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    10 years ago

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    Ask the Community - Akelis Studios Photography

    Focus Photography

    Focus Photography

    (7 reviews)

    The photographs are excellent. We were immediately put at ease and delighted to work with the man…read morebehind the camera in our two-hour on-location photo shoot at Portland Head Light. The stepping stones, water features, and flowers provided a captivating backdrop. The photographer developed a friendly rapport with our son immediately, which worked wonders. We were allowed to change clothes during the shoot and had a wonderful relaxed day at the ocean capturing memories. Before I booked I asked if we would be provided a password-protected online web gallery with our proofs. I was told yes. That was a lie. About a month after the photo shoot we logged in to a screen-sharing program from Maine to Washington. We spoke on the phone with Lucia as she slowly showed us images to choose from. This was not a password-protected web page, this was a live duplicate of her computer's screen. From her desktop she controlled display of the images. She could click through on a thumbnail to enlarge a photo, and she could crop images if she so choose. She was driving. This was absolutely not a web page we could peruse at our leisure. The process of figuring out how much the package would cost was simply excruciating. To establish a price point we were told several times during the phone conversation, "The price depends on how many prints you get. I don't know how many you can't live without, so I can't answer your question now . . ." Seriously, that is a quote that I remember many months later. "I need to show you all of the photos before we can discuss price." Seriously. We asked four times and four times were told we could not discuss price. Then the sale needed be closed. Near the end of the call she proceeded to rattle off three or four packages which involved mental arithmetic so fast she lost my Microsoft software developer husband. We had to write down the prices. We had to ask her to and click on images, over, and over, and over. We couldn't see the images side by side. This may be shrewd business practice, but it is not the optimal customer service experience. The process bothered me a lot. The reason I felt so manipulated was because I was lied to about our being able to see the prints on a password-protected web page. That was false advertising. If you are reading my Yelp review and planning a photo shoot, please beware. If you do a wedding or other once-in-a-lifetime experience, I hope you can sign a contract in advance with the prices - not just of the shoot, but of the full package options. I did not ask for that in advance and I wish I had. Two more things I want potential customers to know: Number one, I had no itemized invoice. Yeah, that's kind of important, now that I think about it. I had no proof that I paid for a print to be shipped to my mother. When I called about a month after my mother's birthday I asked my mom about the print I had ordered for her. (Mom said she hadn't received anything.) I called Lucia immediately. Lucia checked my customer record, and said she could not immediately find an order for my mother. I persisted and asked her to look at my invoice. After several minutes she clicked a few buttons on her machine and said (with honest surprise in her voice), "Oh you DID order another print, but it was going to ship to another address." She apologized profusely. The 10"×10" print was sent to my mother; my mother was incredibly angry when I told her what happened. She said, "You should call the Better Business Bureau on them!" Number two, the company misrepresents the privacy practices they say there are providing to customers. Here is a quote from the e-mail that explained how I could get my digital download: "If you have any questions or problems downloading the filed [sic] please let us know, we will be happy to help! Once you have completed the download, please save it to your computer because the link on our site will only be available for download for [in red] 10 days." The digital downloads are still there today. The digital downloads of about a dozen other people are also there, with no password protection. The photography and resulting prints are five star work. Two stars means "meh, I've experienced better." I've worked with three other professional photography studios and never encountered this kind of foolishness.

    As others have stated, their photographs are excellent. Our engagement pictures couldn't have been…read morebetter - we went all over downtown Portland, and they gave us a great mix of composed and arrange pictures with candids where we were more in the moment. I didn't use them for our wedding because we got married in Las Vegas, but I did bring the sign-in book they made us from our session!

    Carrie Tompkins Photography - Branding Photo Sessions

    Carrie Tompkins Photography

    (15 reviews)

    Libbytown

    If you are looking for an adventurous, outgoing, reliable, and skillful photographer for your next…read moresession, look no further. Carrie is a local to Tahoe who knows all of the best secret spots AND the best poses and angles that create pure art. My fiancé and I took our engagement photos with Carrie this winter and were a little nervous to see how it would go, as we had not ever taken professional photos together before. As soon as we got in touch with her, she was very nice and easy to communicate with. She always responded quickly to my messages and I could tell she was on the ball throughout the entire process. On the day we met at Donner Lake, Carrie made it feel so natural and effortless as soon as we started, and it really set such a great tone for the entire shoot. She was super easy-going, friendly, and rolled with the ideas we had for what we wanted some things to look like or include. The best part was that she was always very collaborative with all of her instruction on poses and always made sure we were comfortable. She even stopped to show us pictures along the way that really made us feel confident and amazing! We had also brought champagne... with no glasses. But lucky for us, Carrie had even thought to come prepared with some for us to use! At the end she asked if there were any other pictures we wanted to take that we hadn't yet, which we really appreciated because it showed she took her time to make sure we had gotten everything we wanted. It was such an awesome and fun experience already that when the pictures came just a week later, I was shocked at how beautiful they were. Everything came together so perfectly for us and the pictures were better than we had even envisioned. We can't thank Carrie enough for the time, dedication, and thoughtfulness she put into our shoot together. We absolutely love our engagement pictures and we know we will treasure them for years to come!

    Carrie Tompkins is THE BEST Reno/Tahoe area photographer! Hands down. She is not only incredibly…read moretalented in her photography work, she is passionate, hardworking, and thoughtful. We hired Carrie to photograph our elopement and couldn't have been happier. Carrie went above and beyond her photography duties and basically (and ever so graciously) stepped into the role of wedding planner. She helped us decide on our ceremony location, gave me a list of hair and makeup artists for day of styling, hooked me up with a gorgeous bouquet of flowers (and even gifted me a lovely vase for the flowers after the ceremony!), and was just incredibly communicative with any questions or concerns we had and was always offering to help with any other details of our big day. Just an overall dream to work with! During the wedding shoot, Carrie was a master at directing us into various poses. I applaud her patience with us and our awkward/goofiness as we had to attempt, sometimes several times, at getting that perfect look. Carrie was quick to remind us to take water breaks and at one point played some music on her phone for us so we could have our "first" dance. As two people who have never been photographed professionally beyond Sears Portraits, she made us feel comfortable and we had a lot of fun! Carrie created a customized photography package for our elopement, and went way above and beyond what we had discussed. She not only shot and gave us many, many more photos than we expected they are STUNNING. Like, unbelievably good. She also took a few Instax photos and gave them to us after the wedding shoot. Having a few tangible pictures right then and there was really special. She also surprised us with a video/slide-show she created that brought me and some of my other family members to tears. We were blown away with how quickly Carrie worked to get us our photos. In less than 24 hours, she sent us a link to a gallery website with around 25 sneak peak photos so that we could share them in our marriage announcement to friends and family (we kept it a surprise!). And in less than two weeks she had sent us the entire gallery of photos! Her gallery website, via Pic-Time, is aesthetically just lovely and easy to navigate to view, download, and purchase photos all right through her website. Beyond producing absolutely incredible photographs for us to cherish for years to come, the thoughtful extras she provided for our ceremony and beyond truly made our big day perfect.

    Emilie - a day in the life on one family

    Emilie

    (9 reviews)

    I had two photographers from the emilie inc. team and they did a FANTASTIC job at our wedding! I…read morewas confident based on the portfolios I had seen, and they delivered. I love the style and how well they blended the natural environment and elements of our venue into the shots. There's a great balance between the details and the documentary style shots, and candid portraits of the wedding party and guests. Leading up to the wedding, we had no problem getting our questions answered and paying through their online invoicing system. We were able to visit the office and meet our photographers ahead of time and the whole experience was wonderful. We were welcomed with warmth and cupcakes! They pay attention to the details of the whole experience. This is a top-notch company. I had two disappointments (which is the reason why I didn't give a 5-star review. It would be 4.5 if I could!). The first is that photog team did not set up any fill lights for the formal portraits. I should have asked about this ahead of time, but I thought it was standard for professional portraits. At least at every wedding I have been to, there were a few diffusers or flashes set up even if the shooters were photojournalism/documentary style wedding photographers. The faces and eye sockets are more shadowed than I would have hoped. Also, in retrospect, we weren't getting any fun alternate angles for the group portraits, like looking over our shoulders, holding out our bouquets, holding hands, or moving to have a different background such as the lake in addition to having trees as the background. Alas! The second disappointment is that despite two photogs being there for over an hour while there was live music at our reception, we didn't receive a single image of the amazing seven-piece band in action. I would definitely recommend emilie inc. - just make sure you communicate about exactly what your expectations are ahead of time. Once the wedding schedule gets rolling, it is hard to remember your photography wish list. There are more important things to focus on, like being present for your loved ones and celebration! :)

    We absolutely LOVED working with Emilie! Not only is her work amazing, she herself is an awesome…read moreperson! Finding the right photographer you can rely on to capture the essence and beauty of a wedding can be a stressful task for any bride. That is why I set out to select a photographer as one of my first tasks after getting engaged. I am very fortunate to know a lot of wonderful wedding photographers but felt the best connection to Emilie. I knew from the beginning that we were in good hands. Emilie even called to talk to me about my vision for the wedding on her family vacation to Disney! She works masterfully with angles and lighting to capture moments in the most creative and elegant ways possible. We loved the way she interacted with us and our guests to make us all feel comfortable and at ease throughout the ceremony and reception. Emilie captures emotion at its purest and most candid moments, so that when you look back, you can easily relive those precious memories. Emilie definitely helped make our day feel even more special, and we're so incredibly happy with our choice of selecting her as our photographer to capture one of the most important days of our lives. We supremely recommend her!

    Akelis Studios Photography - sessionphotography - Updated May 2026

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