INTRODUCTION

My name is OC Yousif and I write stories. I'm not like the usual fiction or blog author though. 

My stories are written with light, and they are usually about love, the most beautiful thing in the world.

I'm a wedding photographer, and capturing the fairy tales of the Bride and the Groom that are in love and are getting married has been my passion for a long time.

With the magic of my camera, lights, the right settings and venue decorations, I'm able to show everyone else exactly what the wedding couple is feeling inside. The unimaginable beauty of love, the excitement of a new journey, the butterflies in the stomach.

And one thing that's so fascinating is that though every story is the same, they couldn't be more different. Because people are always the same and at the same time, always different.

Exploring that mystery is what brings the unpredictable to my work, and these are the stories I like to share about the wedding couple.

But perhaps you should know me better. That way you'll better understand why I do the things I do.

I was born on April 6, 1984, in Iraq, to a family whose bloodline goes way back to Assyrian Christians.

That was before the Gulf war but smack right in the middle of the Iraq-Iran war. Since I also experienced the former, you could say my experience of war is lifelong.

I've been in love with movies since I was a kid. And my favorites have always been superhero movies because there's that constant sense of justice, and the heroes fighting for what's right.

I loved movies so much that I wanted to be an actor and save worlds on the screen. How's that for ambition in an Arab boy?

More important to my story was that I had an uncle who was a movie director in the local Iraqi industry. One day he visited our home with this documentary about how films were made. It was definitely an 'Aha!' moment for me and completely changed my life.

From that second all I wanted to do was make films, and that hasn't changed in three decades.

In Iraq, then and pretty much now, your parents decide what profession you pursue. Since tech was (still is) considered lucrative, I went on to college to do a course on IT, despite my interest in movies.

The gulf war lasted until 2003. When it was over, I started a job with the Coalition Force (specifically U.S. Army) working in the Human Rights department as a Data Entry specialist. 2006 brought new troubles for Iraq, and with hundreds of thousands of other refugees, I left my homeland for Lebanon.

Lebanon, despite the similarities, was still a different country with a different history and culture. I was determined to keep pursuing my passion and was lucky enough to land a job in a Wedding Photography Studio. The job wasn’t great; as the ‘office boy’ my duties included cleaning the studio and making coffee for clients.

Not that I cared. I would have happily swept chimneys for the opportunity to learn how to use a camera and lights, and learn I did.

I watched everything the experienced cameramen and video editors did in that studio. I was like a sponge, such was my passion for creating visuals, whether videography or photography.

Fate was on my side, because some seven months afterward, one of the video editors quit. The studio boss put out ads for a new editor. It was just the opportunity I was waiting for. I knew I still had some ways to go, but I was confident that I had learned enough to at least start.

So, I told my boss I could do the job. He was highly amused at first, but I was able to convince him to give me a trial run. “Ok go try,” he agreed.

I made my very first wedding video in 2007 and the results were pretty good. So good in fact that my boss essentially gave me a promotion. I was to stop doing office maintenance work and concentrate exclusively on editing wedding films.

Things were picking up, and then, as it often happens, opportunity came knocking again- but with a scary hammer. The thing is, after 5 months of working and learning as a video editor, the editor whose job I had taken, returned. 

He didn't like me doing his job and wasn’t careful about showing it, so the studio became really tense for everyone.

I began to look for another job, naturally, but this time, I was actually qualified and had editing experience.  As it happened the job I landed was for one of the top wedding photography studios in Lebanon.

While there, the studio chief noticed my passion for creating distinctive videos and took me under his wing. This was my real ‘Film School’ experience, and it was done hands-on and practically.

I was taken to wedding after wedding and taught videography, photography, lighting, and all the other techniques I would need to make exceptional wedding films. It was marvellous.

At the same time that I was falling in love with making movies again, I was also falling head over heels for a beautiful girl named Patricia, who is now my wife. It was a very special time, realizing my passion for film and finding a life partner.

Soon after, I got the opportunity to migrate permanently to the US. It was a once-only offer, and though, naturally, I was nervous about leaving the only culture I had known all my life, in the end, there was really only one good choice. So I came to the USA.

I arrived in the United States in 2010 and immediately began to look for a job. Here was my chance to achieve the American Dream, and I was going to grab it with both hands.

The United States was at the same time exhilarating and somewhat frightening. It confirmed all my best expectations but also all my wildest fears. Job hunting in the US was quite tedious, and I met a lot of interesting people and studios.

As always, I was on a learning curve, from both the good and the bad. I learned how to get better from the good, and what not to even touch from the bad. In the end, both experiences have made me stronger, as well as who I am today.

Six years after I arrived in the states, and many jobs later, I decided it was time. I was going to start my own firm and so, OC Yousif Photography was born in San Diego, California. That was in September 2016, and it’s been an exciting ride since.

My vision for my Wedding Films Studio is simple. I want to preserve, as much as possible for all eternity, that special day in your life. And I bring to this task all the drive, vision, interest and passion that brought me as a little boy from Iraq to a 38-year-old business owner here in America.

Loyalty, integrity, hard work, and constantly learning and innovating have been my strength all these years, and that’s what you will find OC Yousif Photography doing for you on your day.

For us, there are no hours and no limits. We don’t quit until the job is done- and done well.

My story is just beginning and my journey is far from done. As I look back to my days in Iraq and Lebanon, I’m confident that purpose gave me the strength and resilience to keep pushing forward. This is the same purpose that takes me out of bed each morning in this new country of mine. 

It is also a promise of sorts, a commitment not to quit until the dream is your reality. As I live every day in this new dream, I hope you will join me. I hope also, you will be inspired by my story to make me part of yours on your special day.

As we say back home, Bil tawfiq (بالتوفيق), Good luck always.