Alright... so some friends of ours give us a gift certificate to Mark Sykes' Photography for our baby to have photos done at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months old. It seemed a bit pricey there but the photography looked nice and I had a gift certificate, so what the hell?

So more than 2 weeks ago, I call for an appointment because my baby was nearing 3 months old - no answer, I leave a message. I wait a few days - still no response. So last week I call again - no answer again and this time his answering machine is full and I can't leave another message. So later last week I finally get through and get an answer! I make an appointment for today!

So this morning I did everything right so my baby would be happy and would cooperate - I laid him down for a nap beforehand, when he woke up I fed him, I had his outfit all ironed - he looked friggin' adorable ;-), I get there on time, etc... everything's great. Well.... I get there and Mark Sykes gets frustrated with my baby because he isn't smiling and then he gets frustrated with me because I couldn't make him smile!?! He's 3 months old and he's just a baby - he has a mind of his own but he was calm and cool the whole time, laid back like always - but this wasn't good enough for Mark. Then he tells me to put my baby on his tummy. So I do. Well then Mark gets frustrated because my baby can't support himself on his elbows yet. He's just not there developmentally yet. I don't know any 3 month old babies who can sit up on their elbows yet. So then Mark tells me I need to reschedule. WTF!??!!!!! My baby was happy and was being who he is and he tells me I have to come back. I was furious. What is he expecting my son to do at 3 months old? So now Mark expects me to drive way out to Nantucket again and he keeps banker's hours so it's a total inconvenience to have to reschedule. Besides, I was happy with the way my baby looked. So now I am trying to decide if I want to go back or not.

Have any of you ever used this guy for babies/ children? His work seems to be nice, but his personality stinks and he obviously does not have children and is clueless when it comes to developmental milestones.

sounds like this guy isnt worth dealing with. with a gc or not. there is enough place in town to get good pictures taken. We had my sons pictures done at sears when he was around 5-6 months and it went great, but i am sure there is better places than sears

Yes I have. Mark does nice work, and I've been mostly happy with our pictures, but he is strange and has an over-the-top sarcastic sense of humor.

Just an example, once I went out there to pick up our pictures. I asked how much I owed, and he said a price that was double of what I was expecting. He was straight-faced and just stood there staring at me. Just when I opened my mouth to question the price, he broke out into a goofy laugh and said "just kidding...I got you" (kind of like Farva with the soap). Uh yea dude...real funny.

Doubt I'll ever go there again. There's plenty of talented photographers around.

Does not sound like Mark has much experience w/ babies ..... If you little one frustrated him by not smiling/sitting up, my kids would make his head explode on most days.

Yeah.. I see what you mean about the sense of humor. He was having me stand above my baby and try to get my baby to respond to me (although my baby was more interested in the light coming from the window). Well, because of the angle that Mark was standing at with his camera, I confirmed with him that I was not going to be seen in the picture. He said, "No... just your backside". Moron.

Sounds like a real winner. I don't think it's worth that experience even for free.

I like Darren with Studio One. Or Chandler with Specialites.

These stories pretty much echo what my wife told me when she took our little one to Sykes.

We met with him to discuss photographing our wedding. After being suffocated by his MASSIVE FREAKING EGO, we went with someone else.

Sounds like I have my answer.. I'm not going back. Mark Sykes could have made a lot of money off of me. Oh well.

Aggiepaintrain.... which Studio One location do you use? The Woodlands? We used the Woodlands location for our Maternity Photos, they turned out nice. I was just hoping to find someone local that we liked. I have an appointment with Amber Butler Photography (amberbutler.com) for a family photo next weekend. I have never met her but I hope she is not like Mr. Sykes.

I have a friend who does a lot of baby photography. She's not a professional, but she's been doing it for awhile with friends and family, and she's good at it. If you want, I could ask her if she'd be interested.

send me an email at tmanAg08 at gmail dot com if you want me to check.

I'll do it for half of what he charges.

You explained Mark Sykes in a nutshell....he takes beautiful beautiful pictures (esp. of children), but he is very very impatient. It took me 3 visits to get one actual session because he was unhappy on how my newborn was acting as well. The third time he tried the take the diaper off the baby and we will do a bare butt pic on this black cloth thing. Well, took the diaper off of him and in typical little baby boy fashion, as soon as the air hit his weewee, the baby started to pee on his cloth. I thought it was hilarious...he didn't. Never went back there.

He has taken photos of my friends kiddos and they were beautiful, but they warned me about suffering through his personality for that great shot!

I hate to admit it but between the two little ones we have spent a small fortion on pictures 3 month, 6 month, 1 year, 2 year, family, new family, xmas, halloween, easter and many more the point is we have used Specialties for all of them and love them!!!!!!

quote:

---

I'll do it for half of what he charges.

---

Does complaining about the cops cost extra?

^
|
|

OMG that is funny!

quote:

---

Aggiepaintrain.... which Studio One location do you use?

---

Wrong Studio One. Paintrain is referring to Darrin Hill (Studio One Photographics). I LOVE Darrin. He's goofy and silly (played the bagpipes for us at my wedding).

Ahhhh.. Ok.. Gotcha. Just checked out his website and he's got some really cute baby stuff on there. I will give him a call. Thanks! :-)

Aww, this is Darrin & his wife.

We used Mark for our wedding 12 years ago and had less than a pleasant experience.

We used Mark for our wedding 12 years ago and had less than a pleasant experience.

You know what's crazy is that Mark was complaining to me about the personalities of some of his other clients. I'm sorry, but the last thing that I want to hear about as a client, is you bad mouthing another client. He certainly isn't the most professional guy I've ever met.

Yeah, I took my son out there one time and he was less than pleasant to us. Pictures turned out great but he was not a very nice guy.

We used Specialties for our wedding and Chandler was great.

[This message has been edited by barney94 (edited 5/8/2007 5:07p).]

Well, choco, I guess that means you can bet he'll likely be talking about how your baby wouldn't smile to the next person.

Seriously, though...no experience with Sykes personally, but my wife does cakes and knows many of the photographers in town from doing weddings. She recommends a couple of different folks for wedding work, but seems to like working with Darrin at Studio One. I've met him a couple of times and, as others have said, he's a great guy.

That said, we did the "every 3 months the first few years" thing with our kids at Specialties and they did a very good job.

I have done work with him and he can be a giant jerk. I would never get photography from him. He does have kids though, I know that for a fact...makes you feel sorry for the kid.

I totally understand your frustration with Mark. We had some newborn pics done and they turned out awesome. Mark seemed to be cooperative and very willing to work with us. HOWEVER, at our next visit my 3 month old would not calm down and we ended up having to reschedule. So I reschedule, hubby takes a day off of work and the exact same thing happened...baby wont smile, cant hold up his head so were told "you need to reschedule" or "take the pictures I've got." We refused to reschedule and have to yet to receive the proofs...that was over a month ago. We are trying a new photographer VSM Photography (www.vsmphotography.com) She has a great reputation and her work is awesome. Good Luck in your search for a new photographer!

Kind of rare for a thread to have this many posts with no positive posts for the subject.

He did our wedding forever ago.

1) No pictures of us cutting the cake, but our video shows him taking pictures of us cutting it.

2) He printed my bridal portrait of me with my eyes closed - (not "thinking about my true love" closed - it was "I'm an idiot and closed my eyes in this picture" closed. My husband went in there a threw a fit before he agreed to reprint it. I cried like a baby. It was terrible.

3) I spent at least an hour in the freezing cold and wind taking pictures at the bell tower that never came out. He actually told me he must have forgotten to put film in the camera.

The pictures we have are wonderful, but I would never recommend him and I would never use him again. The headache isn't worth it!

[This message has been edited by AggieMommy (edited 5/8/2007 8:11p).]

Choc - I used Studio One (Darrin Hill) about a year or so ago and we had some great pictures taken. The hard part was choosing which ones we liked the best.

I've known Darrin since he was just out of high school and he's a great guy (just a little, ok, a lot odd) and a great photographer - he was the youngest master photographer in Texas for a while. But if you use studio one - make sure you get him. Last time I talked to him (and its been a while), he didn't offer a lower rate for one of his associate photographers.

We had our sons picture taken when he was an infant. I was relegated to go pick up the pictures. Unknown to me, I was given someone elses infant pictures. (both blond haired blue eyed boys) I had to explain to my wife when she opened the envelope to see someone elses child that I was distracted when I picked up the pictures. A cute young girl was working and had a pretty loose and revealing shirt. Unfortunately, my wife has not had pictures made there again.

I had same experience with Sykes as others on here...cannot figure out how he stays in business.

Also, as others have posted, have had great experiences getting the kids photos with Chandler at Specialties.

We actually fired Darrin before our wedding.
But we used him for all our kids pictures.
He gets a kick out of giving us a hard time about firing him.
Darrin does good work.

We went with Russel at Memoirs.
Good pics, but accused us of stealing a proof book.
Funny, how about a month later he was using our proof book as a sample book. I guess it showed up. Thanks for the apology ?

By the way ALLDAYAP takes great pics.
Imagine the pics he posts on the baseball board but instead of the Ags it's your kid at little league in the Pic.

[This message has been edited by DisAg (edited 5/9/2007 10:51a).]

Glad I do my own photography.

quote:

---

Glad I do my own photography.

---

Same here.

quote:

---

barney94 - Yeah, I took my son out there one time and he was less than pleasant to us. Pictures turned out great but he was not a very nice guy.

We used Specialties for our wedding and Chandler was great.

---

Ditto