Reviews
What clients say
Six people, six different jobs, in their own words.
Reviews
Six people, six different jobs, in their own words.
These are clients who agreed to be named. Each one says what was photographed, so you can judge whether their job resembles yours.
Each one is rated five out of five, taken from the client comment rather than from a scoring form. A rating a business collects about itself is never independent, so read the words rather than the stars.
★★★★★ 5 out of 5
“The LinkedIn shots were handled properly, start to finish. I got a set I actually use, not a folder I had to pick through.”
Gary A. · Portrait and lookbook client
Portrait session and a lookbook, with images for LinkedIn
★★★★★ 5 out of 5
“The photographs were a delight. The retouching is careful and the day looks the way it felt.”
Mariia K. · Private client
A christening, photographed as an event
★★★★★ 5 out of 5
“The images look like the ones in the magazines I want to be in. I was pleased with all of it.”
Alena M. · Fashion model
A fashion shoot in a hotel
★★★★★ 5 out of 5
“A large volume of work, finished in under a week. The shots were exactly what the brand needed.”
Alex D. · Founder of a clothing brand
Brand campaign for a clothing label
★★★★★ 5 out of 5
“We commissioned stills and Reels. Mariya understood what the property needed and delivered it.”
Hamid K. · Marketing Manager, Raffles Hotel
Hotel content, including short-form video
★★★★★ 5 out of 5
“I was not sure the shoot would work at all. Mariya set the tone, showed me the poses and the results speak for themselves.”
Karolina P. · Private client
A sports session
These are the clients who agreed to be named and quoted. Others were happy with the work and did not want their name on a website, which is their right.
A page of anonymous praise proves nothing, so it is not published.
New reviews are added as people send them, and nothing here is edited beyond tidying the English.
We agree the use before the date: where the images will appear and for how long.
We agree the location, and whether it needs a permit, which several London locations do.
On the day, direction comes first. Most people have never been photographed properly and need to be told what to do with their hands.
Afterwards you get a private gallery, and the finished files follow within seven business days for a portrait session.
Retouching is charged per photo, so you decide how many frames get the full treatment.
Every one of them started with a conversation about where the images would be used.
That decides the crop, the number of finished frames and the usage rights, and it is the part clients are rarely asked about elsewhere.
Three of the six had never been photographed professionally before. Direction on the day mattered more to them than any equipment.
Two were commercial jobs with a deadline, and in both the delivery date was the thing being bought.
That they are not photogenic. Almost everyone says this, including models.
That they will not know what to do with their hands.
That the images will look posed, or that they will look nothing like themselves.
All three are handled by direction rather than by retouching, which is why the session matters more than the edit.
If that is the worry, the camera-shy quiz is a fast way to say what kind of direction helps you.
| Client | Work | What mattered most |
|---|---|---|
| Gary A. | Portrait session and lookbook | Images that work on a professional profile |
| Mariia K. | Christening, photographed as an event | Quiet coverage and careful retouching |
| Alena M. | Fashion shoot in a hotel | An editorial standard for a model's book |
| Alex D. | Brand campaign for a clothing label | Volume delivered inside a week |
| Hamid K. | Hotel content with short-form video | Stills and Reels a property can publish |
| Karolina P. | Sports session | Direction for someone new to being photographed |
Six jobs, five different services, one thing in common: the brief was agreed before the camera came out.
Look for the job, not the adjective. A review that says which shoot it was tells you something.
Look for the deadline. Delivery on time is the most common real complaint in this industry, and the least mentioned in testimonials.
Look for the use. Images that worked on LinkedIn may say nothing about images for print.
Be careful with star ratings on any photographer own site, including this one. A named person and a sentence tell you more than five stars do.
If we have worked together and you are happy to be quoted, send two or three sentences and say how you would like to be named.
If something went wrong, say that too. It is more useful than silence and it gets fixed.
Reviews on independent platforms carry more weight than anything published here, because the platform controls them rather than the photographer.
If you have worked with me and want to leave one somewhere public, ask and I will send the link for the platform you prefer.
Anything left there stays there, including the parts I would rather not read.
Next step
Tell me what the images are for and I will quote it.