Dakota Photography

We're still trying to get Brandi to fulfill her original contractual obligations. It took more than a month to get our photos on the proofing site. We still have not received our DVD. Now, we can't even get a hold of Brandi. She's stopped responding to emails and text messages, as well as not responding to messages on her Facebook page. We have photos, and my mother also has photos on order from her and haven't heard anything about them. I know why you have to pay in advance with her; it's because if you don't then she wouldn't be making any money at all with the terrible service and complete lack of care for her clients.
Sep 15th, 2015

I have used Dakota Photography several times for family lifestyle photography. Brandi is a professional, fun, energetic, creative photographer. I enjoy her company and my kids (2 very active young boys!) love her. She will do silly things to get the best shots! I leave the shoot thinking "gosh, I hope we got a few good ones!" (because my kids never seem to cooperate!)...and it ends up that ALL of them are good! Brandi has a way with lighting and knowing how to pick the best places at the right time of day to get stunning outdoor photos. I won't be using any other photographer as long as Dakota Photography is in business! Thank you, Brandi!
Jul 21st, 2013

Brandi did a phenomenal job with my shoot, senior photos, she was open to trying the types of photo shots I wanted to take, which was great, and I was able to express my personality through my shoot. Thank you for being kind, and considerate of how I wanted myself to be translated into my pictures. I would definitely come back and take more shots with Brandi in the future and suggest her for anyone looking for a good experience and fantastic photos.
Jun 8th, 2013

My husband and I used Brandi as our wedding photographer. Starting out everything was going really well. I had also used Brandi as my photographer for my bridal portraits. The pictures for my portraits turned out really nice. They were outdoors using natural light and had no problems. We received our pictures in a timely manner and I was able to have my portrait at the reception. On the day of the wedding pictures seemed to be going great! There wasn't many 'creative' shots with our bridal party or anything like that. Pretty much just your basic family and bridal party portrait which is fine. The problem came AFTER the big day. We were supposed to receive our pictures within a certain time frame after the wedding on the proofing site. Well I had to email her SEVERAL times before she finished them and even then there were pictures missing like the cake cutting, the exit, toasts, bouquet toss etc. A week later she responded saying they didn't upload correctly. She finally posted all of the pictures a few weeks later. ALSO, the pictures she had taken were grainy and dark. Her second shooter actually had the better pictures but there weren't as many of hers. Well, then we were supposed to receive the disc of pictures within 3 months after the wedding date. WELL that didn't happen. I had to constantly e-mail her about where they were and there were many excuses including they had gotten lost in the mail. FINALLY we received them about 5 moths later. Along with the disc we were also supposed to receive a wedding album and unfortunately we have STILL NOT RECEIVED IT! She originally sounded like she was going to send us a proof of the album so we could check it before she ordered it but that was back on August of 2014. I have tried contacting her several times including via Facebook message and now it has been well over a year since we have gotten married. Also she has been on FB because she has posted several other wedding pictures and posts and still NO REPLY! We were extremely disappointed in her work and also her lack of professionalism. I understand that sometimes things happen and things get behind however, at least give your customers the respect they deserve and let them know what's going on. Also, give them the courtesy of a reply! I really hope no one else has to go through the stress of what we did just to have a memory of one of the most important day in our lives.
Jun 7th, 2015

On the wedding day we encountered some issues. During ceremony/reception we had to ask to take several basic pictures that photographer should already know to do. Even several in wedding party were mentioning how odd that was. She stated that we would have engagement pictures to be handed out to guests at our reception and those didn't get printed. I had also asked her ahead of time to please make sure bridal portraits were taken at the wedding and those weren't done. The biggest issue, was the time it took to get our pictures and responses from the photographer. Per contract, it said we would have proofs 1 month later and they came 2 months later. After the proofs, we received our DVD with our photos to make prints 7 MONTHS after our wedding! During that time, I had sent several emails with responses coming 2-3 weeks after I would send them. She had stated repeatedly that she was going to send them the next day. Each email that she would respond with, always had an excuse attached to it. I understand one or two times but I have multiple emails all stating excuses we never had our product we paid for. During this time, we had also noticed that several other weddings were being posted on her FB page and never seeing After asking her multiple times, she finally posted ONE picture. After we got the DVD, we asked for a meeting. She promised a free canvas photo. She also offered the bridal portraits that she had not done before. We should not have given another chance! 4 months later we still did not have our canvas. Bridals were 3 months later anthey turned out good. At that time, we reminded about the canvas and and then finally received it. Because of the mistake, she promised another canvas. It'a 1 1/2 years after our wedding date and about 6 months after the offer of the second canvas, and still no canvas! I am so disappointed in the professionalism and the amount of time everything took. I am really hoping this review helped those from the same mistake!
Aug 27th, 2014