We booked a "60-90 minute session" in late June, putting down a $250 retainer and expecting to pay another $700 later, in early May. By far, it's the most expensive photo session we've booked.
All of the communication, from the booking itself to every follow-up email after, was automated. As someone who owns a business myself, I appreciate the need for some level of automation, but I was taken aback by the fact that there was virtually no personalized communication exchanged: not about location or styling or what we hoped to achieve from the shoot.
On June 12, we found out that our not-yet one year old needed tubes and the only date available for surgery was June 26, which was the date of our photo session. I immediately emailed Jenny, apologizing and asking to reschedule, and she was very accommodating.
The date we rescheduled for came, and again there'd been no communication. I actually emailed her to make sure she knew where we were meeting, as I was a little anxious about the fact that we hadn't discussed it--or whether it was a good option.
The night before, it was dark and gloomy with a 60% change of Thunderstorms at the time of our shoot the next day. Not ideal for a beach session with littles. I emailed Jenny and got no response. Finally, she wrote back and said texting is best. I texted her multiple times over a 12 hour period, as we needed to know whether to get our kids ready for the shoot or not. She never responded until a few hours before our shoot, apologizing and saying my texts had gone to spam. She was resistant to rescheduling, saying she could work with the rain but she couldn't work with the "looks of concern" on our faces. To be honest, it made me feel a like a crazy person for wanting to reschedule. A few hours later, it was pouring, and she texted that it was a good thing we rescheduled the shoot.
Our third date comes, and there is a heat advisory and it is 96 degrees. At this point, I know it's ridiculous that we've had to reschedule so many times, but I reach out to Jenny and express my concern. I knew my kiddos would be cranky as heck in that heat, and I also knew, as a photog, that we'd all be red-cheeked and sweaty messes. Jenny, once again, was really resistant to rescheduling. I understand that she has a very busy schedule, and rescheduling is an inconvenience, but I also felt like--through every hiccup--I was made to feel like the bad guy. She never expressed any concern about our comfort during the shoot, nor was she proactive about any of the weather issues. (It is pretty common practice for photogs to check in with their clients when bad weather is foretasted on the day of a shoot.)
The day of our shoot, I didn't bother to check the weather. It seemed nice enough. As any momma knows, it takes a lot of time and energy to get a whole family, including a 3 year old and baby, ready for photos. We got to the beach at 5:50 for our 6:00 shoot and it started to sprinkle as soon as we arrived. I looked at the forecast, and sure enough, there was a 70% chance of thunderstorms within the next hour.
At about that same time, Jenny showed up, and acted nonchalant, which we just thought was her way of trying to make the best of a bad situation. So, we went along with it and were all smiles.
Immediately, knowing we likely wouldn't get to shoot a full 90 min, I reiterated what I'd already told Jenny previously: The priority is photos of me and my kids and close-up photos of the four of us. I am a photographer. We have hundreds of photos of my wife with our boys and of our boys by themselves. I have no photos of me with my kids. Jenny and I talked about this before the shoot and as we walked down to the beach that evening.
In summation: It started pouring after 20 minutes. Even though, a few minutes in, I reminded her that we want close-up shots of all four of us, she continued to photograph just my wife with our boys and my 11 mo old alone. We shot a few minutes in the pouring rain before calling it at 27 minutes. Jenny never once offered another shoot or a discount. It took nearly a month to get 100 photos, 50% of which are of my wife alone with our baby or just my baby. Many of the photos are the same with only slight variation, and quite a few are weirdly dark or unfocused. There is ONE photo of me with my sons, no close-up photos of the four, no photos of my 4 year old alone, no photos of the boys, no photos of me and my wife.
Still, Jenny sent her normal pricing, indicating that we owed $700 for the downloads of all 107 photos. She offered 10% off for the inconvenience of the rain. $880 for 27 minutes and 107 photos, none of which represented what we explicitly asked for multiple times. We pushed back, kindly, and Jenny--unwilling to yield that we didn't get what we paid for--gave us 50% of the package fee, which meant that, all said and done, we paid $600.
She has a large following and many clients seem happy, but our experience was so disappointing. read more
