Photography has always been the heart of Snapbox Collective

Before there were booths, there was a camera.

I picked up photography in 2003, and it quickly became the way I paid attention to the world. Behind the lens, I learned to notice the small things: the half second before a laugh, the glance between two people who love each other, the light that makes an ordinary moment feel like something worth keeping.

Ten years later, in 2013, my daughter was turning one. I wanted her party to feel joyful and personal, so I pulled together my own camera gear and built a photo booth. It was simple and a little scrappy, but something happened that day that I didn't expect. Guests who usually hide from cameras were jumping in front of it. Grandparents were laughing with toddlers. Friends who hadn't seen each other in years were squeezing into frames together. That booth captured a side of people that a posed portrait rarely does.

That was the beginning of Snapbox Photo Booth Co.

Over the years we've grown, added new booths, and served events all across the Bay Area. Today Snapbox Photo Booth Co and Photos by Rikki live together under one name, Snapbox Collective. But no matter how much has changed, the heart of it hasn't. Every booth we set up and every event we shoot starts with the same thing I fell in love with back in 2003: the belief that a great photo isn't really about the camera. It's about the people in front of it, and the feeling of a moment you'll want to come back to.

When you book with us, you're getting more than equipment. You're getting someone who has spent more than twenty years learning how to see people at their best. That's what we bring to every celebration, and it's what I hope you feel when you look back at your photos years from now.

Today our photographer moves through your event the way a good guest would: present, easygoing, and paying attention. We catch the laughs, the tears, the dance floor, and all the in between moments, without stopping the party to line people up. No stiff poses, just real storytelling.