Holly Barko
BUYER BEWARE. I hired Josue at Verano Studios to do a product photography shoot and some short videos. We had a written contract and estimate, where he agreed to do photos of 6 products, and 15 short videos (off-line edits of 1 to 2 min each). I hired a professional model to participate in the shoot, and paid extra to be licensed to use her images & videos on YouTube. In total Josue charged me over $15k (this does not include the models fees, the makeup artist fees, the on set meals or any props that I bought). The shoot itself seemed like it went well. After the shoot was completed, Josue said that it normally takes about a month to complete the edits. I left a check with him for the outstanding balance which he deposited that week. I needed to get that content as soon as I could in order to be able to use it to start building my ECommerce site, and he knew this. After a month had passed, I checked in with Josue to see how the editing was going. He said great. He might be finished with it in a couple more weeks. 2 weeks later, I checked in again. He wasn't finished with the editing, and I had not received anything. 2 months later, still no edits had been sent. He finally sent me dropbox folder with some ¨edited¨photos¨ in it. There were no videos. When I saw the photos, none of them looked like they had been edited or retouched. Example shown here: a product bottle with a black hair on top of the dispenser. We had a phone call, he said he would work on it and make some retouches on some of the photos. I asked him to send me the raw files, as I could hire someone else to do the video editing. At one point he emailed me saying he would be sending me the raw files, but then he never did, despite me asking multiple times. We are now 3 months post shooting, I have been sent only one video. He did not complete all the retouches which he said he would, so I had to hire someone else to do that. I paid for a Youtube license for the videos of the model, but I have no videos of the model. I literally begged him to send those to me; he ignored my email. He stopped responding to my texts and emails shortly after our phone call. He basically deposited my check and then went MIA. It's sad because he is young and talented, but doesn't seem interested in creating a positive client experience. His prices give you the expectation of a high-end experience, but the experience delivered was in the end, awful. I really hope he can get right with himself and learn how to run his business in a more ethical and professional manner. Save yourself the emotional & financial heartache. Steer clear of this one. If he decides to deliver what was promised to me in our contract and in his emails, I will update this review.