I cannot express how disappointed I was with both Melissa' photography skills and her professionalism. I had to arrange 29 family members to meet in the park for a family picture for my Grandmother's 90th birthday party. 6 of the family members live out of state, and so this was a one-time shot. I wish more than anything I would have done more research before I hired Melissa. She had a very nice website, so I went off of that. Melissa showed up, gave us no directions on where to stand, how to position our hands, etc. We paid $150 for 45 minutes, and 12 images. She kept one hand in her pocket the entire time. How can a professional photographer not tell people where to stand or use both hands to take pictures?! A week later when she emailed the results, I suppose it shouldn't have come as a surprise... but she only had FOURTEEN pictures to choose from. 12 of 14. What a selection. The biggest problem was - one of my cousin's heads wasn't in ANY of the pictures! When I pointed this out to her she said "it wasn't my fault he moved, you can see most of his head in the first picture." This is not an issue of artistic differences. She doesn't even guarantee everyone will be in the shot. I understand that it is difficult to get 29 people (including a lot of children's) eyes open, or smiling, etc., but that is why you don't take your finger off the shutter! And at least make sure that you can see their heads! I honestly could have taken better pictures when I was 10 years old.
It gets worse. When I expressed my disappointment, I expected that she would have looked at the pictures, been embarrassed, and offer to give me a discount. I offered to take 3 of the least awful pictures for $60. She said no. My only options were a re-shoot (not possible, people don't live here), a total refund (we were out of time on getting my grandma the present) or all 12 for the $150. She has absolutely no pride in her work. She said I must be out to hurt her business by either bad mouthing her or trying to "take money that she earned." In the end, I was forced to pay for pictures that are absolutely laughable. You'd be better off by asking a random person on the street to take a picture with your iPhone. read more