My husband and I are extremely dissatisfied with Elyse Destout Photography. Short version: Due to Elyse's poor photography skills/choices, lack of communication and inability to reschedule a photoshoot in a timely manner I will never have the beautiful infant photos that every other family seems to have of their family's newest addition. I am deeply saddened, as this is something I can never get back. I can't express how upset this situation has made me. Long version: I scheduled a photoshoot for my newborn, she was 2 weeks old at the time of the shoot. The studio was beautiful so I was very excited. Instead of photographing my daughter against pulled down backgrounds, Elyse set us up against her studio's wall (no background). Out of 70 photos there were maybe 2 that I was in love with... But the background was stucco and chipped paint!! IT RUINED ALL THE PHOTOS. They looked like I had taken them in my living room. I mentioned this to Elyse and she offered to reschedule. I tried scheduling a shoot immediately since my daughter was already 1 month old by this time. It took Elyse 2 full weeks to respond to my email. I tried calling but was unable to leave a voice message because her inbox was full. She never attempted to call me back. When she finally did email me back with one available time slot (on a day I had previously said I couldn't do), I emailed back asking for any other options. This time, she NEVER responded! I sent her a couple more emails but by the time my daughter was 2.5 months old I threw my hands up and emailed Elyse asking for a full refund. She called me immediately, literally 5 minutes after sending the email - where was this sense of urgency before?? I let it go to voicemail because I was so upset about the whole situation that I was already in tears. She left a message apologizing, telling me she's been sick, and wanted to offer the "year of photos" for no additional charge because she DOES NOT give cash refunds. I emailed her shortly after explaining that I was very disappointed - I had paid $150 for this service. I declined the full year of photos because I couldn't imagine dealing with this level of unprofessionalism for a full year. Instead I chose 40 of the horribly executed pictures to receive digital prints of (what the original package was). She ended up releasing all 70 digital prints to me, but that means nothing to me since I only wanted 2 in the first place. I will never leave such precious photos in her hands again, and I recommend you do some more research before booking her. I've been kicking myself for not writing her off after the first two week gap in communication and going to another photographer. But $150 is more than I could afford on leisurely purchased right now, especially with a newborn in the house. read more

Photography By Elyse Destout - This is the background Elyse chose for my infant's announcement photos. I blurred my baby out of this picture - Event Photography Near Me - Watsonville, California

My new wife and I were married on 09/14/13 and we chose Elyse to be our wedding photographer. Let me just start by saying it was an awesome wedding and she captured it exactly as we pictured it. I highly recommend Elyse Destout as a photographer for your wedding. We have had nothing but compliments from our family and friends who have all said that she was very friendly and professional. We found her at a local wedding expo at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk early in the year and we were so impressed by her photography and her personality that we booked her on the spot. She is great at not only getting all the typical staged shoots but she also as an amazing eye for getting the candid shoots as well. She is able to capture the perfect moments and she can do post production on any of the pictures to make them black and white, sepia, of pops of color from a single item. She even threw in a photo booth for the day of our wedding and it was an amazing success. Our guests loved the booth and had tons of fun taking pictures. She was very reasonable with her pricing and has tons of different packages depending on what you are looking to get. If you are looking for a wedding photographer in the Santa Cruz area I would highly recommend considering Elyse! read more

Elyse you are amazing! Elyse was my photographer for my wedding, my pregnancy photos AND now is doing photos of my son! They are amzaing! Our invitations for the wedding we beautiful, our thank yous from our wedding were awsome and such a great idea (magnets of us after we were married) our sons anouncements, and last but not least, an amazing wedding book that creates such live memories for us! There will be much more to come with our son, as she is taking them every month. Not to mention, her pricing is SO reasonable! Thank you again Elyse! read more

Elyse is wonderful, very patient and sweet. We highly recomend her for all your baby pictures.

We were just recently married and had the pleasure of working with Elyse as our photographer. She went above and beyond in every way and was extremely professional and yet friendly and easy to work with at the same time. She does an awesome job of capturing photos and small video clips of the vows and toasts at the same time. She brought her assistant to capture that video and a second angle for the stills so we have a ton of awesome pictures. We also used her photo booth which worked perfect, was a big hit and much less expensive than renting it through the DJ or someone else. Overall, we were very very pleased with the level of service we received from Elyse and we highly recommend her to anyone that wants an awesome wedding photographer (or a photographer for any occasion, for that matter). Thanks Elyse! read more

Elyse Destout did the videography for my wedding in June 2015. They are so professional! They came with a 3-person crew, shot 8-hours of footage (plus set-up and clean-up), & did a photo booth. The photos from the photo booth were an added bonus, as we didn't get a lot of shots of our guests from our photographer, Jenee Whittick. Elyse & Co. brought all kinds of props, a book for people to glue in their photo & write us a message, & all kinds of pens. The photos are so fun! I'm stoked we had the photo booth. I love the photo guest book so much. I think a book with a list of names is something I'd never look at again, but I pull my "guest book" out all the time to see my friends being silly. And... They give a disc of every single shot taken by the booth all day, so you even get the pics guests don't leave for you! Then, they professionally edit together a wedding video using the footage they shot all day... We had to wait 6-months for the finished film... And it's SO worth the wait. They captured the atmosphere of the day, both of our personalities, and it's really so US it couldn't be more perfect. This video is something we'll cherish for the rest of our lives, sharing with our grandchildren... I watch it about every week... And it still makes me cry. Seriously, do yourself a favor & let them do your wedding video!!! read more

Elyse made a point to schedule multiple engagement photo sessions with us to make sure we could find some great poses and have some beautiful pictures before our wedding. She was great in communicating throughout the entire process and was very professional and positive the day of our wedding. I was very pleased with the photos she took, the quality and the variety (bridal party, bride and groom, reception photos, etc.). I would highly recommend Elyse! read more

Elyse agreed to take my sons pictures for the first year and the experience has been amazing. She will also be taking our yearly family portraits. The pictures are fantastic and she has a way of always making my son smile. Her studio is always picture perfect and feels very welcoming. She is very timely in posting the images on her webpage and the webpage is very user friendly. The pictures and memories she has given us will be with our family forever. I can't thank Elyse enough for the pictures and memories she has given our family. read more

What can I say, Elyse and her crew are UNBELIEVABLE! Preparing for our impending wedding, my now wife and I weren't exactly looking forward to weeding through the numerous wedding photography services out there because we were scared that our modest budget would restrict us from getting the photos we wanted- and for the most part we were right......until we met Elyse. Elyse and her crew were a breath of fresh air from the very beginning. With competitively priced packages and a tremendous amount of experience and attention to detail, we were in good hands from beginning to end. We shopped around, and couldn't find anyone better suited to start our marriage off on the right foot, and I couldn't imagine you could do better than Elyse Destout. Thanks Elyse!! read more

I hired Elyse to take some professional photos for my website. She was great to work with & her fees were very reasonable. She did not consider the job complete until I was 100% satisfied. I highly recommend her. read more

Elyse was an awesome wedding photographer. Her prices were the lowest I found, and her performance was the best I could have hoped for. She was at our wedding perfectly on time. She was very flexible through the whole wedding. She took shots we wanted and recommended shots that she felt would be great (and they were). She did not get at all upset when other family members were taking the same pictures right next to her. And she practically coordinated our wedding. When things were moving a little slow, she would come over and remind us that maybe we should get to the first dance or the cake cutting, etc. She even pointed something out to me that I found to be very special. She pointed at the clouds, which had a shape I had never seen before (very flat on the bottom, and a shallow dome on the top. Like a UFO) and she told me that that type of cloud is rare in our area and it symbolizes good luck. Now she could have been making it all up, but it made my day feel that much more special. Those clouds are even in our wedding album! :) When we first hired her, I had a coupon for a free engagement session. I asked her if instead of an engagement session, if we could do something after our wedding. I really wanted pictures of me in my gown on my horse. However, as you know, my husband couldn't see me in my gown before the big day, and we couldn't have our horse at the venue. She agreed to set up a time after we got back from our honeymoon, and she made a special trip out to our barn. Just one more thing she did for us that made her wonderful. Once the pictures were ready, I was even more impressed. It seemed like she was in so many places and I never even noticed her (unless I was talking directly to her). There are shots of me coming down the isle like she was standing right in front of me and I never saw her. Between that and the fact that the pictures were all gorgeous, I can't help but brag to everyone that she was a wonderful photographer. When it came to making our albums (we got an album for ourselves, and a parent album), she was very patient. It took forever for me to pick the pictures I wanted (there were a LOT of great pictures to choose from), and when she put the album together, it was nothing like I was hoping. The albums I had seen, when we first met her had pictures in the background, and pictures overlapping. The album she put together was very bland with the pictures side by side. However, when I told her that it was not at all what I was hoping for, she did not make any protest. She went right to work remaking it. And the second album was perfect! We worked through email to get all of the details ironed out, and in the end, I couldn't have asked for anything better or a more patient person to put it together for me. I have to say that my ONLY complaint was that everything took so long. I think we received our albums and dvds with all of our pictures (they were online first of course) about a year after the wedding. That being said, I am NOT her only bride, and I am sure she was plenty busy. She was very friendly, and very apologetic about how long it was taking all the way through. I would have still chosen her, knowing that it was going to take a while because her work was worth the wait. read more

I am an avid yelp reader but this is probably my first time writing a review! I am moved to do so because Elyse is a gem and needs to be better known to our community. I am happy to see the other 5 star reviews and agree with everything said. Back in July 2014, as a gift for our 25th anniversary, my husband hired Elyse to take family photos which included my mother and brother who flew out from NY to celebrate it with us and our two wonderful dogs! It was incredible how quickly she worked and produced such excellent results! We were all thrilled. Elyse is very personable, flexible and she clearly enjoys what she does and she does it effortlessly--so it seems on the other side of the lens. After working in her studio she met us back at our house for more outdoor shots. She just was a joy to work with -- even with dogs and humans who are not necessarily happy to have their picture taken (you know who you are!). Thanks so much, Elyse! read more

We went to have a family photo taken by Elyse. She has an amazing studio with state of the art equipment. She's very personable and relates well to all ages. When we arrived at her convenient studio location she was prompt and ready. She was not only flexible, but took the time to get good pictures. She didn't rush us, but was able to get great photos in a short amount of time. We chose Elyse because we've seen how talented and creative she is. We also wanted to "photoshop" other family members into the picture which she can do. I highly recommend her! read more

Elyse did the photo for my political campaign, and she did an excellent job. She is very professional and her work is excellent.