Last year at this time I had an experience with wanting to schedule a professional photo shoot for me and my three pups. Including Bella at the time. The reason being, Bella had been diagnosed with neuroendocrin cancer, and had less than a year likely to live, and wanted to have some beautiful photos of her taken. I researched and came across a wonderful couple who do photography locally (name not mentioned) and was so impressed by their style and whimsy in their final product. I was so excited to meet the wife, and discuss what I had in mind for the look of the session. Somewhere green and beautiful, based on some photos I had seen on their website. We arranged a date, and was waiting with anticipation for this exciting opportunity to capture the love I feel for my pups, and to have someone who is so creative bring my vision to life.
As the day was approaching for our appointment for the photo shoot the temperatures were extraordinarily hot for this time of year and were maxing out over 100 degrees. However, I did not want to be a flake and leave the photographers with an opening in their schedule because of this. So, I stuck with the appointment, and thought the end result would be well worth it.
The day comes, and the dogs and I show up at the scheduled location of the shoot, as chosen by the photographer, and am so excited! Only to be confused by the choice, since the area was covered with dead weeds, near a dam and rocks and dirt, dust, etc.. You get the idea. While waiting, and the photographers already 10 minutes late on this day of 105 degrees, with my 3 dogs mind you. So waited in my small vehicle with the air conditioning on full blast. Still waiting I called their office only to discover they hadn't even left yet! But was given the excuse something came up with their dogs, of course I was empathetic. But, professionals, please call and let me know while I'm waiting in the sweltering heat with MY 3 dogs. Also, they said, oh it's only going to be a few minutes. Oh, you mean at 5 o'clock rush hour traffic? Hmmmm.
Well, anyway I waited in the car, air running, wasting gas and my poor dogs cramped and wondering why we were stuck for an additional half our. Finally the couple show up with no apologies. I explained to them I was surprised at the choice of location, because remember I am thinking of greenery, and colors and such. The photographer looked at me a bit surprised and said she hadn't been to the location of choice in a while. I'm no professional photographer, but isn't it their responsibility to check out the location ahead of time? I don't know, maybe that's just me. The wife says, "Don't worry, we'll make them look amazing!" I totally trust them due to the photos I've seen in their portfolio.
As we begin to let the dogs off leash, my lab Lucca bee lines for the water and while the 'dust' is trailing him, and pebbles flying, my other 2 dogs, Bella the elderly sick one is coughing and Louie, my bulldog is already sweltering in the heat. Not a water dog by nature, Louie even gets into the water. Truly no big deal for the photos, but no green grass or colors of any sort to be seen anywhere. It was also mentioned that the photogoraphers would bring toys for the dogs, but thank goodness I brought my own, because none were in their possession. While we all stumbled over the uneven terrain, and sweating in the heat, the dogs ran around, and were almost done within the first 10 minutes or so. Photos a plenty were being taken and the dogs were just thankful to finally be out of the car, and stretching their legs.
The session was coming to a close, and the last photo being taken, on hard black tar top mind you the dogs were just spent; and so was I. Notice I haven't mentioned the husband photographer at all in this story. Personality of a doorstop. I'm thinking, why is this guy interacting with the public? Anyway, the day and session ends, and I was so excited to see what they would come up with with the final edits! No timeline mentioned and we all departed.
Two weeks go by, and no communication from the couple, and so I email them to inquire about when to expect a follow up meeting to look at the photos. No response, and week has passed. I'm thinking, ok I understand our lives get busy, and my 3 dogs as important as they are to me, are not the priority of this couple who don't know me from Adam, right? Another week, no response. Finally a call and appointment scheduled to see the pictures. Yay!!! Right?
Well, I show up at my 'scheduled' appointment only for no one to be there. Oh, and this is after they had to reschedule the appointment once. Understandable, right? Well, after no one is there to meet me to look at my photos, I call, and no one returns my call until later that night to apologize for an emergency with the husband. Of course I'm understanding. So, it is arranged that since so much time has passed and twice now rescheduling on their part, the photographers offer to email a link to my gallery. I am completely OK with this. This is a Friday. I get the photo link emailed Saturday morning, and I am so EXCITED to open up and see what they did with them, since I wasn't too thrilled with the location and such. I open the gallery, and can I say how underwhelmed I was by the end results. I couldn't have been more disappointed then if I had lost a mate to a favorite pair of shoes. The photos had no editing, the backdrop of dust, pebbles, dead grass and weeds were abundant in each shot. I couldn't pull my heart out of the pit of my stomach.
I instantly sent an email to the wife, and in I felt a nice way, expressed my disappointment about the outcome, and wanted to talk further about it. I mentioned everything from the location, to the tardiness, to the multiple rescheduling, etc. I sat for days, with no response. I know, right? WT-? I became so disillusioned by the couple's professionalism throughout this whole process. A couple of weeks passed and finally reached out to the assistant of the couple. She immediately responded, appauled by the manner in which I was treated, and how it all was handled. My impression based on her response, was that I was not the first to be treated this way. Still so disappointed since I still saw this couple's work so appealing, when I'd go to their website and look at other photos. The final resolution was to schedule another session for another time at no cost. Also, would provide me with a few prints of the dogs, at no cost. I saw this as a nice gesture, eventhough I was never contacted by the owner to apologize and try to rectify the situation on her own vs. through her assistant. Still to this day, never had any communication again with anyone. Except for the photos they sent, and the book they included, which was put together poorly as well.
I swore I would never spend $250 of my hard earned money again in this manner, only to have another disappointing outcome. Out of all this I began to think how I could take just as quality a photo as the ones from this experience. Not that I think I am a professional by any means, and no disrespect to those awesomely talented and experienced photographers out there, but if you saw the photos, you'd understand my rationale. So, after much research and a few purchases later, I have found an underlying passion I never knew exsisted.
I am not claiming to be knowledgable, nor talented, but so thrilled to have found an outlet for creativity that I hadn't experienced before. I have enjoyed so much capturing amazing moments of my dogs, family, friends and much much more that I can not express. I feel maybe this experience was fate playing a hand in this time of my life. Where in my 40's, and through all the changes occurring day to day recently, that I have found this intriguing outlet of creativity. It is unfortunate to mention that in January of this year Bella lost her fight with her cancer, and has moved on to the Rainbow Bridge. But before all of that came some wonderful moments captured of her wonderful spirit. She brought so much to my life, and am thankful for an experience such as this to provide the light of photography to my world.
I look forward to sharing my photos along the way, and hopefully some fun and whimsy will accompany the wonderful moments I am capturing.
To the photographer couple, again names not mentioned, thank you for opening my world in a weird backwards way to this wonderful outlet of expression. And to this day, I still go to their website and appreciate their talents of photography.
