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2007 Candle Light Vigil at the National
Law Enforcement Memorial ,  Washington DC 

 At Santa Clarita Photographic Studio, nothing pleases us more than exceeding our customers’ expectations.

Except perhaps hearing kind words about us and our work such as the following... 

Yoti,


From the first time we saw your work, we have been amazed at your ability to capture the essence of life around you – it doesn’t matter what you shoot, whether they are landscapes, portraits or a family gathering at a wedding or reunion – part of the experience is how you capture the emotion of the moment.


When our daughters wanted “nontraditional” senior portraits, you packed up and took us to the beach – not just any beach, but one with special rock formations (Rocks on the rocks, how clever!).


For our older daughter, who hadn’t wanted her picture taken at all near graduation, we went to a lake, where the park setting freed her to be silly and relaxed – things we hadn’t seen for a long, long time. She wants those pictures up on the wall of the house because you saw beyond the defensive exterior she put up while dealing with her illness and brought out the beautiful young woman within. We can’t thank you enough for that.

Fast forward to now – when you captured our reunited three children after our son returned from Iraq. They look happy not just because they’re thick as thieves, but because the man behind the camera is a genuine article – someone who makes them feel good and they know the pictures will be something to treasure for years. For our 30th anniversary, you made memories of “Carol and Frank: The Musical” that we’ll never forget and treasure always.

When Casey got engaged, you were her first call. She didn’t want anyone else there and knew everything you did would be priceless. She wasn’t wrong. Your sense of timing, humor, professionalism and love of your craft come through in every shot. We are truly blessed to have you as a friend and our family’s photographer. Here’s to many more years of working together.


With our family’s love,

Carol and Frank Rock
Canyon Country, California

Dear Yoti-

We just wanted to say thank you for the amazing pictures you've taken of us over the last 2 years.

Choosing a photographer is one of the most important decisions you can make surrounding your wedding. When the music has died down and the food has been taken away, you're left only with your memories.

And the photos you took for us will be the cornerstone of those memories. To us, they're more than pictures, they're family heirlooms to be treasured. There's no one else we could have chosen to go on our destination wedding with us. You captured every moment of that trip, and the album is absolutely fantastic.

You cannot believe the number of compliments we get on our engagement, wedding, reception, family portraits and now baby photos.  No one believes that there's one single photographer talented  to take pictures of any event, that you have to specialize.

We have no hesitancy to recommend you at every turn, no matter the event.

 We truly feel that we've found our 'family photographer', and we know that we'll keep coming back as long as you're taking pictures.

Derek & Jennifer Dutilly

Valencia, California

 "What can I say?  WOW! 

What an amazing experience Michael, our son Noah, and I had with you. 

You’ve taken family photography to a whole new level. 

We were extremely impressed with how much time you take to find the “Perfect Shot.” 

 Actually going to a location to take the pictures was more than we could have imagined.  That makes the whole experience our own. 

Michael and I loved how great you were with Noah and how you made him feel like he was involved the whole time.  Most importantly the pictures are priceless and we just can't thank you enough.

We were also very impressed by your professionalism, you don't miss a beat.

" We can’t wait for the next time you capture a moment for us that we will never forget. "

Claire Cullen Middleton
Saugus California

Claire's Flowers - Valencia 

Castaic, California 

A MUST READ COLUMN IF YOU ARE A PARENT BY A
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and bestselling author

On Being Mom

by Anna Quindlen
 
If not for the photographs, I might have a hard time believing they ever existed. The pensive infant with the swipe of dark bangs and the blackbutton eyes of a Raggedy Andy doll. The placid baby with the yellow ringlets and the high piping voice. The sturdy toddler with the lower lip that curled into an apostrophe above her chin.
 
ALL MY BABIES are gone now. I say this not in sorrow but in disbelief. I take great satisfaction in what I have today: three almost-adults, two taller than I am, one closing in fast. Three people who read the same books I do and have learned not to be afraid of disagreeing with me in their opinion of them, who sometimes tell vulgar jokes that make me laugh until I choke and cry, who need razor blades and shower gel and privacy, who want to keep their doors closed more than I like. Who, miraculously, go to the bathroom, zip up their jackets and move food from plate to mouth all by themselves. Like the trick soap I bought for the bathroom with a rubber ducky at its center, the baby is buried deep within each, barely discernible except through the unreliable haze of the past.
 
Everything in all the books I once pored over is finished for me now.  Penelope Leach., T. Berry Brazelton., Dr. Spock. The ones on sibling rivalry and sleeping through the night and early-childhood education, all grown obsolete. Along with Goodnight Moon and Where the Wild Things Are, they are battered, spotted, well used. But I suspect that if you flipped the pages dust would rise like memories.
 
What those books taught me, finally, and what the women on the playground taught me, and the well-meaning relations --what they taught me was that they couldn't really teach me very much at all.
 
Raising children is presented at first as a true-false test, then becomes multiple choice, until finally, far along, you realize that it is an endless essay. No one knows anything. One child responds well to positive reinforcement, another can be managed only with a stern voice and a timeout.
 
One boy is toilet trained at 3, his brother at 2. When my first child was born, parents were told to put baby to bed on his belly so that he would not choke on his own spit-up. By the time my last arrived, babies were put down on their backs because of research on sudden infant death syndrome. To a new parent this ever-shifting certainty is terrifying, and then soothing. Eventually you must learn to trust yourself. Eventually the research will follow.
 
I remember 15 years ago poring over one of Dr. Brazelton's wonderful books on child development, in which he describes three different sorts of infants: average, quiet, and active. I was looking for a sub-quiet codicil for an 18-month-old who did not walk. Was there something wrong with his fat little legs? Was there something wrong with his tiny little mind? Was he developmentally delayed, physically challenged? Was I insane? Last year he went to China.  Next year he goes to college. He can talk just fine. He can walk,too.
 
Every part of raising children is humbling, too. Believe me, mistakes were made. They have all been enshrined in the Remember-When-Mom-Did-Hall-of-Fame. The outbursts, the temper tantrums, the bad language, mine, not theirs. The times the baby fell off the bed.  The times I arrived late for preschool pickup. The nightmare sleepover. The horrible summer camp. The day when the youngest came barreling out of the classroom with a 98 on her geography test, and I responded, "What did you get wrong?"   (She insisted I included that.) The time I ordered food at the McDonald's drive-through speaker and then drove away without picking it up from the window.  (They all insisted I included that.) I did not allow them to watch the Simpsons for the first two seasons. What was I thinking?
 
But the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three of them sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4 and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed.  I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.
 
Even today I'm not sure what worked and what didn't, what was me and what was simply life. When they were very small, I suppose I thought someday they would become who they were because of what I'd done.  Now I suspect they simply grew into their true selves because they demanded in a thousand ways that I back off and let them be.
 
The books said to be relaxed and I was often tense, matter-of-fact and I was sometimes over the top. And look how it all turned out.  I wound up with the three people I like best in the world, who have done more than anyone to excavate my essential humanity. That's what the books never told me.
 
I was bound and determined to learn from the experts.
 
It just took me a while to figure out who the experts were.
 

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YOTI WINS STATE & NATIONAL RECOGNITION  

BY THE 

• STUDIO PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 2007
  
  
• FUJI MASTERPIECE FOR PORTRAITURE
  
  
• 2007 Photo Expo JUDGES TROPHY AWARD
  
  
• TOP 10 PHOTOGRAPHERS IN CALIFORNIA