Let me explain why I feel Hanakaeye Photography ripped me off. This is an honest review from a real company that hired Hanakaeye Photography in November.
I am extremely dissatisfied with this photographer. I hired her to take some commercial pictures of my customer in Windsor. The rate was high, but I was promised exceptional photography in return. We had a phone call where I made it very clear what type of image I was looking for and provided a link to my website to display prior examples of the photo shoots I have had done for my customers testimonials. The request was simple; attend my clients office to take some group shots of their staff and pictures of key management in a portrait fashion. I explained I did not need any editing as I would take all of the raw images and work with them myself.
We agreed on a price before hand, and paid in full long before the work was even completed. Doing my part in good faith.
I was surprised by an email shortly after the photo shoot telling me that she took some additional pictures on site as requested by my client and charged me $100 additional. I never approved this and it was never even inquired to me about these additional pictures. I still paid her extra $100, even before getting the images from her because I like to have simple business relationships.
In the end, she was on site for almost 2 hours. However, I received only 6 images total! She told me she had many more, but the ones she sent were "the best of the best" pictures she had taken.
This to me is not professional results. My understanding of being a photographer is being able to be a director of subjects to take a good image.
The pictures were not professional and I was very unhappy with the results. It was obvious to me that she did not use her best professional effort to frame the picture or work with the subjects to ensure the photo would look great. The images were whitewashed and the people were too spaced apart and uneven in the images. Ultimately the images were completely useless to me and I have no intention of using them.
Then I expressed my dissatisfaction to her in an email, and requested a partial 50% refund since I won't be using them. She responded to my email by claiming I was being rude and offensive with my concerns.
My email "With all due respect. The framing on the shots is not workable. The semi-circle you tried to create is not a good perspective at all. It is off balance, the people are too spread apart and not symmetrical at all. The semi-circle was a bad approach all together. Their logo on the wall is flashed out and not legible. The girl at the computer is also poorly thought out. 2 pictures for each concept, it seems there are no other options done? There is way too much flash. The pictures look bleached."
Most definitely not an email any business owner would want to receive. However, definitely not rude/offensive.
She offered to Photoshop/crop the images so they are improved or re-photo shoot the team. However in the case timing was critical because this company staff are very rarely ever together in the same building, the re-take was impossible and I was not convinced the results of round two would be any better.
She ultimately refused to offer any refund, although I only asked for 50%. I should have asked for 100 since I cannot use these images. However she refused anyway. For me, it wasn't even about the money. The fact she refused to refund any portion of the funds tells me she has no passion for customer satisfaction.
I strongly recommend anyone looking for a "professional" photographer to consider the above. Next time I will never pay in full up front. I feel completely ripped off. I will not recommend Hanakaeye Photography for corporate photography.