Genesis Photography

I’ve worked with Vinnie Isola for years when I’ve needed commercial photography for my business, Preston Wynne Spa. We’ve probably done half a dozen shoots over the past 20+ years, and his work is featured in our brochure and website. We just finished another one today, and I was blown away by what we accomplished in half a day’s work. I really think he’s wonderful, and some of the reviews posted here don’t describe any experiences I’ve had with him personally.
I enjoy collaborating with Vinnie. Though I’m sure I drive him a little crazy (I’m a frustrated photo stylist at heart), he is patient, doggedly determined to get it right, and funny. This is very important when you’re shooting people in towels.
His technical expertise is second to none and he works as hard as I do to capture the perfect image. His post-​production work is first-​rate – it is amazing what he can do to polish and refine images. (I’m looking forward to his «anti aging» magic on the ones we just did!) Nope, he’s not the «low priced spread,» but the quality of the images speak for themselves and his rates are comparable to other highly skilled photographers’.

I received the same $ 300 certificate through my son’s elementary auction, but I was looking for a high quality portrait, so I expected the $$$$ pricing.
They were flexible when my schedule changed last minute and were able to reschedule to a time that suited me.
Vinny was friendly with a great eye for our photo shoot at the beach and actually handled some rather nosey onlookers with ease. It was a high quality photo shoot with a relaxed atmosphere. Our service was fine when we reviewed the pics and made our selection. Vinny was waiting for us when we arrived and offered refreshments, etc.
The pictures came out beautifully and I love them!
I gave them a 4 instead of a 5 because:
1) it was pricey — even more than I expected
2) it took 8 weeks to get the pictures, but they threw in the digital CD to apologize for the delay

My family and friends have had Vinny @ Genesis take artful photos (weddings, special events, afternoon at the beach, etc.) since 1991. We are always totally happy with the product and the support we’ve gotten over the years. Vinny’s keen eye for the artful setting results in some of the most amazing, timeless photos you’ll ever own. His credentials with manufacturers and recognition in the industry are unprecedented in our area. Many of the works we’ve purchased over the years adorn our walls — and the same goes with our friends and other family members. If you’re looking for gallery-​ready, inspired and timeless photos to capture that special (or everyday!) moment-​in-​time, I’d highly recommend you contact Vinny @ Genesis.

DON’T USE THIS PHOTOGRAPHER, HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE & OVER PRICED!!!
I received a gift certification for Genesis Photography at an auction, bid $ 75 for $ 300 worth of credit. I thought I was getting a deal, but was soon mistaken. The sitting fee is actually $ 150 (½ of what the credit is worth) and the prices for pictures cost more than my wedding photos!!! It $ 125 for a 6×9 and the packages were ridiculously over priced. I made an appointment anyway since I figured I would get 1 free picture out of it.
When I made my appointment I showed up on time and was not greeted by anyone, I waited and waited and finally walked back into the studio to find someone setting up. She stated that Vinny was running behind (thanks for the phone call). Mind you I was having pictures taken of my 3 months old daughter and things can get complicated with an infant. When he finally did show up he actually did a good job of getting some good shots (its a shame i couldn’t buy many) and was very accommodating and letting me feed her and getting her to calm down. Which is the only reason why I gave it 2 stars. I thought it was pretty ridiculous that I would have to spend $ 1,000 to get the images on a cd and would still have to pay $ 300 for that cd and I would only get the images I bought prints of.
I ordered my one picture and waited for it to arrive. After being told my photos would be ready in 4 weeks I received no phone call to let me know they were in. I finally called multiple times & left many messages I was about to give up. Finally i heard from someone. I scheduled a time to come get them & no one was there! I called again and actually Vinny the photographer on the phone (he didn’t remember me) and he said he would have to call back! Needless to say I’m still waiting on my picture and will write a follow up review after.

Whoever has given this place 5 star must have been paid for giving a 5 star. There is absolutely no way you could justify giving anything but a zero star for this place. I had to give them 1 star because there is no zero star option on Unilocal.
I bought a gift certificate from this place from one of my daughters elementary school options. The value of the certificate was worth $ 300 and I got it for the auction for $ 150 thinking I got such a steal. Wrong! This is truly not a donation that this place gave to the school. Upon making my arrangement, I learned their packages start from $ 1000 bucks plus $ 250 sitting fee just for them to take your picture. So I told them I just wanted to order Christmas cards and they told me its like $ 100-​$ 300 xtra for the cards depending on what I chose (this is just for the cards you don’t have rights to replicate the photo). Since I bought the certificate I thought it would be about $ 450 max for xmas cards ($ 150 for the certificate and then $ 300 for cards, the sitting fee essentially took the value of certificate purchased). Too make a long story short, the picture Vinny took which took only 20 minutes max came out like crap, they couldn’t get a decent shot of my family and said they could transpose different images (that I would have to pay for transposing them), and on top of it they told me they were making only maybe $ 50 so I had to buy prints I didn’t want. Vinny personally took me aside and said that I had to order additional prints if i wanted the Christmas cards because $ 50 profit was not enough. Hmmm, but I thought they made a $ 300 donation to the school? So why should they need to earn any profit? So at the end, 75 Christmas cards would cost me $ 800 all in all without getting the rights to the pictures. In addition, the earliest I could get the cards was on Dec 23 (with no guarantee that it would come in on that date) that’s if I ordered 3 weeks ahead of time. The service the high school teenager who also greeted me in the front was horrible (she made me wait in an empty lobby for 45 minutes while she went back to one of the rooms to finish up what she was doing).
Needless to say, I told them «good bye» and didn’t order a thing. I viewed this as a donation of $ 150 to my child’s school and a lot of lost time and frustration for contacting them. One of the worst business practice and ethics I’ve ever experienced

I am a little surprised to see some of the reviews posted here and can only assume that people like to complain more than they like to give praise. I have known Vinny since 2003 and have used his services probably a dozen times over the years, always with great satisfaction.
Vinny is a wonderful photographer and his dedication to detail is well beyond what most people would notice or appreciate. He really cares about his art and he works very hard to make every photo perfect. Some of his photos are outrageously awe-​inspiring.
Vinny is from New York, and if you know New Yorkers, you understand their style. They are direct and honest, and I appreciate that. Underneath his sometimes gruff exterior, he’s a very thoughtful and kind person. I have been at his studio a few times when he’s worked with other clients and always saw him as kind and courteous, so I am skeptical about some of the comments others have posted. I have always worked with Vinny directly and not with his staff, so I can’t make a comment there.
Take a look at some of the work he has done and talk to him directly. You will see he is the real deal, and if you hire him, I’m sure you will be greatly pleased by his work.

We received a $ 300 gift certificate from our realtor for family photos at this company. We called them, and they let us know that if we didn’t get our photos scheduled within 10 days, they would not honor our certificate. We explained that as we were in the process of moving, we didn’t have the foresight to schedule anything immediately, and would try to get back in touch with them in the fall. They reluctantly agreed to this.
So we called them in the fall. And we played a lot of phone tag.
They don’t really do weekends (you’re a photography company, are you kidding me?), and they thought it was «interesting» that we wanted to take family photographs at our new house. That didn’t seem like an unusual request to me.
In our last phone conversation with them, the person on the other side of the line wasn’t outright mean, but was condescending and borderline rude. She had no answers for us about when we could schedule something, so the whole phone conversation was a painful waste of time. She also asked odd personal questions about our family, which we didn’t appreciate.
And after reading the reviews on Unilocal,we are realizing that it’s really just a down payment or 20% coupon. Ridiculously expensive. Honestly, you can find good hard-​working photographers who care about customer service elsewhere… and unless you are hoping that your photo one day ends up in a museum, you really ought to be cost-​conscious as well as work with someone who treats you with respect.
Bottom line is that we are returning our certificate to our realtor, with our apologies, since it was intended to be a nice gesture.

I am so disgusted with this place. I am shocked that this business is still IN business.
Still awaiting a phone call back in regards to our family portraits (already paid for) from a sitting June 1 (we were told 4 weeks till we could pick up). I have called on a bi-​weekly basis for the last 4 weeks only to be faced with an answering machine, or if we were able to speak with a live person, to be given the run-​around and the promise of a call back.
Yesterday I spoke with a kind and very apologetic lady who after hearing our experience, promised either a call back from Vinny or herself once they figured out just what was going on with our family portraits. She had excuse after excuse as to why a) we didn’t have our portraits, and b) hadn’t received any return phone calls.
We were very happy with the original sitting, and definitely would have been repeat customers. The studio space appeared very professional, with very expensive camera and computer equipment. However, at this point, I am considering small claims court.
To add insult to injury, we were planning on giving the portrait for a family birthday this last week, which of course we were unable to do.

Are you looking for a professional photographer who is friendly, honest and patient? If yes… then Genesis Photography is NOT THE PLACE.
My experience was very similar, if not worse than Cynthia’s and MoMo K’s. If you want the WORST… then give Genesis a call.
I heard about Genesis, so decided to check out this place for much needed family portraits. I knew it would be a little pricey, but thought it would be a nice treat for the familia.
I called to make an appointment only to find out that Sat appts are reserved only for those willing to buy specific high-​end packages.
Would you know what package you would be buying over a phone? …Nooooot
I found out it was a screening tactic. I was obviously screened out of getting a Sat appointment instantaneously because I was buying nothing larger than 8×10 to go on top of my ornate ledgestone fireplace. I was told that I could only have weekday appointments.
Who takes a family portrait on a weekday anyways?
Finally, after several calls, I was able to get a Sat opening probably beacuse there was no business.
I was deceptively overjoyed to finally get that rare Sat appointment. Sadly, my whole family got dragged into a bad experience to follow.
We arrived on time and were greeted by a middle-​aged, sloppily dressed guy. No good morning, no warm and fuzzy stuff. His first question was how much we were thinking of spending that day?
No tact, personality nor smiles ! I prayed… please don’t let him be the photographer. He must be an employee or something.
With our luck, my wish did not come true. He was THE photographer/​owner, the infamous Vinny.
Vinny was pricey for what he offered. He snapped our pics in less than 30 minutes. Then rushed us through the process of selecting the portraits.
Just then another appointment showed up, so naturally he did not have time for us anymore. He acted like he’s too good for his clients. He was inflexible, impatient, unprofessional and arrogant. I was not sure if the personality comes with the talent, but this guy needed alot of work on customer service skills and dealing with the public in general.
He supposedly had Carlos Santana as a customer once… yeah right, I wonder which Carlos Santana? Maybe he’s good at kissing celeb’s butts, but not everyone who walks through the door is going to be a celebrity. Vinny is just an ungrateful, self-​centered and greedy businessman. I don’t care if he’s from New YAWK city or whatever, we’re in the Bay Area.
For $ 100 a shot, we didn’t even get our photos on time as promised which was my reason for being so pissed. I guess our selected package wasn’t a high priority and got moved down to the bottom of the pile. One of them was not even centered correctly. My experience with Genesis made me feel totally cheated !!! It’s a rip-​off !!!
No one deserves to to be treated poorly. Genesis sucks ! Don’t go there. Save your hard-​earned dough and find another place with better service.
He is not a good photographer, but relies on a bunch of sophisticated software to enhance his shots. He is not worth your time or money.
You’ll be better off investing in Photoshop and have a family member take your pictures.
That’s exactly what I plan to do next year.

Their customer service sucks. This happened a few months back, I went there to take my senior portrait and the lady there kept pushing my back asking me to make my shoulders straight. Then she sprays my bangs with hair spray without even asking for permission! (In the picture, you can actually see my bangs divided into three and it looks greasy) So after a few days, I got my pictures and they were terrible, so I asked to take a retake. The lady said she’ll call or send an email and she also told me not to choose a picture. Although I got mails from them, I never got an email about the new schedule time. Then I found out that they just chose my picture. IT WAS TERRIBLE. The lady who answers calls chose a picture of me blinking. So I called several times to talk about my appointment and the lady (I believe it’s the same lady who chose my picture) was so rude! She talked to me like I didn’t understand English! She said the picture she chose of me was the best one, but it absolutely was not true. She refused to let me talk to the photographer or any other person. She told me that there can’t be any retakes anymore. So my dad and I actually drove all the way to Mountain View, so we can talk to Vinny. He was pretty nice I guess, but when I told him that the lady was really rude, he strongly disagreed and he fought back without even hearing about our side of the story. (btw most of the seniors in our school thought she was terrible too) Then he told us that there is NOTHING he can do. (HMM strange because I believe my friend took a retake a few days after my dad and I visited. I even named my friend and the lady denied that such a student even existed.) Then my dad brought up this reason why I can’t have that horrible picture on the yearbook, and then that’s when Vinny decided to send an email to my school yearbook teacher. I kinda felt sorry for Vinny because my dad was really mad and his English is poor so he kept on saying the wrong things with an angry attitude, but later when my dad was sitting in the waiting room, Vinny told me that it was my fault that I LIED about not getting an email and that I should know about it. HOW RIDICULOUS IS THAT. Well, Vinny wrote an email and on it he told the teacher to directly call him for the reason, so I think there’s a slight bit of chance that Vinny might’ve told the teacher that I’m just a crazy student wanting a picture change, but really, I JUST WANT A NORMAL LOOKING SENIOR PORTRAIT. So, in conclusion, I don’t really have a positive impression on Vinny, the lady who answers calls/​manager is absolutely rude, and they lie. I really didn’t like the fact that they didn’t even try to solve the problem and they just said there’s nothing they can do.

I purchased a gift certificate worth $ 300.00 at our preschool auction for $ 150.00. Foolishly believing that this would cover the lion share of the cost of photos. Yeah right!!! The prices are outrageous!!!
Anyway, I brought my two girls in. The photographer must have spent all of 30 minutes taking photos of them then hurried me through the process of selecting photos. I was hesitant on an action pose that he felt had artistic integrity (whatever!?). You can barely see her face. I said I wanted to get a copy to show my husband and I would call back and confirm if we wanted to use that one or not. I called 1 – 2 hours after returning home (no answer. left message), e-​mail. again no answer. Next day, called again and was told it already was sent to the lab and there was nothing that could be done about it. Keep in mind one 5×7 photo costs like $ 90.00 and now I have two of them that do not show my daughters face. I expressed that I was unhappy and the photographer said he would get me additional prints or waive a session fee, because he wanted me to be happy. When I asked for the additional prints of a better shot a few days later it was like he had some type of artistic amnesia, and he took on a very nasty tone. So here I am $ 800.00 in the hole (which includes the 150.00 for the gift certificate… which is just a joke anyway because they charge $ 150. right off the bat as a session fee) I have all of 6 photos (4 I like and the other 2 that have the artistic integrity.) I would never recommend this place to anybody. I couldn’t imagine the kind of fiscal pillaging they wage on people who hire them for weddings and other important events… They are snotty and lacking in people skills. and that is being kind!

I never get a chance to work with the photographer and the reason why I gave him a 1 star is because the way he talked to me on the phone. So here is the story, I scheduled an appointment on Saturday morning, but I was running a little late, so I called him 15 mins before the appointment and told him I will be there 10 – 15 mins late. And I apologized for that. He then told me that if I am not there after that, then he can’t see me because he has another appointment to go to. It is understandable that photographers are busy on sat but from my point of view, i feel like that if I make the time to go and see him, shouldn’t he plan ahead too? So I told him I will just reschedule and he told me there will be no more weekend appointment and I can call back later. He may be good at what he does but he is not someone that I want to work with on my wedding day.