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.
Roberta and Alex wanted to have their shoot in Arizona where they’d be around cacti and the warm sun.
Except we didn’t go to Arizona, and it wasn’t very warm. 
We did, however, find cacti, and it was SO COOL. It looked like we walked into a page of a Dr. Seuss book. Oh, two out of five of us got pricked though. (This story has taken a turn.) One was to a child’s finger and drew blood, and one was on an old lady (ehem!) who thought the long leaf would bend when she walked into it, so it stabbed her in the noggin like a needle sword! (Okay it was meeee! I know, I’m graceful – haha.)
Anyhow, check out their sneak peek. In case you couldn’t tell, we had a blast!
Did you know food waste contributes to global warming? If food waste were a country, it would come third after the U.S. and China in terms of its contribution to global warming! (Read this Washington Post article if you want to learn more or go straight to StopWaste.org.)
Partnering with Underground Agency and StopWaste to shoot an ad campaign that will educate and hopefully decrease food waste felt so good. We all need to step it up to help the environment!
The shoot involved photographing different families with produce. We had 2 long tables full of fresh fruits and vegetables to choose from — such as the most beautiful collard greens, carrots, sugar snap peas, basil, strawberries, and pears — so the entire studio smelled fantastic.
The challenge of creating emotive images in a studio environment was a big one (and may have allegedly caused tummy rollercoaster feelings the week before – ehem), but I had to remind myself to approach the shoot the way I would any other shoot: relax, have fun, and be myself so that my subjects can do all those things too!
The result: heartwarming images that take my breath away. ❤️ ️Now that’s a better kind of ‘warming’.
I won’t tell you how much I love this family.
I won’t tell you how special it is to have friends who believe in you, encourage you, and support you.
I won’t tell you how fun this photoshoot was and how much I laughed.
I won’t tell you how smart and cool and humble Alex is, and how teary I get thinking about how he’ll be in College next year.
I won’t tell you how talented Sam and Marissa are, and how much they blow me away.
I love this family.
Shoot, okay I lied. I WANT TO SHOUT IT ALL!
