Chicago Doll Photography

This review is for Julie Ann Photography, Julie’s family and special event photography business, but since there doesn’t seem to be a separate Unilocal account, I’m posting my review for Julie’s photography here.
I got a Groupon for a 90 minute session to take family photographs for grandparents and relatives as a Christmas gift. My crazy family had outgrown JC Penny, and I thought I would give Julie a try.
She was responsive and flexible in scheduling and location. I got a media permit for Garfield Park Conservatory (there aren’t a lot of places to go in the winter, and my home is nothing that needs to be captured for posterity right now), and she met us there on a Tuesday morning.
My biggest concern were my children, especially my 3-​year-​old, who has become somewhat of a wild card since her baby brother was born. Julie connected with them right away and started snapping gorgeous shots of them that really capture their personalities. It’s a good thing, too, because by the end of the 90 minutes, the 3-​yo was not trying to hold still for anyone.
We essentially traipsed around the different rooms of the conservatory taking pictures of various combinations of my family of five. Julie was flexible and accommodating as I led her from room to room, pausing to feed my 8 month old, my other two children becoming decreasingly focused; she was also gracious when my sister (who lives with us) joined us for a few photographs toward the end. Julie does definitely go with the flow– I wouldn’t have minded if she had been a little more directive in positioning us for pictures at times – but given the
I was able to choose 10 digital photos and paid a small fee for one extra photo. And the photos are gorgeous. I cannot overstate that. So gorgeous (and obviously not amateur) that we almost got in a fight with the Walgreens photo team, who wouldn’t allow us to have our prints without an official letter attesting that we had permission to print them. So make sure you ask for one of those letters if you’re going to print them in person.
I cannot overstate how amazing the 11 photos are. Like, these might still be my favorite pictures of the family 40 years from now amazing. And I was just going for a pic or two that Grandma might like. Given what we paid, the time we got with Julie, and the quality and quantity of photographs, this is an incredible value. These were not your average «annual family photos.» These were portraits. So much better than any other photography deal on Groupon in the Chicago area. Even at full price this would be an incredible deal. My real problem now is this: Julie has raised the annual picture bar so high, it’s a tough act to follow. I can’t give such nice portraits to the grandparents every year. I’ll need to figure out another gift for next year… but in the long term, we’ll definitely use Julie again.

Awesome experience! I went to Julie a few weeks ago for a one hour session and she was great. Her studio was adorable and professional, she made me feel SO comfortable, and it seemed like she took lots of pictures for the short hour we were together. I cannot wait to get my photos back! Highly recommend!

I was very excited when I purchased a living social deal for a 2-​hour photo shoot with 15 digital images and one 8×10 print. I planned to put together a book for my husband for our wedding. I emailed Julie (after failed attempts to reach her via phone) to set up an appointment and she was very fast to respond and was even flexible with extending the expiration date of the living social voucher another month to accommodate me. Communication prior to the photo shoot was a little difficult as I had questions about attire and hair and makeup but didn’t always get a prompt response. I actually received most of the information I needed about the shoot, as to what to bring and other details the afternoon before the session (a little last minute in my opinion and something that probably should have been sent when I booked the appointment). The building is a little hard to find but Julie gave good directions. I called when I got there to be let into the building, but no one picked up. I waited outside 5 minutes before Julie called back and let me in (this was in the middle of winter and not so pleasant to stand outside).
I chose to also get my hair and makeup done and I’m glad I did. It really enhanced the look of the pictures :) However, during the hair and makeup Julie and the makeup artist continued to talk between themselves about themselves; while some others have said that Julie put them at ease, during this time I felt awkward and uncomfortable with the two professionals not really addressing me. With regards to the room, I was not a fan. It was dirty and uncomfortably hot. I was sweating throughout the session because of the heat and felt gross when I had to lay on the floor and had dirt and dust stuck to me afterwards. I’m sorry but if you expect to have people lie down on your floor half naked, sweep it beforehand. The 2-​hour shoot wrapped up in about an hour. I will say that Julie did a nice job of telling me how to position my body for each shot. That really helped produce some nice shots. But for the fact that we had almost another hour left in the shoot, I don’t know why we didn’t do more poses.
In the end, I received my photos 6 weeks later-​about 50 in total (probably about 30 different pictures, and 20 were just the same picture in black and white). Most were lovely and I was quite happy with how they turned out. I selected a few pictures for a photobook and received the photobook in the mail 3 weeks later. I was very disappointed in the quality of the book. For the price it just looked like poor quality and was a major letdown. I told Julie of my disappointment and she was great with remedying the situation-​she refunded me the cost of the book and let me purchase the digital images instead. I was then able to use the images to make my own book on adoramapix which turned about a thousand times better. For those considering paying for a book, I’d recommend just paying for the gallery images and doing the book yourself. (But kudos to Julie for handling the situation so nicely).
Overall, I was left with mixed emotions regarding the whole experience. Though I’m happy I did the photo shoot because my husband got a nice wedding gift in the end, I was hoping for a more fun and relaxed experience with fewer complications to deal with. Though Julie seems like a nice person, she needs more help managing her business. She is talented with taking pictures, but at this point I just can’t recommend her.

Julie was great and so down to earth. I was very nervous but as soon as I walked in she made it so comfortable. I really enjoyed my session and it was so affordable. The studio was cute, modern and very classy. She was great giving me directions on poses but so listened to everything I wanted to do. Definitely glad I did this and so thankful she got me in before I left town. Perfect place to do something on my bucket list. Thank you

Who knew I could look that good? I really enjoyed working with Julie and am thrilled with my results. I am a «woman of a certain age» and her work makes me look more youthful without looking artificial. She put me at ease and it was a fun afternoon. My proofs are so great, I’m having trouble choosing! The make up artist was fantastic as well. I’d recommend booking her too. Fun day with great results. Highly recommend.

Julie was fantastic and I would happily recommend her to anyone! She and her makeup artist completely put me at ease and I had the best time during my shoot. The studio space is very small, but beautiful and perfect for boudoir shots. (The building she is in is also fantastic!) She is great with telling you what poses to do and making you feel confident and pretty. She is quite a professional and it was an awesome experience. I can’t wait to see my photos in a few weeks!

I purchased a Living Social deal which included an hour of boudoir photography, 15 digital images and a 8×10 print. I contacted Julie by phone several times between Jan 15 and 22 and received no call back. Eventually I emailed her on January 23 and received a prompt response. What is the purpose of providing a phone number if calls are not answered or returned? I noticed this to be an issue per previous reviews, but I took a chance and chose to ignore that. Needless to say that was a mistake.
I advised Julie that I needed my session to be completed before Valentines Day and I was willing to pay extra so that I may receive the digital images quicker. She did say she was extremely booked during this time of year so she was able to squeeze me in on Feb 6^th at 2pm. On the day of the appointment I arrived a few minutes early and walked up to the building where the studio was located. At that time I found both the back and front doors locked. Now, as most of you know we have had a VERY VIOLENT WINTER/​POLAR VORTEX/​CHI-​BERIA and it was below zero outside! I called Julie several times hoping she could «buzz» me in and received no answer or call back. Surprise surprise!
Fortunately, after several attempts of trying to reach Julie by phone and when my fingers were so frozen I was unable to dial anymore, I saw a nice couple walking through the back entrance. They offered to let me in behind them.
As far as the actual photo shoot I felt everything went smoothly. She has a little screen for you to change behind and provides you with poses if you are unaccustomed to taking boudoir photos. After the shoot was completed she took an additional payment from me to have my digital files «rushed» and emailed to me within «4 – 5 days».
Four days later I emailed Julie asking her when I should receive my digital images and how I will be receiving my 8×10 print. She said that the digital files should be sent within the next day OR SO as proofs. She ended up emailing me my files at 2:30am on Feb 11^th for REVIEW ONLY. Of course I did not see them until that morning around 8am. I decided to pay another additional fee for all of the 24 images instead of picking the 15 included in the Living Social package. I chose and paid for these images through paypal at 11:30am (had to wait for her to send the paypal invoice. which took 2 hours))on Feb 11^th.
At 6:17pm I sent her an email «reminding» her that my payment was made hours ago and I needed my images as I am on a time constraint. At 7:53pm she responded saying: «Sure! Im sorry I tried to upload them earlier and it got stuck. So I’m uploading now, and as soon as they are ready you will get an email from (websitesheuses).com with the link to download your full size files and the copyright release». I did not receive this link until 9:00pm on Feb 11^th. At this point I pretty much gave up on getting my husbands Valentine’s day gift to him by Feb 14^th. To top it off I also had to «remind» her that I needed my 8×10 print by mail. Her response: «I just double checked and the order wasn’t processed so I went ahead and reordered it for you. You should received it by Thursday/​Friday. Sorry for the delay.» (My print was received Feb 27^th)
It seems to be ironic that my digital images «got stuck» when they were downloading (which caused them to be delayed) and my 8×10 print «wasn’t processed». Here’s a little piece of advice to Chicago Doll Photography: SPEND A LITTLE EXTRA MONEY TO HIRE AN ASSISTANT THAT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ANSWERING YOUR PHONE, RESPONDING TO EMAILS, UPLOADING/​DOWNLOADING DIGITAL IMAGES AND PROCESSING PHOTO ORDERS. You clearly are incapable of handling such a full workload.

Beautiful website, great photography, relatively quick to respond my questions via email… I’m thinking that this is the place and photographer for me. Wrong.
I reached out to Julie for a session for my wedding gift to my husband. No groupon. No living social deal. No nothing but her full price rates. I did mention that I will be doing my own hair and makeup for this. After a few emails back and forth regarding scheduling… I wanted to come after work at 6pm, but she insisted on 5:30pm for whatever reason… and viola, I had a date in the books for this shoot.
That day I emailed her to confirm our appointment, and she responded that it was 5:30 and instructed me to call her number so she could let me in to the studio. I left work a tad early and hauled ass to get to the appointment as fast as I could during rush hour and was so proud that I made it there with 5 minutes to spare. A quick phone call to her number and voicemail…20 minutes later still no response from phone and email, and I am standing in front of the door looking like a crazy bag lady. Someone else from the building exited and I slipped in to try to find her space. 10 minutes of walking around (it is a maze of photography and video studios) and finding a bathroom to touch up my face and hair, I bumped into Julie. No apologies, no nothing for starting the session 30 minutes late — needless to say I was a bit T’d off at the lack of explanation for her absence.
Julie showed me her room (cute with nice natural light) and told me to show her the outfits. 4 options were picked, I got dressed and we went to work — things were looking up. She does not have the warmest personality (woman of few words) but will speak to you to direct and position you for the most flattering angle. She plays some fun music and I did feel comfortable in front of her as much as you can prancing around in a thong and teddy :) I did show her my pinterest board of shots and positions that I would’ve like to try… we tried a couple but she had ideas of her own based on the outfits, props etc.
Between outfit changes Julie would go straight back to her computer and do other work. That was fine and dandy, but thought it was poor beside manor when I would ask a question and her response was annoyed like I was taking her away from something or if I was all done getting dressed and was waiting on her to finish. My thought is that I was paying $ 250 for a 2 hour session I would have her full attention if I had a question… I guess not. I was in the last outfit and the daylight was fading quickly… a couple snaps went by and she said that I think thats it.
I changed back into my street clothes and was waiting for her to advise on the payment and pictures. Nothing from her as she invested her attention to her computer. I asked, and without her lifting her glaze from the screen, she said «What is you groupon code». I was more put off by that and I checked my phone for the time, and it was 7:10pm…started at 6 for a hour and 10 minute session. The rate called for 2 hours. Seriously I should have just left and cut my losses for time wasted…
But stupid me really wanted the photos for my husband wedding gift and needed the photos «expedited» which was an additional fee. Not only did I not get the photos in time because the tranfering zip file didn’t work, I didn’t like the 15 finished photos she chose. What a bust :(
This is my second review on Unilocal ever but really wanted to paint a picture of my experience. Hundreds of dollars later with the session and outfits later, Julie gave me a sub-​par service because she thought it’s for a groupon. It is unfortunate, because I really do think she has some talent… just her professionalism, bedside manor and business follow up is a bit immature.

My photoshoot was a comfortable experience, and I’m really happy with my images. I used a Living Social deal, and I’m happy with what I received for the money and time invested. If you’re looking for some fun photos, I’d recommend Julie!

I wish I had something nice to say, especially since I got an awesome groupon deal for a photo shoot with a photographer who had wonderful reviews on Unilocal.
To my grand disappointment, I was never able to get close to the actual shoot. After numerous phone calls that went to voicemail, I got literally nowhere. Then I read on her website that Julie prefers emails to calls. Ok, I get that having a record of all conversations with a client makes record keeping easier. So when I finally received an email response, I found out that Julie was booked through January. That’s ok, I thought. I’m in no rush and can schedule something in February. 3 emails and 3 weeks later, my pleas to please let me know when Julie IS available got nada, zilch, zero replies. Here goes my $ 90. What a waste of time & money.
Side note: I felt bad leaving her this review and so I emailed her once again asking to fix the issue by simply letting me know when we can set up the photo shoot. She didn’t respond back. So here is your review, dear Julie. I hope it will encourage you to treat your customers better in the future.

The owner and photographer Julie is a professional. It was an absolute pleasure working with her. I was being difficult because I was hoping to achieve a certain look with hair and makeup (since I scheduled the shoot the same day as a black tie wedding). Julie was extremely accommodating and patient with all of our back and forth communication. I ended up going to a salon for an old Hollywood fingerwave hairstyle and having Julie’s referral Claire Latronica do my makeup in the Chicago Doll studio. Claire was spectacular. She needed very little direction but ended up achieving just the look I was going for.
When the time came for the actual shoot, Julie made me feel comfortable immediately. I had done a little research and brought in some looks, photos, and poses that I wanted to try. Julie listened intently and made sure to include everything I hoped to accomplish. She was able to fit in a number of «costume changes» and helped guide me through the whole process. I was afraid I wouldn’t know what to do, but Julie was a great coach: «Put your hand here. Bend your right knee a little. Now look at this spot here.» If I could do it over again, I would have practiced a little in front of a mirror before to get a feel for how certain poses looked. Modeling is hard! If you get your body positioning right, then your face looks like you’re trying too hard. If you work on making an attractive face, then you forget to position your body an attractive way. I think I needed to relax a little more and just do what was natural and comfortable for me instead of trying so hard to pose. That’s on me, though, not Julie :)
After it was all said and done, Julie gave me a 4 week promise date for all the proofs. This girl is a woman of her word because she got me the link to the images two days before Christmas. The entire experience was a positive one and I ended up with some really beautiful shots. I feel like I got quite a deal working with Chicago Doll Photography.

I purchased a groupon that was for a boudoir photo shoot at Chicago Doll Photography. I had a very bad experience. The owner, Julie, showed up 10 minutes late after sending me an email telling me not to be late, otherwise I would be charged. So, this puts my 2 hour photo shoot back. Then, she didn’t even greet me or apologize for being late after she showed up.
We go into the photo area and it’s freezing cold. She didn’t even have a heater and expected me to take off my clothes in the dead of winter. We take a couple of pictures per outfit and less than an hour later, we’re done. I paid $ 89 for a 2 hour photo shoot that she showed up late for and only did 1 hour of a photo shoot. And she later told me that I was the only client for the day. So, if I’m the only one, how come you’re late and didn’t even give me the full 2 hours. There was absolutely no need to rush since no one else was coming in that day.
After we finished, I asked her if I get the review the photos before I leave. And she tells me that she will pick out the best ones and then give me the cd. I’m thinking, «What if I don’t like the ones that you chose, I just paid $ 89 for photos that I might not even like.»
She was very unprofessional nor did she make me feel comfortable when I was there. I would not recommend using her.

I had purchased a You Swoop for another photographer, who I had a lot of issues with. So, my You Swoop was eventually transferred to Julie at Chicago Doll. She was really easy to work with and agreed to extend the expiration date of the You Swoop so that I could schedule my shoot at a time that was convenient for me.
She communicated with me throughout the process, including letting me know that my hair and makeup artist was running a little late. She made me feel extremely relaxed and comfortable throughout the shoot and the pictures turned out fantastic! Also, the hair and makeup person that she sent did a great job.
If you are considering taking boudoir photos, I would highly recommend her.

Great session! I felt very comfortable with Julie and she took wonderful pics.

One of my wonderful bridesmaids treated me to a boudoir shoot as her bachelorette gift to me, and I’m so glad she did because I never would have done it on my own.
Julie was fantastic to work with and gave such great direction so you don’t feel like an idiot as she’s putting you in the most flattering poses for your pictures.
I had all three of my bridesmaids with me which definitely helped make me extremely comfortable with the session. That, combined with a few mimosas, really relaxed me, especially as my friends were encouraging me that the pics were amazing while at the same time hilariously directing me to show more boob and booty.
One of my other bridesmaids treated me to hair and makeup separately, and after seeing the pictures I’m glad I did it, it makes a big difference.
If you want a fun experience that will capture some really hot photos of you, that, lets be honest – you will never really have a chance to get unless you’re a model and are used to prancing around a bedroom getting pics taken of you in lingerie, then I suggest you use Chicago Doll Photography. You’ll be happy you did!

After my own fabulous friends treated me to my own photo shoot for my bachelorette party, I knew I had to pay this favor forward. One youswoop later, and a bachelorette gift for my lovely lady friend was set up.
Julie is very easy to work with with respect to setting up the appointment. We communicated very well over email, and she answered any and all questions (without giving me the «duh, read my website response» because I later realized that I could’ve figured this info out on my own.) We set up the appointment at a chic hotel downtown, and were ready.
Day of shoot, Julie arrived, and got straight to work. She is great at giving directions, which is really important to make you look the very best in your shoot. She also makes you feel completely at ease, again critical when you’re running around in your unmentionables (and your friends are shrieking, «MORE SIDE BOOB.»)
Some notes:
–She can accommodate hair/​makeup. I recommend either going through her or having this done. It really adds to the experience and sets you off feeling pretty.
–Have a trusted girlfriend or three around to make you feel at ease. I think our commentary really relaxed and helped our friend. (Plus, see above… side boob was critical for some of the photos. We were HELPING.)
–Champagne doesn’t hurt either.
–Make your bed. (Or do as we did, have it in a sexy hotel that will make the bed FOR you.)
If you have any interest in having this done, I can’t recommend it enough. Julie is just a peach of a gal, and her photos are FABULOUS.

My husband bought me a Living Social voucher for Christmas, and this is something I would NEVER have done if he had not bought this. However, the whole experience turned out to be fun and relaxing. I am eager to see the photos, which will be ready in two weeks or so. I paid an extra 85 dollars for the hair and make up application, which took 1 ½ hours. Well worth the extra money! I had three outfits picked out for the photo shoot, and Julie directed me on poses and where to look and whether to smile, etc. I was nervous, but all worked out fine! It was great that they came to my house, as I am a working mom and business owner, with two little kids!
I highly recommend Chicago Doll!!!

I recently purchased the Living Social deal for Chicago Doll Photography as a 10-​year anniversary gift for my husband. I have never done anything like this before and had no idea what to expect. As a working mom of 3 kids, I barely have time to shower let alone take pictures in lingerie. Julie and her staff made the entire experience super convenient and went out of their way to make me feel comfortable. I would highly recommend paying the extra $ 75 for the hair and make-​up. Her staff does an amazing job with hair and make-​up. While I was getting ready, Julie arrived and set up in my bedroom, while my babysitter was downstairs. The beauty of this all is that I never had to leave my house and didn’t have to put in a ton of my own effort. I just had to be available and have lingerie to wear. Julie directed me from start to finish on every pose and facial expression. It was a very professional, yet enjoyable experience. I would also recommend playing music during your session to help lighten the mood. If you are considering scheduling a shoot, but are concerned that your body isn’t camera-​ready, Julie can edit out your «problem» areas and even make you appear thinner on camera. I am creating a book for my husband’s gift. I have no doubt that, aside from our 3 children, this will be the best gift I have given him to date.