Artistic Photography

I was looking for a professional photographer which I needed for some photos of myself for my comp card which is basically an entertainment business card with photos of the client. A friend of mine heard about MIKE MESSNER, so called photographer who lives in Kitchener, Ontario, and he told my friend that the photo shoot would be $150.00 which is a good price, considering that most professional photographers can charge about $300.00 and up for a photo shoot.
My friend told the photographer that I don't have a lot of money to spend , and Mike said, that he would do us a “favour” and the whole thing would be $150.00. That sounded like a great price. Although my friend did not know the photographer well, Mike was raving about all the business he was getting--the high end companies he worked for, how impressed people were with his work, and how many more clients he had that wanted him to do work for him. Mike Messner really pumped himself up to be some great photographer and that is FAR from the truth!!!
On the day of the shoot, I made sure I was more than prepared for the day of this shooting. I did my own make-up, hair, had all my outfits picked out with the accessories so that everything went smooth and no time was wasted. My friend came with me to the photo shoot since he has a lot of expertise in the entertainment business, and has a “great eye.” My friend also told Mike that the type of photos that we wanted were vogue, sporty, natural, fun,energetic and not sexy photos.
First of all when we arrived at their townhouse, it looked like a mess. The kitchen was in a mess with the table covered with all sorts of stuff. We were greeted with constant barking sounds from their dog that was in a cage in their living room and by Mike Messner and his wife, Mary. They were both smiling and very chatty with us and we were taken down to their dilapidated basement that was a mess. First of all, we had to walk down some narrow stairs that led to a very small tiny basement. It was a dirty concrete floor and at one end of the basement there was dusty dirty equipment and tools. There was no change room for me downstairs so Mike told me that I could walk upstairs and use the bathroom to change. I was not going to walk upstairs with high heels to change so I decided to change in the back of the tiny basement and instead, I used his dirty weight machine equipment to hang my clothes on. At one point I had to use the bathroom upstairs and I could not believe how disgusting it was, and that is where Mike said I could change.
As far as a mirror, Mike had a dirty full length body mirror for me to use but it was sitting on the floor. I ended up using a smaller mirror that I put on a dirty clothed table to redo my make-up and hair as needed throughout the shoot. I had to move some of his stuff around to accommodate for my clothing and accessories.
Mike had a few different colored back drops that we used for the photo shoot, and overall we did have fun while doing the photo shoot. However, my friend was the one who directed all my movements and poses since Mike had no idea except when it came to doing sexy sultry photos which we did not want.
When Mike was doing my photo shoot, he told my friend that he wanted to add some red light to the background which gives a very sensual sexy look which is not what I nor my friend wanted. Mike had to be told more than once that we did not want sexy sultry photos of me. My friend was the one who had to direct me and help me with my poses since Mike kept wanting to do sexy shots. Mike wanted me to lay down on the floor and lift my legs up in the air with my arms behind my back. I had pants on so it didn't seem to be such an outrageous request. When I saw the photo later it reeked of overly sexy and that is not what I wanted for my comp card.
When the photo shoot was complete, Mike and his wife were very friendly, and said that they would let us know when the photos were complete. I wanted some photos enlarged and touched up for my portfolio as well and I needed a comp card done. I told them the specification of the comp card that is required in the entertainment business and they would not listen and went ahead and created their own, without my approval. I told them more than once that is not what I requested and I did not pay for that. I was planning to go some other company to do my comp cards. As time went on Mike and Mary tried to get more and more money out of me. Every time I would say, how much is this going to cost me?Then Mike would say, “Don't worry about it. We will work it out.” I ended up paying over $300.00 to them, and Mike and Mary continued to try to get more money out of me after that. At that point I was getting really frustrated with Mike and Mary and I told him that I was not going to give them one more cent. They were suppose to print off some of my photos to an 8X10 size and I told them that I did not want any of them done but rather to give me my photos on a CD. They still tried to charge me for the printed 8X10 photos but I did not pay them. They will try to get every single cent out of you if you let them. They are SCOUNDRELS!!
Mary his wife is something else to say the least and she was yelling at me at one point and then her own husband yelled at her and said, “Mary, shut up. Just give her the files, CD, and photos. Give her everything. I don't want anything to do with this anymore. I can't believe the hours I put into this.” Mike went on and on and on, and then he puts out his hand and says, “See what this has done to me.” His hand was shaking when he said this. He is beyond manipulative and will stop at nothing to fill his pockets with more money.
Mike put my photos on THREE different files—Raw, j peg, Tiff. When I asked him why he did not put them on j peg which is easier for me to deal with, he said, “They are yours now, and you and your friend can figure it out how to do it.” I had Mike open up the CD's of photos that were giving to me because I did not trust him. It took forever for Mike to download my files. At first I thought that perhaps it was his laptop that was slow, and when I asked Mike why it took so long to download, he just said that it takes awhile. This went on for about 30 minutes and my husband was there with me. Not once did Mike offer a chair for my husband and I to sit on but yet, he was sitting on a chair at the table with his laptop, checking my photos. Meanwhile his wife, Mary was standing in the kitchen while we were there with both arms crossed and a stern look on her face. I ended up getting my CD files but when I got home I found out that one CD had nothing on it. I did not bother to let them know because I did not want anything more to do with them.
I ended up spending HOURS downloading all my photos, but first I had to go on line and download sites on how to convert tiff and raw to j peg. All the raw photos that Mike took were pathetic and I take better RAW photos. All of my photos showed the concrete floor and equipment that was in the area of the back drop and I had to be crop practically every single photo. Plus all the so called touched up photos of me made me look like I LIVE in Cuba. My face was so tanned and that is not a good look for an entertainment business card to begin. On top of that I am naturally fair skinned so the photos were not a good representation of what I look like. All the other photos had terrible lighting and he made my face look really pale or red at times as well. My skin is not like that and I have no blemishes. Mike even had some of my photos with the back drop colors showing on my shoulder area. It was unbelievable. This guy has zipo idea how to take great photos.
In the long haul, I have had to edit, crop and redo ALL of my photos myself. That took many many hours since I am not techy and I did not want to pay for someone else to help me after what I went through.
Please do NOT waste your time nor money on MIKE MESSNER. Both Mike and Mary Messner have no sense of professionalism and they should not be in business. They are NOT for the client but are for THEMSELVES!!!