Kasey took our engagement photos in January of 2018. I met with her beforehand to discuss expectations on the shoot and explained that I wanted to avoid the typical/cheesy engagement photos I’ve seen other photographers do (i.e. we didn’t want to just hold hands and kiss, etc). We’re a bit of a quirky couple and wanted fun, candid images that reflected that. Kasey assured me it wouldn’t be a problem and that she would make sure the final photos were fun and candid.
On the day of the shoot Kasey was prompt and professional, but she didn’t give us any substantial direction during the shoot and kept having us repeat the same poses over and over again. She also didn’t have original ideas for poses that I hadn’t seen done many times before. Once I noticed this I tried to compensate by coming up with some random/funny poses on the fly, but I’m not a photographer or a professional model and I just didn’t know what would look good on film (and to be honest, that’s a big part of why we hired a professional photographer in the first place: so she could tell us what to do).
I should have realized then that there would be a problem, but I’m optimistic and hoped it was just me over thinking things. We all parted ways on good terms that day and I was looking forward to getting some (hopefully) great images to commemorate our engagement.
A couple of weeks later Kasey sent us the gallery of final images. Unfortunately, we were dissatisfied with all but a few of the final images Kasey sent us. (It’s worth noting that the only images we ended up liking were the “random/funny” poses we came up with on the fly). I was really upset that our engagement shoot was such a flop, but the whole situation was a bit awkward and I didn’t want to say anything and come off as rude. It’s a small town and we’re new here, so I also didn’t want to offend anyone. So initially, I was just going to let it go.
Then (a day or so after getting the images) I reviewed the full gallery of photos on my laptop instead of on my phone, and just couldn’t get over how awful most of the photos were. I emailed Kasey directly and tactfully expressed my disappointment. I was hoping for any show of good faith on her part—maybe an offer to reshoot a few of the photos, or a partial discount, really just anything that showed she was taking responsibility for the situation and cared about giving us quality engagement photos we‘d really be happy with.
Her response was so disappointing. She told us the entire thing was our fault, that she was happy we found “a few photos” we liked, and wished us “the best” in our wedding and marriage. That was it.
I’m not saying Kasey is an awful person or that everyone will have a similarly negative experience with her. But if you want candid looking photos and a lot of professional direction during the shoot, then Kasey Kreit may not be the photographer for you. I sincerely regret not going with one of the many other professional photographers in the Great Falls area. Hopefully our wedding photos (with a different photographer) will make up for it.