I am only giving 1 star because zero stars is not an option! I heard about this company from a preschool. They were doing a fund raiser and this 'professional' company was offering mini sessions. They were very friendly at first and even helped tie my 5yr olds shoes. However, it all went down hill from there. My 5yr old follows directions and is very photogenic. The picture I received of him makes him look like an old man with a bump on his forehead. The filters they used were absolutely awful and they cropped out the adorable background! They also cropped some of my photos in a square shape so I can not get normal prints made. I have to get 3x3 instead of 4x6. (Not that I'm ever going to print this garbage but that's not the point.) We also took a family photo and the way my husband was sitting, he looks like a giant. We asked the photographer if he looked too tall and they said he looked fine. They had no idea what they were doing and didn't give us much direction on how to pose or anything. The lighting was awful and there are shadows all over. My 2 yr old was cranky so I wasn't expecting much out of him. However, the few times he did smile, the photographer missed it because he was busy deleting other people's photos off of his memory card. He would literally delete 1 photo of another client then take 1 photo of my kids. It was very slow and time consuming. I've never seen a photographer so unprepared. After the session, the photographer said our photos would be sent to us via Dropbox in 24 hours. We ended up waiting nearly a week to receive 'edited' photos that are unusable. Since it was a holiday I decided to look past the tardiness of the photos but when I contacted them to complain about the quality of the photos, they were extremely rude. It was then I found out they were just starting their company and trying to build a portfolio. I asked for all my unedited photos and I'd be satisfied and they told me no. They have not offered anything to try and make this right and instead have threatened to sue me for harassment and slander. I don't believe this company to have a valid business licence as they refused to provide me with the information and all the searches I've done through the DOL and BBB does not show them as a known business. These people have cheep prices but it's not worth the crap they spit out. I know several photographers that have very reasonable prices that actually do quality work. Please do not hire these people. Nothing good will come of it. read more

Emerald City Visuals - My son looks like he has a bruise on his forehead because of the terrible lighting and filters. - Session Photography Near Me

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We went to a preschool fundraiser who hired Emerald City Visuals as a professional photographer for mini sessions. We talked to the preschool and they stated they were shown a portfolio that did not compare in any way to the photographs we received. I have taken some online photography courses for dslr cameras and don't consider myself an expert in any way, but as these photographers were shooting the angles and cropping seemed off from what I could quickly see from the back of their camera. I trusted them as they were the professionals. I didn't even ask and we were also told we would have be pictures back in 3 days. We received an email the day we were supposed to receive pictures and were told it would be another week. The photos were sent via Dropbox and once downloaded I noticed that not only was the cropping very odd making pictures almost a square but not quite, the rule of thirds was also not in place and my kids were centered oddly with their feet cut off. Nothing you learn in a beginning photography class was followed here. Parts of the pictures were blurry, some had very blue filters over them and some were on the orange side. I wasn't sent a single picture of the kids and me until I emailed and asked, once sent these pictures they were better than any of the precious pictures I was sent. I had also asked to receive an un cropped (so I could actually order a 4x6 if I could salvage it) and un edited copy of my favorite picture of my boys (it was the one with a really blue filter over it) and this request was ignored twice with no explanation (these messages were sent via facebook messenger so I could tell when they read them and never responded). Now this was a 15 minute mini session with an adorable backdrop. I only expected to get one awesome picture and instead got 7-10 blurry or odd ones. Nothing usable. The adorable backdrop isn't in any of my pictures as they are all taken way too close. I was very disappointed with my experience as I was hoping to use a picture for Christmas cards. read more

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I would give them zero stars if I could. I hired this couple thinking that I was getting a great deal on my wedding photos. My heart is broken that I sacrificed quality for cost. I found them on Facebook actually. The wife had advertised that she was working on her portfolio so she would be offering photos at a majorly discounted rate...$150 for 4 hours. Sounds great right? Sure it does. And the photos they had posted up were very pretty. From the get go, I received very little communication after I had paid them upfront for our booking. They came and met us at our venue the week before our wedding, for the first time. I was stressed by then. We went through everything...times, poses, the program etc. I found out then that she was not going to be doing my photos anymore, it would be her husband. That was fine by me, so we pressed on. Her husband showed up an hour late, claiming that his GPS took him somewhere else. Well, he had sent me an email that I didn't see until I went back to work saying that he wasn't thinking he needed to be there until 2...but we booked 1...for 4 hours. So his stories didn't match up. And the whole time he was there, I felt like he was ready to leave. He came up to me at one point said "I think I got everything I need." Well no...we hadn't done the garter toss, or bouquet toss...I didn't even get a photo of my husband and I and our kids. How about you ask me if we got everything? No pictures with my bridesmaids individually...nothing like that. He did not pose anyone in any of the formal pictures so every picture is gappy. All of the photos where the couples were walking out are blurry. It's just all awful. I posted a review on their facebook page, but they have now taken their review tab down so people can't see the reviews. He emailed me the other day, too to "clear some things up" saying that I had only booked 2 hours and went on about how great of a deal I got. Ok Sean and Chasity, you were awful and I fully regret ever hiring you. And I think it's a shame that you would take this sort of stuff on with your obvious lack of experience or willingness to make such beautiful memories for people. Shame on you both for stealing that from other photographers who would have done such a better job. It's a sham. DO NOT HIRE THIS COUPLE IF YOU WANT GOOD PICTURES. read more

Had a session a few weeks back, and was worried that my son wouldnt sit down for the pictures. But Chasity help me calm my son down. We got tons of pictures and had an amazing photoshoot I will def. use them again. read more

So I had the.... Unfortunate... experience to have signed up at a preschool fundraiser for a holiday photo shoot (15 min). The preschool hired this company (Emerald City Visuals) and the set up was so cute we were all very excited to sign up and have photos of our kiddos done. When I arrived, they seemed nice, but wouldn't take photos until my kids were posed and sitting still, which with a 2 & 4 yr old wasn't happening. So after about 4 min, I told them not to worry about taking photos of my 2 yr old and brought him over to me. They then posed my 4 yr old who sat and smiled and posed for them until we left, which was earlier than the 15 min. I was told by the photographer without any prompting that I would have the photos by Thanksgiving to share with friends and family. Here are the main issues I have with this "photographer" and company. 1. The photos were sent via drop box, so to receive the photos you must download and sign up for another service. 2. The photos were poorly edited and cropped and filtered terribly. And until I complained about it, NONE of the photos were quality. After I complained and wrote a review, since they didn't respond to me, I got another email where they exchanged some of the photos for a couple that could still not be used for anything due to the poor cropping and terrible filters, but were still better than the first batch. (A few featured on their facebook page look like child zombies with pink eyes because they tried to do color pop, but clearly have no idea how to... very professional indeed). 3. I wrote about my experience where I was responded to with "You only did pay for a 15 min mini session. The photos were edited and it's a mini session and you got professional photos. Due to movement by your 2yr old some came out distorted and or blurry that why there wasn't a lot to choose from. This is why its usually best to purchase a full session not a mini session. Also the younger the children are sometime its hard to get them to set up or pose." Let me add to this one, if you want to be taken seriously as a photographer and list yourself as a family or lifestyle photographer, be ready to take photos of children, families and pets. Also, don't sign up to "donate" time to do a fundraiser for a preschool if you cannot take photos of children unless they are perfectly still. Toddlers, preschoolers or any children I know of (as a mother, nanny and photographer) DO NOT stay still no matter how well you try to pose them and tell them to stay. And do not tell a client that they paid for a mini session so they get crappy photos or they should have done a full session. Mini's are designed to build your clientele and to showcase your work, if you give them poor quality guess what?! THEY DO NOT COME BACK and word of mouth isn't so great and then you have to do what they did and turn off the commenting for reviews because there were so many unhappy clients that they seemed to be overwhelmed... I did sign up for a mini session, and I was also told I would get professional photos. They basically just told me they couldn't get 1 good photo in 15 min, so why would I pay triple the price for a full session for maybe 1 photo?! 4. Do not tell your clients you will have photos by a specific date and not get the photos to them until a week later, especially without communicating. I never asked when the photos would be ready, but when the photographer said they would be to me by Thanksgiving to be able to share with family and friends, I then expected that. A week later a couple of blurry, blinking, distorted photos showed up in my inbox in what I thought was a spam email because I had to sign up for dropbox with nothing in the subject line other than "Sean via Dropbox" for the folder Johnson. Be detailed and put "mini shoot from _____________", or let your clients know "I only send photos via dropbox, so expect an email from me _____." And be sure to tell them your name... I had no idea who Sean was. 5. DO NOT SEND PHOTOS OF OTHER PEOPLES CHILDREN TO OTHER PEOPLE WITHOUT CONSENT! Big no, no! If you don't have the time to BE a photographer, please do not advertise until you can successfully be a professional in demeanor and artisty. I never authorized photos of my children to be privately sent to strangers. Sean was also kind enough to send me a facebook message saying: "This is you first and final warning. At this moment you are slandering our company. I understand you didn't like your experience, but you are really taking it to far. If you continue I will file slander charges in King County Superior Court. -Sean Sibert-Owner" This message was him responding to my activity on the facebook page where I commented that a girl's eyes were pink. FYI: slan·der slandr noun The action or crime of making a false spoken statement damaging to a person's reputation I am aware of what the meaning of slander is and can say with complete certainty that all of this review is true. read more

Emerald City Visuals - The "featured" photo of my boys... in 15 min this is the best shot they got?? - Session Photography Near Me

This is not the photographer for you IF you expect a professional photographer to take at least one good picture. I signed up for a fundraiser mini session and was just hoping for 1 picture of my 7 month old son. The pre school had a VERY cute set up for the pictures and I dressed my son to "match". I got there about 10 minutes early and they were ahead of schedule so I was able to go right in. The photographer (man) and his wife or girlfriend were there, she took my son and sat him down while the photographer laid on his side with his camera and began taking pictures while I spoke to my son so he would smile. My son stayed completely still and smiled a handful of times, the photographer never moved, he laid on his side the entire time, I was a little concerned about this but thought "hey he is a professional he knows what he is doing". After about 5 minutes we laid my son on his stomach and the photographer then decided to sit, he took about 5 more pictures of my son on his stomach and then said "I think we're good". I was there for no more then 10 minutes, again I wasn't upset because I understand that with a baby there are only so many "poses". All in all it didn't seem like a bad experience, until I received my pictures via drop box. They were horrific. I could take better pictures on my phone. The filter(s) they used made his face look red and blotchy, they were all very zoomed in on his face and you couldn't see the background. They cropped them really weird and square. Not a single usable picture. Oh and I only got one picture of him smiling? He smiled a lot and sat completely still so he could've at least had different angles. I messaged him after I received the pictures and asked for the unedited versions of the pictures, she (his wife?) responded and said she was at work but would look into it later that day, 2 days passed and I didn't receive anything so I messaged again, and she again responded that they are working but will get to it that evening, well that was 3 days ago and still nothing. Don't hire them, even if it seems like a good deal. Not worth your money or time. read more

Don't bother. A wedding shoot should have more than 70 pictures(I got less than this) when you are there more than 4 hours, of the photos i did get a third were duplicates or things I could have given a crap less about. Sean said it would be about a week before we got the pictures back we said OK cool. A week later we started looking for an email from him a few days after that we contacted the person who signed the contract(they live there we don't) they contacted him as they hadn't heard from him either, he claimed somebody in the family had died. OK we understood that is a major thing, he said he would have them to us in another week, 2 weeks later we got pictures and were told that was the first few, weeks later when we had our person contact them again they said they were working on it. A few months later I took it into my own hands and contacted them via Facebook myself I contacted them after they were closed but still got a response and she said she would look into it and get back to me the following day. I know businesses can be crazy and you don't always get to things when you plan to so I gave it a few days before messaging to ask if she had heard anything. A few days later when she responded I was told that because of the low price we had paid we had got all we were getting and I should be happy with it, that any further photos or copies would be $5 each. we love some of them most of them not so much. It wasn't worth the price we paid for it and that was with getting a super cheap price from a deal. I wish I had had somebody else do my wedding photos even an ammature could have done the same job and I could have had more photos. drop boxing Pictures of the tables and the DJ station but not of the brides flowers and the couples rings after they specifically ask for those shots (which he did take) with no explanation of why they weren't included is bull, if they had said those photos didn't come out well I would have been disappointed but not mad it happens, but no explanation and then getting shitty with me doesn't make me happy. i just noted something on here all of these bad reviews and one good the difference? the person who took the pictured all of the bad reviews even mine sean was the person who took the pictures read more