Namu.Love's
History

Let's start with a name! Why Namu.Love? In my 20s, I produced hip hop concerts, and my production company was called "Namu Luv Productions". I chose "Luv" because I was in love with what I was doing. Fast-forward 25 years and the .love TLD became available for the first time in history, and I immediately knew I was going to get namu.love for my photography business. Why? Because I'm still in love with what I do! And with the domain being Namu.Love, it only made sense to re-brand to match the domain. I started with Namu Williams Photography when I first decided to pursue photography professionally because I knew many other photographers used their names as their brand. Then, when I switched my focus to only weddings, I wanted something more romantic, so I re-branded to Luv Story. That only lasted a couple of years, because I realized I missed doing event and portraiture too much. I switched to a more generic name that would allow me to provide wedding, event and portrait photography and also represented the country that I love so much: American Photographic. When I moved to Los Angeles a few years ago, I met a lovely, talented woman whom I briefly entered into a business partnership with. That business was called Golden Light Picture Company (still one of my favorite names), but alas, our working relationship was not meant to be, so I switched back to American Photographic. And now, here we are at Namu.Love. That's quite a bit of re-branding over 15 years!

2006 / The Birth

In 2006, I made the leap from hobbyist to working stiff. I'd shot enough for free, for cheap and for others, now it was time to show the world I was a great photographer! Except, I was actually pretty terrible. I'd had a camera in my hands a few times as a kid, and even tried picking up photography as an adult in my early 20s, but because of exorbitant film and developing costs, I shelved the idea until digital sprang on the scene. Why was digital such a pivotal moment for me? Digital made it a non-issue that I was terrible at photography, because I could shoot a million pictures until I got one I liked! Thank you, Steve Sasson, inventor of the digital camera!

2011 / From "Me" to "Me +1"

  • For the first time in my career, I was busy enough that I had to farm out work to another photographer! Huzzah!

2012 / I Booked My First Wedding as Primary

  • And it was terrifying...but I killed it! There's nothing like the do-or-die scenario of photographing a wedding to get the blood pumping. No do-overs! I was terrified at the next several weddings, too. And a few after that. And then maybe one or two more. And then I was totally fine!

2016 / A Stellar Month

  • I was hired by an out-of-state organization who was bringing in a keynote speaker to the Bay Area who also happened to be Royalty. Like, the Crown Prince of a major nation, Royalty. The client wanted to make sure they had beautiful photographs documenting the visit of this future King, and I was the guy they tapped to do it. It was a great experience and I loved every minute of it...and so did my client!

2020 / I Moved To Be Closer To My Son

  • I missed my son, who was 10 at the time, so terribly that I decided to uproot my business, give up a decade worth of clients and referrals in the bay area and start my business over from scratch here on the central coast. It's been a challenge, but spending time with my son makes up for it all!
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And here we are.

I started as a hobbyist taking photos of pretty models at car shows, then grew into a photographer taking a gig here and there, and then a photographer busy enough to use an assistant occasionally and then, finally, growing again into a photographer with a freelance team of other photographers, videographers and assistants, working regularly at something he loves dearly. I, along with the talented people behind me, plan to be an important part of the future, providing, hopefully, hundreds of thousands of beautiful images to lock those future weddings and events and portraits into minds and hearts for generations to come. Thanks for reading!
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