We bought a groupon from here almost a year ago for a couples engagement photo session. We had never taken professional pictures together and I had only taken them once before when I was graduating high school. We just wanted a nice shot of us on the beach so I could use them for our save the date cards.
Well... we drove all the way up to the N. Shore. It was very hot and the sun was setting. Jerry kept putting us directly facing the setting sun for the first 30 minutes or so of the shoot even though our eyes were watering from trying to hold them open while looking into the sun. I kept thinking to myself "this cannot be right.. can it?" Then we were put in the most awkward and unnatural poses. It should have been obvious to anyone that we felt unconfortable and looked stiff, but Jerry just kept snapping away and directing us into more poses that we couldn't even understand how to get into.
We finally got our online gallery put up and I literally waited until the expiration of our date to choose the print that came with our groupon, b/c we hated all the pictures and couldn't decide which to get. Our eyes were squinted almost shut in about 30-40% of the pictures, and in about 40% more my hair was in one or both of our faces, or flying around in the breeze. The rest we just looked very unnatural and posed in and didn't even look like ourselves. I finally decided I wouldn't be using them for save the dates anyways b/c they weren't good enough, and just picked the one with the best scenery for the prints.
Then I went online to place the order, and my gallery was gone, I called and emailed and got a response from the secretary who said it would be back up the next day. Went back on and it wasn't, emailed again and was told it would be fixed right away. Next day, still no access to the gallery. Finally after about 4 or 5 emails and 3 or 4 phone calls I was able to place the order for the prints I didn't really want.
They are still sitting in the envelope they were mailed in, tucked away in my desk drawer. What a waste of $75, not to mention that anxiety we now feel about having more pictures taken at our wedding. Luckily our wedding photographer, who is NOT hawaiianpix!! (obviously), has agreed to take a free engagement session of us to help us feel comfortable and to make up for the mistake with Hawaiianpix.
Sorry I hate to be negative, but it just was not at all what we were looking for and felt very awkward and staged. Maybe we prefer a different and more journalistic, natural style of photography. Or maybe we just don't want squinty eyes and fly away hair in all our pics.... read more