I'm updating my review in response to the reviews posted after mine. I am not someone who posts negative reviews lightly, and I desperately tried to provide a balanced review of my experience with Maria. In the review, I tried to explain the circumstances surrounding my experience. The lack of communication continued for a period of over four months, not merely a few weeks time. But I also hope that it was clear that I thoroughly enjoyed my photo session with her, and I think the end-product satisfied my expectations. Review sites like this provide a snap-shot of people's experiences over time so that consumers can make educated decisions about their purchases. In so doing, they can balance the excellent reviews against those which may be more critical. I in no way mean to tarnish Maria's reputation, she is an excellent photographer. But I hope that by providing honest feedback, she can tailor her future services and future customers can have all of the facts in front of them when they choose to use her services. read more

THE WORST!! I have never posted a review before but this is long long long overdue. Maria was great to work with and took beautiful photos. She took our order and our money and never delivered the photos!! She then moved out of town and wouldn't return our calls and emails. What a giant rip off!! She moved to Utah and changed her name. Go figure. She goes by Emma Rigby now. If she is still doing photography, stay away! She is a thief. read more

I love Maria! She turned out to be an awesome friend. She's hands down the most talented photographer I've ever worked with and I will definitely find myself in front of her camera again at some point! Maria shot my engagement, boudoir, bridal portraits and wedding and I'm so very pleased with the way all of these came together! My husband is so proud of the boudoir book and I must look at my wedding pictures once a week. In fact, I'm told by Austin Wedding Day Magazine that our wedding photos from Maria will be featured in the 2012 edition! I'm so excited! I'm really sorry to hear about Sara B's experience--I'm sure that's not the typical experience as it sure wasn't mine! Maria had our wedding photos and album designed two months earlier than she originally expected...just weeks or so after our wedding! Losing a beloved parent is devastating and any variation in customer service during that time should be excused, but that's just my opinion. :) Maybe not worth a permanent Yelp review? I guess that's the opinion beholder's call! I would highly recommend Maria to any of my friends, and I don't make recommendations lightly! read more

Also found through Groupon and I made a big mistake. We purchased a $500 dollar package that said it included a photo + upgraded to outdoors for $100 + paid $50 for the location.. What we didn't realize until it was too late is that Maria considered my family photos her personal artwork and refused to give me the digital copies. We took our family photos near Christmas time and did it specifically to send out Christmas photos. We had to pay nearly another $300 for her to print out the Christmas cards, which being in a time crunch, we actually did. I feel duped and Maria used Groupon as her personal advertisement rather than offering people a deal. Still to this day I haven't received my digital copies and we would need to pay roughly another $1,000 to have Maria print the photos that we want. Austin is full of Artists, don't pay this woman a small fortune when you can find legitimate businesses that will be honest with you up front. I give Maria 1 star because the one picture I got for my $1,000 dollar package was actually okay. read more

If there was an option to give her no star I would have chosen it. I have had bad service in my life, but my experiences with Maria Bernal definitely top the list. I found Maria from Groupon. When I checked out her website and I liked some of her photos, so I purchased one groupon ($99). She seemed nice and accommodating to our schedules at the beginning when I contacted her for a family photo session (including my husband and me, my daughter and my mom who was visiting us at that time). However, after our photos were taken and the Groupon was used, it turned out my initial impression was completely wrong. Because my mom was leaving soon and I wanted to give her at least one nice photo, so I told Maria that and asked her to contact me as soon as the photos are ready for viewing. If you have been to Maria Bernal photography, then you should know that you can only view photos in the studio, not over emails or on internet because anything she takes becomes her sole property until you purchase it. I thought that getting the photos ready for viewing should only take a couple of days or at most a week. But after my mom left and after patiently waited for 20 days and after I emailed her, I finally got a reply from Maria, saying that she sent me an email on the viewing several days ago but to a wrong email address. Then I proposed some dates in late March that we could meet but she quickly fell out of loop again. It took a phone call and a couple of emails and 10 days later, somebody called Audrey emailed me from Maria's email account, saying Maria had a death in the family so she had been handling family emergency (Yes, it sounds awfully familiar with one of previous reviews). Although I wasn't happy about her unresponsiveness, I understood the stress and chaos behind a family emergency. Audrey also provided me a $50.00 gift certificate as an apology, which I thought I could probably use to buy one more photo to make up for the late gift for my mom. On April 17th, we finally viewed the photos that were taken on March 1st. They were nice, but they were just fresh out of camera. It was difficult to decide what to pick because there were some details that I was not very satisfied. More importantly, the fact that Maria hadn't done any touch-up or enhancement before our photo viewing session made it hard to imagine what final products would look like. Maria kept telling me not to worry about details and promised that she would take care of them all later. She even showed me some prior work that she did. Persuaded by her, we finally picked two - a family photo and a photo of my mom and me. After photo viewing I didn't hear Maria for another long period of time regardless of my efforts of contacting her. I made it clear that I wanted to make one of the pictures a Mother's Day gift but I heard nothing back. Then I got very upset and started to worry again. I emailed and called Maria, telling her that at least I wanted to make it a birthday gift if she could give the picture to me by the end of May. More than 6 weeks after photo viewing, and after two emails and three phone calls, I still didn't hear anything from Maria. Then suddenly on May 31st (literally the last day of May), two pictures from Maria were dropped at my door. No explanations, no excuse, no anything. When I opened the pictures, I even felt relieved because I finally had those pictures. I felt I still could forgive her if the pictures were good. However, after I saw the pictures, the only thing I felt was anger. These final products - after so much waiting and missed opportunities of giving it to my mom, are totally worthless. The quality of Maria's pictures is, to put it in a nice way, not as good as my amateur photographer friends. She obviously did some photo editing, but it was done so badly that it is very easy to tell where she did the editing. As for the picture that I planned to give to my mom, I trashed it for two reasons. One, her bad photoshop skills made my head not proportional to my body - she may just cut my head off from another picture and pasted it on. The person on the picture doesn't look like me and I am sure my mom won't like that. The most aggravating thing is - the picture of my mom and me was not even the one that I picked! I called Maria later on that day, telling her that I received the photos and I was very unsatisfied with the products and her service. I knew she would not call back or do anything. I was right, as least so far (3 months later). She never offered any explanation for her unprofessional behaviors or low-quality products. The bottom line is: Maria Bernal Photography has bad customer service, and delivers low-quality products. I feel as a customer, my rights were not respected. If you don't want to end up with pictures that not only you regret but also remind you of the unpleasant experiences, wasted time, energy and money, learn my lesson and stay away from Maria Bernal. read more

I have used Maria for four years and I have never been disappointed in her or her work. She has photographed for my business and for my personal use and she does amazing work and is wonderful with my children. As far as the comments below yes being informative is important so that others know but as far as groupon you should know if you purchase a sitting fee and a free 11x14 that is what you get and in the below write up you said a lot of other things that were not part of the groupon that you expected to just be given to you. I am a business owner and it is a tool to be used for us to benefit as well as the customer. An 11x14 for that price is amazing and no photographer I know just hands over the digital copies because they must have to make a living just like everyone else. Maybe next time u should try picture people and they will give u a cd for 100. Maria keep up the great work you are a true artist and I will continue to brag about every photograph in my home. read more

I have referred friends to Maria and will continue to refer friends. I'm amazed at some of these reviews. The only ones that are not happy obviously have unrealistic expectations. Maria has been in the photography business forever and her work speaks for itself. She has been published in more magazines than I can count. She is a nationally known photography teacher as well. I am amazed that people - especially those using groupon - are going to complain. I find those using groupon usually wanting something for nothing anyway. Maria should have better than 5 stars if her main customers were to review her. Those of you wanting a "bargain" need to go to the mall photographers and you will get what you pay for there. read more

Maria is a wonderful photographer. She has done head shots for my oldest Granddaughter's pageants and she was called in the top three. She has also taken pictures of my other granddaughter. I have an appointment with her to take Christmas pictures of all seven of my grandchildren and i know they will fantastic!!! Love her and would highly recommend her. read more

Maria Bernal....what can I say?? I purchased a Groupon Deal for my daughter to use for for a photo session and 11x14 for my grandson's one year old picture. We arranged for the photo shoot at her studio in early FEBRUARY. There were a few missteps at first with mixups on scheduling, but Maria was very accommodating and agreed to meet us another day, out of the studio for a shoot, and not charge for the off-site location, since it seemed to be her assistant's error. Great! She was very patient with our one-year old, and we couldn't wait to see the results. She was very pleased with them, too, and made up a "marketing tool" accordian booklet using many photos from the shoot. She even said she was going to post him on her blog, which she never did. When we went to see the images, Maria expected the order to be placed right then. Since she had never given us any pricing, or made any mention of having to place the order at that viewing session, my daughter and I were a bit surprised, and wanted to discuss "add-on" orders, in addition to the included 11x14. In fact, my daughter wanted to order something larger than the 11x14, and possibly a canvas, but wanted to confer with her husband as to which photo they would select. I wanted to place an order as well. Maria reluctantly agreed to post them online for a period of 48 hours. My daughter had to remind her a couple of times to do it before she got around to posting them. Then, my daughter contacted Maria about various sizes, and cropping options before placing her final order. That's where the games began. If my daughter heard from Maria at all, she always had some excuse, and would promise to email her the cropping options...but, of course, she never did. After MONTHS AND MONTHS of texting, emailing, phoning, and getting nothing, I decided to contact Groupon in AUGUST. They said they would contact "the merchant." The merchant, AKA Maria Bernal, said she would get the order done "when she could but could not do it at that time." No explanation given to us.....and also said there were no cropping options. I went round and round with Groupon. Apparently she was in communication with them each time they contacted her, but she was totally unresponsive to my emails, texts, or phone calls. Time and time again, I told Groupon that in no terms did I want a refund - we wanted to order photos from her as soon as she gave us the options she had promised. I am very saddened to say that Groupon finally gave me a full refund, as they could not get action from the merchant. And REALLY......she had from February to August, and couldn't do it in that time??? So, no one-year old portrait, and many hard feelings towards Maria Bernal. Such talent does not make up for letting people down in something so special. Use another photographer?? He's 22 months old - can't go back and re-do something to commemorate an event. Groupon also gave me an opportunity to write a response to "the merchant," which I did, and I never heard one word from her. The kicker?? Maria Bernal is using my grandson's photo on her opening page of her website, and using the accordian book to sell the product to her customers. And we have......N O T H I N G.....but bad memories. Shame on you, Maria Bernal. read more

I can't believe some of the bad ratings Maria has gotten. She has made things so easy for me. I live out of state but am having my wedding in Austin so when I'm in town for a few weeks she does every thing she can to help me out. I could see how she is hard to get in touch with at first because she is so dang busy. However, since our first phone chat she has made me feel more like a friend rather than a client. I was very nervous about our first shoot (I am doing engagement, bridal and boudoir) because I normally photograph about 40lbs heavier. But after seeing the pictures I felt so pretty! My husband and I couldn't decide which one to get so we ended up getting a book of 20 pics or so. She is very good at giving direction at the shoot and also picking good angles for your face and body. I'm only 5'3 and my pictures made me look like i was a 6 foot model. I loved it! I never plan on using another photographer again! read more