Palace of Dreams Photography

Strongly do not recommend Palace of dreams Photography - Durban based photographer, Courtney Meyer.

This review was initially published on google however the owner has since removed their google, instagram and Facebook presence after we posted about our negative experience. This review is being shared with the hopes that another person does not get ********** for their money and most importantly have their special events and memories be ruined because of **** & misleading service providers like this. Unfortunately we had a very bad experience with this company. The photographer charged us a premium for poor quality of photos. We were left highly disappointed with our images from our baby shower, a day we wanted to have good photos to remember by and what we received was simply awful. The photographer merely owns a camera but does not know how to use it creatively or even basic settings. There were many things we expected her to do such as capture moments with our lovely guests, images of the decor which we put a lot of effort into and basics such as not taking out photos of people showing their backs. Even my entrance into the room was taken out from the back and it was barely visible. The photos were dark, unedited and no efforts were made for lighting. The photographer showed up without any equipment except a camera and did not once come to the front of the venue during formalities to capture special moments - she stood at the back the entire time but not that it made any difference with the single shots she eventually took of me with my guests at the front. There was also a lack of coordination - she did not take charge of her service on site, we simply stood there and she snapped. Just no thought or creativity. All the images uploaded to the gallery for our event were below 550KB with some even as low as 300KB which further indicates the poor quality of photos. We were in disbelief with the images especially considering that the images posted on their website and on social media seem high quality - perhaps these are all made up images. When we queried this, we were told the photos can be re-edited but looking at the size of the images and quality , re-editing did not make any sense it was the lack of knowledge of her own camera settings and lack of creativity to capture moments. A refund was requested for at least a portion of what we paid, but this was denied. Furthermore, before receiving the link to our photos, Courtney attempted to butter us up with a free maternity photoshoot which we thought was so kind until we had seen our images were ruined. This was definitely a tactic to try and make up for what she had already known was not good quality work. She knew she messed up our photos. We would have been more understanding if she was upfront about her experience. We would have also understood if her pricing was within the range of an entry level photographer but she charged an amount closer to a range with a photographer that had more experience, without actually having any proper experience or basic skills. Any professional photographer who sees these images would know we have been **********! Sharing this review so that others can learn from it, do not believe the images on social media that this company posts because it is probably AI. Especially when you have special occasions like this, you expect a photographer to take lead and to at least make it worthwhile. I was not expecting state of the art quality photos but at least knowledge of lighting and experience working with people to set them up and use some level of creativity. Highly and strongly not recommended! Please do not make a mistake to hire this company for your special occasions.