I went here for my son's 1 yr pics. I had looked over pictures online and saw they were pretty good for the area we are in. When I go to the place the front desk girl was very sweet, our photographer was not.
She (photographer) acted as if we putting her out because we were doing an offsite session rather then in the studio (which we gave notice to when we made the appointed weeks in advance, we also paid an extra fee for this). I caught a glimpse of her roller her eyes to her assistance (who was extra nice) because we also brought props.
Once we got to the site she told us to follow her, but I had to get my props out. They were balloons, a basket and the letters O, N, E, which all fit in the basket. It took only a few seconds to pull it all out and also having to take a one year old as well, takes a little bit longer, maybe a few more extra minutes. She was again rolling her eyes like she was in a big hurry... I didn't mind paying an extra fee for going over the time limit, but she did. I could understand going over the time limit if there were extra people who had other appointments or if it was late, but she had told us earlier that we were her last clients and it was 4pm. Even if she got out late from out session (which she didn't) there was still plenty of time to do other things.
When we set everything up she told us to stand in certain spots, fine, and then she started to take pics, at first I thought it was for a lighting check, but it was actual pics, she didn't tell us that she was ready. She had us rush putting my son in the basket, didn't let me calm him down, so our pictures didn't come out very nice either. We got things set up pretty fast and taken all in about 15 min. Just enough time for her to go enjoy her happy hour with friends. I assume her assistant felt bad, because she was trying to help me, but everytime she did the photographer gave her this look of fury. I felt bad for the poor girl, she was caught in a very tight and tough situation.
All I was asking for was at least 15 more minutes or at least someone who didn't make me feel rushed. These pictures were very important to me, and paying that much money for pictures I was hoping for quality. At the end of the session I knew the pictures were going to turn out horrible.
They both had told me that they would be ready in a week or so. After I called them asking if my pictures had been done. She said that they had been sitting there for a while someone should have called me about it. I never got a phone call or message. I needed the pictures a week from the day I called so I was kinda frantic. I asked if I could go by and take a look there a week or two wait for me to look at them. I was then even more upset because if they called me when they were ready I would have had them on time.
I had to send other people to look at my pictures and since I was unable to see them myself I bought the disk to see how they all turned out, and my family chose the pictures to print.
I was right. The pictures were pretty awful. Bad quality, bad poses, bad lighting. It was a bright sunny day and the pictures looked like it was gloomy and rainy. The position that my sons pictures were in, were weird, like she was just taking pictures to get it over with.
Sadly, I could have don't better with my camera phone.
I'm giving no star for the photographer, hopefully she got fired or something. I can't even remember her name. Sad.
And one star for the girl working the desk. She could only do so much and the only part of the whole experience that I liked. Bryan if you are reading this I would suggest you do customer ratings for your photographers next time. Or at least schedule photographers that like working with kids before you send someone who thinks she's better then family portraits. By the way, she wasn't. She still needs to work on her skills. The pictures were poorly done. Sears has better photographers. read more
