for a startup photography company on the side. Covid ended that chapter and started this one — I narrowed my focus to the work I actually wanted to be doing: weddings and engagements, families and maternity, corporate headshots and galas.
Thirteen years in, the thing that got me started hasn’t changed. I’m still circling the subject, still looking for for unique perspectives.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No — 2020 saw to that. When Covid hit I was refunding clients for weddings and events that were already on the calendar. Two days turned to two weeks turned to two years. My partner and I moved to Santa Cruz looking for a slower pace and some solitude in the redwoods.
Coming back to work was its own kind of hard. I’d be hired for a ceremony where half the guests were masked and half weren’t, and the unmasked ones would start encouraging the masked ones to pull theirs down for the photo. That put me in an awkward spot — I’m the one holding the camera, so everyone looks to me, and there’s no answer that makes the whole room comfortable. You learn to read a group quickly and make a call, because the moment doesn’t wait for you to figure it out.
That stretch cost me a lot, but it clarified things. I came out of it knowing exactly what kind of work I wanted to be doing and who I wanted to be doing it for.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Jason Abraham Photography is based in Aptos, and it’s me behind the camera. I photograph weddings and engagements, families and maternity sessions, and corporate work — headshots, company events and galas — from Santa Cruz down through the Monterey Peninsula, Carmel and Big Sur.
That range is unusual and it’s deliberate. Most photographers pick a lane, weddings or corporate, and stay in it. I came up shooting whatever came my way, and the crossover is what makes me useful. A wedding reception and a company gala are the same problem: a room full of people who aren’t thinking about the camera, lighting you didn’t choose, and one chance at each moment. If you can work one, you can work the other.
What I’d want your readers to know is that I’m easy to have around. I scout a venue before the day rather than showing up cold, I work quickly, and I don’t stop the room to get a picture. The best frames are the ones nobody posed for.
Everything I deliver is a digital gallery — professionally edited, privately hosted, yours to download and print however you like. For corporate clients working against a deadline, an edited set goes out the next morning and the full gallery inside two weeks.
Brand-wise, the thing I’m proudest of isn’t a logo or a look. It’s that thirteen years in, I still have a 5-star rating on every platform I’m on. That’s the whole business, really.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
Nothing I could point people to, honestly. I’m not a podcast or business-book guy. Time outside and time with my family does more for my work than any resource I could name.
Pricing:
- Current collections and rates are published on my website, so anyone can get a sense of where I sit before reaching out. What I’d say to your readers is this: reach out. Every wedding and event is different — hours, locations, how many people, whether a second shooter makes sense — and once I understand the scope I can give a quote that actually fits the day rather than a number that approximately fits everyone. That conversation is free and usually short.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jasonabrahamphotography.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jasonabrahamphotography/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JasonAbrahamPhotography/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/jason-abraham-photography-aptos
