Ocean Isle Beach Photography

I did the proper research prior to hiring a photography company to take beach portraits of my family. In speaking with Tom, I learned the photographer would be assigned 2 days before our appointment. This concerned me because the reason I wanted to hire Ocean Isle Beach Photography was the style of photography and use of lighting in the images on their website. Tom assured me that all the photographers on staff shoot in the same style w/the same use of lighting and you can't tell from one image to the next who shot it. This turned out to be false. The quality of our images was very poor. My family cringed when we saw them and there wasnt a single image we wanted to print to frame or post online. Our images had a vastly different style and use of light than whats portrayed on their site. During the sitting, the photographer didnt pose us in a flattering way. The angles were odd. We kept asking him what to do with our hands. Our hair was flying all over the place. Our jewelry was out of place. Our outfits needed adjusting. We were all squinting. The images came out looking like we had dark circles around our eyes &;;;;;;;;; there were strangers in the background. I called Tom to discuss these issues and he was immediately defensive in his tone. He said things to me like, Weve never had a single complaint! Ever!, Your photographer was voted #1 of the year!, and Im having a really hard time processing this. He even attempted to argue w/me about my sisters necklace being off-centered. He tried to convince me that if she were a model & it was a styled shoot, the photographers wouldve pulled her necklace off to the side based on the angle she was standing at. We are regular people not models! Our photographer should have noticed this & instructed her to fix it before taking the shots. By the end of the call Tom agreed to have his tech team take a look if I could send him a few images that might be able to be salvaged by retouching them. After 4 days with no response, I emailed him to follow up. I recapped what we discussed on the phone before booking and after we got our images. I included screenshots of their pictures online for the purpose of comparing the difference in quality of what the company portrays and what I actually received. I then requested a refund because the images I received didnt meet my expectations based on the standards the company advertises. Toms response: Before we even get started addressing this nonsense and thats exactly what it is nonsense I need to know who gave you permission to download my copyrighted pictures from my website. Your name is not on those pictures and you do not have a copy right release for those particular families pictures. But for some reason I guess you dont think the rules apply to you. So heres whats going to happen. Ill give you a choice, you can walk away from this right now and we never wanna hear from you or youll be hearing from our attorney! And any negativity about my company will bring about a defamation suit to you. We had to put up with 2020 and almost losing our business and then we get 2021 with overwhelming amount of families finally able to get out on vacation and the only one complaining is you and its absolutely ridiculous. !!!! Dont you ever contact us again this is your only warning anything other than this is harassment. !! To set the record straight, Ive done nothing illegal or in violation of copyright infringement. I havent received the hi-resolution data disc as promised online. Our images werent retouched after Tom told me he would have his tech team take a look at them. I no longer have access to the digital download site because Tom deactivated it sometime between the time I emailed him and the time he replied. In response to my honest and factual review of the company, he sent me a text message stating, "We are pressing charges against you for copyright theft. You did break the law and you downloaded somebody else's pictures that did not belong to you, For your personal use. You were warned. We will also be filing a civil suit against you after you have been arrested and charged. You are a fu..[expletive] psycho!!" My actions of emailing screenshots of Tom's pictures on his website for the purpose of comparing the difference in quality of what the company portrays & what I actually received to him was within the parameters of fair use.