Gerardy Photography, Escondido CA

We were really pleased with how our son's photo turned out. It was a great picture. But, I have to say that we really did not like how they sent an already printed package of photos and said if we didn't want some, to return or pay for them. We 100% would have bought some if we had received a watermarked sample or an email with options, but it just felt wasteful on one hand since we didn't need or want as many as came in the package, but it also felt like we were being guilted into buying them since they were already printed. I hope that they can change this in the future and make it easier and lest wasteful.

Photo packages are compiled in ways which offer very limited selections, especially with a heavy amount of wallet photos included that most deem unnecessary. If you try to avoid this, then you need to pay more than an entire packages worth to simply purchase less than half the entire package in the form of a la carte (to get not a bunch of wallets). So you are simply stuck buying an unreasonable package. Digital options are limited and start at $54. While they claim you can buy a single image, they for some reason choose to make it unavailable to you the consumer on their website, urging you to call only to be told you can't? And then you leave a review in which the owner tells you to "call" to buy your "single digital image. " See the discrepancy? Providing more digital options would likely appease a number of customers, but there has been no update for years. A bit more consistency in which kids you tidy up before photos would likely help too.

Stars have been added for their timely responses at least.

Great customer service. Lady I spoke with regarding an extra packet charged resolved my issue ASAP.

Updated Review after working with Customer Service.

Our first order from Gerardy Photography in 2021 was great, and I had to work with customer service for our 2022 shoot.

***Customer service was nice, understood my complaint, and we came to an agreeable solution. ***

The 2022 pictures Pose 1 and 4 were very similar, I confused them for identical. After working with Gerardy customer service, they explained there was a lack of variety for my son (my son was not cooperating for some pictures and those were discarded).

Gerardy Photography also took pictures of my toddler son with crumbs in his mouth. These crumbs did not show up in the proofs so it would have not been good if we ordered actual printed pictures (we only got the USB, and my wife knows Photoshop to fix this). I understand lunch/snack on the face is a risk for toddlers.but between the teachers and photographer, it would have been nice if my son's face was wiped. I m happy customer service offered to email me free touch ups.

Tip: Never pay for printed photos for a toddler without buying the touch-up package. Also, pay for touch-ups if you do not have someone to Photoshop:)

Other Thought: How are the high-quality digital photos less than 1.5MB!? My iPhone 8's *. Jpgs are larger than this: P

They didn’t reply to my voice messages and they aren’t very considerate of others. I was injured and went to the ER the day before so I wasn’t able to go to make-up picture day. They won’t let me submit a picture online because they were apparently only doing that for COVID last year, so my injury isn’t a health problem either at least for me? I guess it’s as long as they don’t get sick. I told them I can’t go to Escondido because my mother has work and no response from them since.

Update: my mom contacted them like their reply said to, and then they told me the same thing that they can’t use outside pictures for my student id even though they did that last year. It was a waste of time.

The last two years, Gerardy has done a fantastic job photographing my child. She tells me that they provide a comb to help comb/style the hair before a photo and I love that. Her photographs have come out lovely. Her school yearbook shows lots of kids photographed beautifully as well. I can't comment on the prices as this is the second time ordering school photos from Gerardy and I have nothing to compare them to.

I’m not going to lie, at first I was very nervous about this place taking my sons school photos because of the reviews.
We just moved to Ca from MD back in April so we are used to the company LifeTouch over there, so when school photos were announced back in September and say who was taking the photos, I went ahead and looked you guys and I’m huge on reviews so immediately I was nervous but told myself to give them a chance before jumping ship. Well I did just that and I absolutely loved my sons pictures and the four different poses! Was a little bummed I couldn’t pick a different background but honestly I could careless about it because my boy looked so handsome. Can’t wait for my baby girl to start school next year and have her pictures taken!

Photos were good, but process is outdated. There were no packages without wallets. The only digital option was $55 min (no other prints in this). Last year getting pictures from them was super slow. I'm bummed our school isn't using Lifetouch again, I'm paying $20 more more kid with Gerardy and can't send prints directly to parents out of state (with digital prints). Also can't seem to easily order more than one kids pictures at a time.

Dissatisfied as usual….

I get that you have a ton of kids to photograph but a 15-30 second glance at the kid to make sure they look presentable would be a huge improvement in the quality of these photos.

Ur work is trash and now imma look bad
in my school year book thanks to you guys because of how bad
the quality is.it’s soo bad

So the school sends my kid home with high quality prints from this company with zero watermark and expects people to pay after the fact.you gave the photos away. I never agreed to having to return anything if I didn't want to buy it. That's called a gift. On top of that, you gave them to a 7 year old.what if he damaged them on the way home? I'm not paying for that. Also, would it hurt you to check the focus on your images. They eyes need to be sharp the camera was clearly focused on my kid's bangs. I don't imagine your business lasting too long if you're giving the product away and asking for payment afterwards.

So far the obly negative thing to say is that they do mot make an effort to "fix" kids hair or clothing.
And its better to just send portrait proofs instead of the whole package.

It's been more than two months since our kids photos ware taken, and we haven't received our photos. On top of that they made us pay upfront because I guess our school is in a low income community. I have other family members who have children in fluent communities and they were not ask to pay for photos up from and also received examples of photos so parents could make their choice. Will not be purchasing photos from Gerardy moving forward. I rather hire a private photographer.

The prices are outrageous! I got a bunch of photos through Life touch. For my other sons pictures he goes to another school. I payed 33$. This company is charging 54 plus tax for the same packet. And the pictures are not great, his hair was messed up. Hopefully the school chooses another company next year.

Always have problems after ordering my pictures, just called them to remind to send my kids pictures after few months of my order, they are very disorganized. Unfortunately the school only have this option for pictures. 2 stars because customer service is ok.

They took pictures after lunch! I curled my daughters hair in the morning and by the time they took the pictures her hair looked a mess! The photographer did not care to take decent photos! Well guess what? You aren't taking my money.