My name is Annie Tao. I am a photographer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. I specialize in lifestyle photography where you get to play, hang out, and be yourself. I capture the moments, real emotions and stories that occur during our time together. Check here often or subscribe to my blog (RSS feed) to see what I am up to or get creative inspiration. Thanks for visiting! 
I scoured through thousands of my client photos and pondered my philosophy on photographing people. What I realized was that my philosophy was incredibly simple.
Looking at all these gorgeous faces and families, my heart melts a little. I hope you’ll enjoy it. ~annie
Want to see more? Yippeee… here’s a video on why you should choose Lifestyle Photography.
While editing last weekend’s photos of Jeff, Louisa, and their adorable, playful munchkins, I can hear upbeat music… wait for it… even when I’m not playing music!
I know, I know how this sounds, and it’s not good. However, that’s what Joy is like to me. I can hear happy music. I can feel joy in my heart. And it makes me want to go out and hug someone or volunteer in a soup kitchen or rescue another puppy. (In case my husband is reading this…. honey, it’ll only be 5 more puppies. heh heh)
Check out my visual story of Joy…
This two-day Commercial Photography project was ACTION-PACKED! I toured all around the San Francisco Bay Area to meet managers and senior executives who hired City College of San Francisco (CCSF) students and graduates. It was a diverse set of businesses in terms of industry, company size and job type.
Some businesses I photographed were: Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, BMW of San Francisco, McCalls Catering and Events, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Michael Raifsnider Law Office, and United Airlines.
Photographing real people in their actual workplace during work hours in a lifestyle way is exciting. There was constant movement all around us, limited time, and distracting elements at each location. Yet, very quickly, I had to decide how and where to shoot that will tell the visual story I wanted.
See what I mean? Exciting, right?!! 
I am washed with a feeling of calm and friendship whenever I see Sara and Brian. They just have that way about them, I can’t explain it, but it’s somewhat magical.
And I’ve known their boys since they were babies. I still pinch myself that I get to watch these cuties grow up as part of my “job”!
At the end of their photoshoot, Aidan walked up to me completely unprompted and said in the sweetest voice, “Thank you for taking our pictures!” Awwwwww. I feel so much gratitude for being able to do what I love…with the people whom I love… in a city that I love. That’s a whole lot o’ love!
