Don't let the $$$$ confuse you on a high end experience. I have never been so disappointed in my life. I booked 1hr custom session for my Daughters 1st Birthday and drove over an hour to get there. My appointment was changed twice; once without my knowledge. I got my 1 week prior appointment reminder for 5pm instead of 10am. I immediately contacted ZG. For the next week literally until the evening before my daughter's session was spent going back in forth with ZG trying to get it straightened out (I booked 4/5 at 10am, agreed to move to 4/4 at 10am, moved to 5pm without my permission, finally settled on 4/4 at 11am) I was completely stressed out. They apparently moved my appointment for better lighting to do outside photos, they just failed to notify me of the change or why it was needed. I was unable to do 5pm so I agreed to move the entire shoot inside, which would "limit" things.
The day of the session, it was a high of 63 but had only reach mid 50's with an overcast and chance of rain. We arrived early and parked in the designated area and wait to walk up. It was a private residence and when we round the corner to go to the main house we were met by Kelly and her assistant and directed us to a side stand alone garage. All that money and they had no indoor studio!!! They seriously had moved some storage props out of the garage into the driveway all stacked up to make room and set up a back drop inside. The provided wardrobe was 1 rack of clothes with about 6 outfits for her age. I had only brought the smash cake outfit with me as instructed. It was cold and the space was not inviting at all. They had 1 small personal heater and had to leave the garage door up for lighting. I had to change my baby in open cold garage. She cried the entire time and wanted me to hold her. She was scared and uncomfortable. We didn't even use up the whole hour. I just wanted to get her out of there. My whole purpose in booking was to get some beautiful over the top glam photos with a small cake smashing photos at the end just for the experience. The only photos that even turned out from out session were some of the smash cake.
Things you should definitely know before booking:
1- I think mini sessions are the way to go...she can herd you in like cattle and spend 5-10 minutes with you in a pre-set theme so there is no confusion or expectation with words like custom or personal experience
2- Don't overpay...she has sales all the time on the sitting fees and she gets you with the digital prints. Your option to buy is 1,5, or all and the price points just lead you to buy them all anyway
3- Zebra presents as high end and exclusive. This is all just marketing. She only releases certain themes for certain days and limited slots. She creates the illusion of demand
4- They only communicate via email and social media. I gave her my number twice since there was so much confusion so she could just call, but they never did...what they did do was avoid direct questions...like is the studio in your home? Was my 10am appointment given to someone else or is it still available? 7 days to have a conversation that would have taken 5 minutes.
5- I received 116 digital images and literally about 10 were good.
6- When your images are ready you'll get an email to your online gallery. You have 3 days to purchase or you have to $25 to reactivate. Once you pay it take 24-48 hours to process and they will send you an email with link to download and take water mark off photo gallery. You have 3 days download onto your computer or disk or pay a $25 reactivation fee. This was also a horrible experience after doing as instructed it downloaded empty files. Contacted them and it was resent and tried again. Same thing happened again. She finally agreed to send a disk. Over a week went by no word, no disc. Contacted them again and she sent that day
7- When booking you enter a contract that completely benefits ZB--- ZB reserves all rights to the photos to use however they want and you are only issued copy rights. I somehow missed that fine print and my daughter was plastered all over FB
8- Bring your own outfits...saying she has a complete provided wardrobe is a far fetch
I am sure in the perfect setting and happy baby/child she can produce beautiful work. This whole was a disaster and honestly with better communication, her being upfront with her facilities, and just rescheduling maybe some of this could have been prevented. read more