Jessyka Real Photography Storytelling

20ish Jill and Mike wedding day moments because I just can’t get enough of them. 🤍⚡️

Planning
MUA
Shoutout to my bestie, second shooter, associate photographer and (fun fact) the person who taught me how to not suck at photography about 9 years ago,

9 years ago around this time I stumbled into my first camera. Wow.🤍 throughout these 9 years I have fallen in and out of love with photography so many times . I’ve gained so much confidence, friends, love and have had my share of the infamous “impostor syndrome” and it’s close cousin “burnout” 🫠 (mental health is no joke) feeling like you can’t seem to continue doing what you love is so disheartening.

For the past 2 years and after feeling the only option was letting go, I decided to go back to connecting with moments and the people who make my heart feel at its healthiest. It has taken, more ocean, consistent visits to Chicago where my siblings, and beautiful toddler niece live, snow sliding, laughing as loud as I want, long walks, home cooked meals with my girlfriend and a late night 3 hour power talk on a Paris balcony with my bestie to realize that somewhere along the way I forgot about the power of being grateful. The beauty in risk and its importance in creating. My creativeness is not set in stone, it doesn’t stick to a “style” and consistency does not mean every gallery will look the same and every edit will look just like the last. The best way I can serve my couples is by communicating and being PRESENT. It’s not only about how many poses we can squeeze into the 15min portrait session during golden hour, don’t get me wrong, you need those 15 minutes! But a wedding is so sooo much more than a checklist and should you want a check list, good for you! Your day is just as special and deserves your photographer to be present, excited & enthusiastic for you your.

Breathe, take in the moment and be grateful. Life is good🙏🏽

#

Fly your friends to Cabo kind of wedding 🌊😎 | Jill & Mike ⚡️

Film scans from Jill & Mike’s summer wedding weekend. They said “we do” overlooking the Pacific and it was everything⚡️ laughter, good food and lots of dancing ✨ Forever grateful I got to capture just a glimpse of their love story 🤍

Planning : for
Design : for
Second shooter: My dear
Video:
DJ:
MUA:

You can call them Mr. & Mrs Sha ⚡️wedding weekend spam coming up

Second shooter as always ⚡️
Venue
Planning for
Hair & Makeup
Video
DJ

Happy birthday my very dear Arantza ⚡️

Shooting at
For and

Amy & David | The Cape ✨10 frames are simply not enough✨ The deep connection you two share will need a lifetime to be told.

Blessed to work alongside this team of magic makers, Thank you!planner & .planner from

Mua
Stationary
Music .co
Flowers .cabo
Venue

-
-

The day was warm, the kind of warmth right before summer that reminds you of blooming flowers, airy sunsets and midnight dancing. Josh & Austin you two are a dream! 🥂

Finally sharing this gallery! During a comeback week with lots of delivery’s coming up🫶🏾 love and gratefulness above all 🏳️‍🌈

Venue |
Planning |
Video |

Grace & Julian | ✨The moments in between ✨ They really said, “no posing”. ❤️‍🔥 I said, “Let’s do it” ⚡️

This is what happens when a lawyer meets a theatre kid and they fall in deep, tender, love with each other, they bring their coolest friends and say “I Do” overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Here are some of my favorite shots.

Planning: .planner
Band:
Venue
MUA:

Mahea & Dan | Todos Santos Engagement ✨

Life is too short not to burst in love, in tears, in laughter. It’s too short not to try new things, believe and disbelief. I’m going through a moment here… can’t figure out if I’m finding myself or feeling back in touch with my old self. Either way, I’m in an urge to feel it all. I want to taste new food, meet new people, listen with a fresh perspective. I’m in an urge to be present as a way of being in tune with my higher energy.

Stay wild lovers. Let’s stay wild❤️‍🔥

I saw Jen sitting patiently in .dandelion._ ‘s chair about an hour late to her getting ready. After all, we did all move an entire wedding day 24hrs prior. How late could it really get? Mix of film and digital.

Scan

From our zoom call a couple months back, I knew Jen & Jonathan prioritized their people, their son, their parents. I knew, beyond being worried about hurricane Norma, they were trying their best to keep calm and maintain the possibility of vowing their love to each other in front of the people they consider their community.

24hrs late- during their speeches, I knew why. I knew when I saw Jonathan’s father fill his chest in pride for his son and the family he had built with Jen. His brother Jordan wiping his tears as he hugged Jonathan. I understood why these two would wait through storms and turbulence when I saw Jen’s best friends cuddling baby Carter so Jen could get into her dress.

Every single person there was family. ✨ The one provided and also the chosen one.

If I can get a little personal- It reminded me why we choose community. This year I’ve been truly diving into understanding the essence of what makes life feel joyful, what makes my chest tickle in excitement. Spoiler: it’s not (only) photography 🤷🏽‍♀️ It leans more into hugging my nieces and nephews, more into dancing into the night with friends I can be silly around, it’s more about about feeling free,transparent and in love with the person I’ve become.

Maybe it’s a hurricane, maybe life has its different ways. My best wish of love to myself and others is that we can always remember who these people are for us. May we all have a friend, a brother, a loved one to hug when the dance floor lights up and when the storm feels close.

From Baja,

XJess

Planning: .cabo.wedding.co
Venue:
Hair & Makeup: .dandelion._
DJ:

Christina & Juan ⚡️

The first thing I noticed when I met Christina and Juan was the way it felt like they were each other’s safe space. I noticed how Christina’s posture relaxed after Juan walked into our meeting and how Juan looked at Christina with admiration when I asked about how they fell in love and she went on to talk about his smile, his calmness and their time together in Europe. The connection in trust and kindness was clear, like what one feels towards someone you would protect with your life. That was the moment I knew my only job was to be there as seamlessly as possible, as a witness. It took a brief reminder that, that sunset was their last as boyfriend - girlfriend and stood aside while they played with the waves and hugged each other into the dusk.

Planning & design:
Hair:
Location:

Christina & Juan ⚡️| Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos

Space -

I’ve always felt visually drawn to the gaps of emptiness within space. A tall, open sky, the endless Pacific. And even though these feel infinite, doesn’t space require two parts to Be?

At least two points of reference are needed for distance and space to come into being. Space comes into being the moment the One becomes Two.

Nothing could be without space, yet space is nothing.

Stay still. Breath. ✨

Planning & Design:
Hair:
Dress:
Venue:

Lea & Erick✨ Effortlessly vibing | Hilton Los Cabos Wedding 🥂🍾

Mac & Josh | Villa Santa Cruz ✨These humans ✨ It took very little to understand the deep connection between Mac & Josh. There’s a vibration around them that anyone close can feel. It’s like becoming part of a non verbal conversation. One that declares loyalty, love and friendship. ✨ The life they live and love they create washes over everything and everyone they touch. 🌊

Molly & Tyler | Todos Santos Mx ✨
It was a warm golden day, people who had never met before where sharing jokes and calling each other family. Hugs were lasting longer than ever and anecdotes about Molly’s childhood and Tyler’s highscool years where floating in the air. The day was meant for them and love was building a future in slow motion, right before our eyes…✨

M&T may your love stay wild, warm & patient. May it continue to build stories and expand worlds. ✨

From Baja,
Jess 🌊

The Team


planner


todos
planner

Lauren + Corey | Villa Santa Cruz ✨🌊

Love needs very few words, very few promises, it needs very few.

Sometimes, you can see love in the way light leeks, shimmers & dances over the lovers shoulders or in the tight grip of a hug that feels like home, after a hard day.

Sometimes love makes its grand entrence in a simple movement, like the one that the wind makes when it plays with her hair.

Sometimes Iove shows itself through patience, through the simplicity of the everyday coming and going. Through deciding gracefully who walks the dogs in the morning or who picks up the laundry on the way home.

Sometimes that firing feeling of wanting to rip the sky open for the other, turns into sharing a homemade breakfast just to enjoy the morning breeze.

Sometimes… love flourishes & hides itself in the mundane, there, in plain sight to see. Through thick and thin. 🍃

Maclaine & Josh | Can not wait for your October wedding ⚡️⚡️⚡️

I thought many things while editing these. I remembered one of the first things Mac & Josh said when we met, was that it their first time ever doing a photoshoot and were nervous about being awkward on camera. ♥️ believe it or not, these two humans are not models! Haha

While on shoot, I felt a deep appreciation for their vulnerability and kept feeling grateful for holding the power of real, possible human connection through empathy. This is both a post about love as much as it is about embracing and being able to SEE beauty in the mundane. Cause it is there, I promise its there.

Maclaine & Josh, know that the emotion portrayed in these images is the one sawed after by actors, painters, musicians, writers and all kinds of artists. Except yours is the real deal and that is where beaty lives.

I saw it when Josh held Maclaine’s face like she was his undeniable treasure, I saw it when Mac laid her head to rest on Josh’s chest with closed eyes, giving into the freedom of trust.

I could have photoshopped Mac’s hair of Josh’s face when they held each other close or removed the fisherman behind. But I decided not to. Cause that day smelled like salt, the wind was in control of movement and as mundane and “everyday” as that seems, it was yours. It was perfect and it is important that we create and visualize our own personal, real experiences as “perfect”. Cause in a world of poses, REAL is the most beautiful exception.

See you in October 🙏🏽 thank you for the tremendous gift of trust. ♥️

Shelley & Rob ⚡️ | La Lobera Elopement |

I could cry all over watching these… As a firm believer of magic, I will fight anyone who says meeting Shelley & Rob wasn’t some act of kindness on destiny’s behalf.

I don’t think they have a clue of how much one’s heart grows at just watching them love each other. They hold magic. The kind that created perfection. The same magic that built these cliffs right out of the ocean. It took 30minutes and 1 latte for me to know. Shelley & Rob, cheers to the time and space you will create from here on 🥂. What a life. ⛰🏃‍♀️🏃🏻‍♂️

MUA | .dandelion._
Set |
-
-
-

Jordan & Dan | Todos Santos Love 🌵

3 diferentes dates over 2 years and the day finally came! It was perfect, joyful, filled with Dan’s mellow commitment and Jordan’s elegance and effortless balance.

I’ve become an admirer of the way you bounce light off each other and the admiration you hold for one another is joy to be around. 🥂 Cheers to you two!⚡️✨📸

-
-

Closer. | as would say, what is your wild?

What makes you feel the most unapologetically you? The most connected to your devine, perfect self…✨

-
-
-
#

Light will always shine through | Todos Santos ✨
Todd’s email: Jess, can you stand 20min away, bring a telephoto lens and walk in “stealth” mode behind us while I propose? (He really meant ninja style, incognito) 🙃🤣
Also Todd: Jess I can’t wait for later
Me: but I don’t have my camera with me
Todd: can you snap some IPhone photos? 🤣

He 100% improvised. It was everything. | at the end of the day, if there’s a crack, light will shine through, emotion will burst and the moment will be now. Like an explosion.

Writer Karla McLaren makes a point of saying that love is not an emotion, cause it doesn’t behave like one.

“Those things we’ve learned to equate with love—the longing, the physical attraction, the shared hobbies, the desire, the yearning, the lust, the projections, the addictive cycles, the passions—those things move and change and fluctuate in the way emotions do, but they’re not love, because love is utterly stable and utterly unaffected by any emotion. When we love truly, we can experience all our free-flowing, mood state, and intense emotions (including fear, rage, hatred, grief, and shame) while continuing to love and honor our loved ones. Love isn’t the opposite of fear, or anger, or any other emotion. Love is much, much deeper than that.”

-

Shooting Malissa & Douglas’s elopement filled me with total feels ✨ - From her wild soul and explosive laugh to his mellow eyes, the energy, I am still not quite sure for words on how to describe. All I know is that the amount of love and compliance flowing back and fourth between them spoke louder than words. ⚡️
-
-

Sunrise mist hit different the day Sarah read her vows to Andy overlooking the pacific cliffs. Andy, trying hard to hold back the tears, held her hand specially tight instead.🌊 There’s all kinds of lovers out there… Sarah and Andy touch each other in a way so subtle, so intimate and gentle it feels like they would break the world rather than each other. They look at each other like one who has found their truth.

I know eloping kind of stumbled it’s way into our lives with recent world events 😅 but come on! Have them stay! Honestly, it doesn’t even have to be a crazy backdrop like this one. (But 🤟🏽 if it is!) Figure out what makes your connection to each other special. What does your couple do that makes your heart speed up? Write your vows with those things in mind and when you are facing each other, in the warmth of silence that eloping holds, rejoice.❤️

Can’t get over how special this day was! There’s something extraordinary about watching two people open their hearts to each other out of love, passion and commitment. So grateful I get to meet and stand next to these beautiful couples, sharing their energy on a day so filled with electricity! ⚡️ Todos Santos and it’s mesmerizing, powerful Pacific Ocean does not fall short as a backdrop, of course. Let’s do it all over again ❤️

Loving life,

Jess

MUA:
Venue:
Second 📸:

Sarah & Andy | Todos Santos Elopement🪐⛰

Andy greeted us with a smile as he walked down the stairs of their complex Cabo apartment, the day was a little windy and for it being the first time ever shaking hands, there was a welcoming energy of someone who’s excited to share something personal with a close friend.

Claudia and I walked in to find Sarah at the door trying to keep their playful puppy family from bursting out. Warmly, they shared the story of how they met as neighbors, both far from home and ended up finding home in each other. Mexican bolero music playing in the background, they cooked Argentinian empanadas, we drank kamboocha and snapped some photos. I watched... and noticed; Andy, has a specific smile he only uses for Sarah and Sarah looks at Andy as if he was the entire world. The kind of love that transcends cultural barriers, language, times & spaces.

We talked about family and love for the ocean as if we were long time friends. Before saying goodbye, we agreed to meet again on June 26th at 6am at the skirts of the Todos Santos Old Port.

2 months later, the first time Andy saw Sarah in her wedding dress and the last time Sarah could call Andy her “novio”, was during sunrise overlooking the Pacific, a few hrs before saying “I Do”.

MUA:
Venue:
Second 📸

-
-
-

Big bad crush for these two ⚡️ quick to take off their shoes and play with the Pacific 🌊 | Todos Santos MX

Scroll for the un-posed, loose hair, barefoot action 🖤 every single part of a wedding day is important, but these are by far my favorite. These are the ones that I know will crack a smile on Rachel & Brian’s face when they goes back to them, or when their son is older, these are the shots they’re going to see and know he came from a place of love 📸 Promise to always be that person snapping away unexpectedly, cause life peeks through the best when we let go.

Planning- &
Flowers-
Venue-

-
-
-