Foto Illuminare

Well, where do I even begin to describe the shXt storm that is Foto Illuminare?
I bought a Lifebooker deal for a one hour photo shoot with hair and makeup. For one it took forever to book an appointment, hear back from her and get any information on booking or availability. We finally agree on a date and have a pre-​call, where she instructs me to come to the photo shoot with a bare face and to only bring my foundation and mascara (this is important later) and she will spend about 30 minutes first to do my makeup at the venue and bring along some hair stuff to try photos with my hair up and down.
The date of our photo shoot arrives and she cancels on me at the last minute as I am arriving to the venue with some, in retrospect, BS personal emergency excuse and promises to reimburse me for my train ticket and give me an extra hour on the shoot to make up for it. We reschedule for two weeks later because she is allegedly out of town until then. Then she calls me to postpone the appointment because of bad weather. So we reschedule for the following Saturday. I text her on Saturday morning to confirm and ask a question. Thank goodness I did otherwise I would have traveled an hour into the city again for no reason. She texts me back claiming she screwed up the dates and thought our appointment was on Sunday, even though our text conversation clearly shows she agreed to and typed out Saturday multiple times. At this point I really needed some professional or decent photos of me for a publication with a looming deadline, so I agree to roll with Sunday instead. We confirm for Sunday and she promises me she will be there.
Sunday rolls around and as I am on my way the venue, I get a text claiming she is still stuck in Boston and can’t make it but got her esteemed colleague to cover for her. She claims he is a great photographer who did her own portraits for her and what not. Since I am almost there, and really needed the photos as she had put me off for almost a month now, I show up. As I am walking to the venue I ask about makeup and she goes silent and when I repeatedly asked her then claims it’s not included in the package without a studio booking. I call bullshit and she goes AWOL.
Well, this guy doesn’t do makeup, and I have none with me except for some foundation and mascara. I also come to learn he has never even met her before, she contacted him off of Craigslist the DAY BEFORE and «hired» him to do 2 photo shoots that day. BUT she didn’t even tell him they were hour long photo shoots. His understanding was that he was going to be shooting a quick succession of head shots for a number of employees for some kind of law firm or something. So he was surprised to learn what it was really about. Granted this guy was gracious about it and since we were there we took photos. As we are taking photos, he tells me he is a self proclaimed «photographer who absolutely hates taking pictures» and it showed. Let’s not even mention that without makeup these photos were going to be useless to me anyways. This guy did not know what he was doing and managed to make me look like a squinty eyed walrus in every photo he showed me on his camera. I have never seen such unflattering pics of me, it made me want to cry.
Essentially she was paid to massively lie to me; She knew the DAY BEFORE WHEN WE CONFIRMED she wasn’t coming and didn’t even have the decency to tell me this or give me a heads up to do my own makeup in advance. Then she backtracks and claims makeup was never part of the deal despite texts from HER to the contrary. And telling me all this on the way to the venue is inexcusable when she obviously knew this the day before when we spoke. It is inexcusable all around. Also I paid for hair and makeup that was not forthcoming and for her to hire some random guy off of Craigslist to take awful photos and bamboozled me into it by springing it on me when it was too late to turn back. I could have done this for free and on my own without the massive headache, time wasted and anger. My five year old neighbor could take better photos.
Then I come to find out she has is not giving the Craigslist photographer the rest of the money she owed for the session. He won’t release the photos otherwise (not that they are of any use to me). She also refused to answer my calls or texts or issue a refund. I honestly do not believe she is a real photographer or even living in the area, likely not even this country. Based on the number of reviews here and the other clients she recently bamboozled, this is a scam she is running through Lifebooker.

Do not book this photographer.
I scheduled two appointments with her and each time she cancelled within an hour of the scheduled time of the shoot.
The last time she cancelled, I received a text message from a different number telling me that Jenna is indefinitely sick. I have emailed her two times after that and did not receive a response.
SCAM.

Shame on Lifebooker for working with her. I tried to e-​mail Jenna to arrange a time. 2 weeks later I got a respond from her that she was shooting aboard and didn’t have internet access (okay super star… working aboard with out internet access)
Then I tried to text (as suggested by her) then more e-​mails… until I eventually couldn’t take it anymore. Finally I wanted a refund from Lifebooker. My request was denied. Surprise surprise. That’s when my American Express step in to save the day!
I don’t like to write reviews unless I am extremely mad. As a business owner myself, I can understand how many thing can go wrong… but Jenna… she’s just simply not working.

I absolutely NEVER do reviews, but I felt compelled to write one here. I had the same experience that the others did in that I booked a photo shoot two times and two times I never heard back about confirming the location. Absolutely no word back and to this day, have never heard a peep back from her after she cancelled one and failed to respond to the other one. How completely unprofessional.

I purchased a deal on lifebooker for a 2-​hour photo shoot with foto illuminare. I texted Jenna and I was soon contacted by another number, saying she would get back to me with availability. I never received a text after that. After four days, I was finally able to find out her availability, which was only on the weekends. The day before our appointment, I text her to find out where she wants to meet, and she responds the next day saying she’s on another shoot for a magazine and needs to reschedule because her «editorial clients take priority because they are published work». If this is the case, then she should have scheduled me on a different day in the first place. She never apologized. The whole thing smelled fishy right from the beginning, and I wish i never purchased the deal. She was horribly unprofessional.

My wife recently booked a photo shoot with Foto Illuminare and corresponded with them via email and confirmed the date, time, and location several days earlier.
We were both very excited and my wife even paid someone to do her hair and makeup on the morning of our appointment. We both eagerly dressed up and awaited the photographer’s arrival.
Unfortunately, the photographer never showed up or even contacted us to let us know that there was a problem. We waited around emailing and calling the previously provided contact number but never heard anything.
This was the most unprofessional business I have ever encountered. Not even a phone call to let us know that they weren’t able to make it or to offer an apology. We were simply left disappointed, frustrated, and angry.
Save your money and book another photographer!!!