On The Marc Photography

There are no recent reviews so hopefully this guy isn’t in business anymore.
In 2012, On the Marc offered a Groupon deal. I don’t know if he was overwhelmed by the response or what. I purchased a Groupon for $ 40 and tried to make an appointment. What was available was so erratic. There were many weekend times that were not available and 30 minute windows (I think his lunch break) during the week. I simply wanted to get some photos of my 13 year old taken. We live near the St. Mary’s Campus (his choice of location — pretty firm about it too).
Well, we were never able to book an appointment in the time frame. I called Marc — who is a very curt person and he informed me that he was really tired of having to accommodate Groupon holders but he was willing to honor my Groupon with an additional charge of $ 240. I was incredulous. I told him so.
He said he had another current Groupon and if I purchased it (same price) he would add a few extras to my expired Groupon. Same scenario — all weekends booked. 30 minute window during the week. My daughter at the time was in the 8^th grade — she really wanted to take the photos in a few dance costumes. There was no way I could coordinate that during the day while she was in school.
So now I am $ 80 out. Last January I found a photographer who offered a mini session for $ 100 — my daughter took about 20 minutes and all the shots were beautiful. I just wanted a disc of photos to print at will.
I recently found my Groupons and e-​mailed Marc via his website to see if he would be willing to honor my two expired Groupons. I explained that my daughter (now 15) only took 20 minutes for a shoot — we just wanted simple headshots. Could he please be willing to work with us?
That was two weeks ago — no response. Oh well. I tried.
I hope if he is still in business — his potential clients see that he is very inflexible and rude. Otherwise I hope his behavior has already put him out of business.

Very disappointed in the quality of my son’s graduation photos. I could’ve taken better photos from the stands if all the photographers weren’t blocking our view. I didn’t get to SEE him walk across stage and accept his diploma because of the photographers, so I was hoping I would at least have a decent picture. No such luck. I know things are moving fast, but a photographer has to be willing to work under those conditions and still take a moment to frame the shot.
I’ll probably order a couple to commemorate the event anyway, but what a major disappointment! Also, you can customize the green screen photos with a background of your choosing — but all the backgrounds are very cheesy, with ugly colors and poor quality.

I had photos done with Marc a year ago and after reading some of the reviews felt I should comment.
First of all I look terrible in photos. I’m incredibly hot in person of course, but in photos I look plethoric, like I’m on IV solumedrol for some incurable cancer, a scenario that at some point I’m sure will not seem so funny, but hopefully a long time from now.
The point is, his photos on Groupon deal made me look better than any other photos I’ve ever had taken. Like, they’re on my professional sites, which god knows I pray no Unilocaler will ever find.
I recently had some other photos taken by a professional and I realized Marc’s just killed compared to his (no offense anonymous 2^nd photographer).
But the review below where they were demanding a refund off a $ 39 Groupon? People, come on. It’s a Groupon. Vendors lose money on this stuff. When you pay about 10% of retail value, you really have to be happy with any decent outcome.
Or even an indecent one. And judging from the linked photos — come on, your family looks great.

I purchased the $ 39 groupon and had an engagement shoot at Baker Beach with Marc. Please keep in mind that I bought my groupon on February 1^st and made the appointment for the first week in August– I booked 6 months in advance.
He was on time, friendly, and took great pictures! We just received our photos from the shoot and could not be happier. Marc did not make much money out of the groupon deal, but still treated us to a full hour shooting in 2 locations. My fiancé and I had so much fun during the shoot and would recommend Marc to anyone.
Thanks for a great session Marc!

… So, My wife booked for an appointment for her, myself, and our three children, and Marc to get our family photo taken — — - the appointment was for 12:30 PM today on Monday — — - We were extremely EXCITED as a family — — — Then, the unexpected happened!!! — — — —
I drove seperately to meet my family there, and we drove from Danville — — - got there 10 minutes early, but to my surprise and shock, there was NO business address of 600 Moraga Rd, in fact, it was a residence — — — –
I called my wife, who in turn got a hold of Marc and he then gave her (texted her) his present address of 1928 St Mary’s rd — — — We drove to the new address, to find NO SUCH THING — — - as imaginable, it was getting very frustrating at the time — — — -
I called Marc, who replied: «I’m not certain if 1928 is the correct address, i got it from the internet, but i am at St Mary’s College — besides, you PEOPLE are too late and i don’t want to take you in anymore» — — — i was in complete shock, the least to say, and asked him what he had said to me, he began to laugh at me, and said: «it is called RESPONSIBULITY; you people are not responsible and i can only fit you in because you are 45 minutes late to your appointmnet, 5 minutes if any» .
Friends, I don’t get it !!! I have NEVER been treated with such unprofessionalism in my entire life — I have never taken my time to write a review about any one — Normally, I refer friends to people i am happy doing business with — owning a corporation with over 40,000 employees, i would not hire Marc to shine my shoes — Just sayin!!!

I am so thrilled with my photos! I went to Marc’s home studio to take headshots for auditions and personal vanity and am so happy that I did. He had a set up with muted flashes and screens and a black back drop that created a beautiful and flattering lighting with shadows that were not overly dramatic. The softened flashes produced natural looking portraits that were very kind to any wrinkles or other skin imperfections.
Also, Marc provided with me a disc of high resolution images that I can use to make my own quality prints. Many other photographers will only provide low-​res images or one image only, so that you are forced into buying expensive print packages and/​or paying for your other image files.
Marc didn’t have a booking directly after my session, so we had time to look at the shots on his computer. I didn’t like my initial images, because I could see that I was holding tension in my smile and I thought I had a too much of a toothy grin. So we did another round of shots where I had a better idea of how I wanted to look, to not smile so wide and use my preferred side of my face. I was so grateful to have a chance at this second round of shots because they came out great!
I was now more relaxed which translated into the natural, easy confidence I wanted to project, and thanks to Marc’s coaching and technical expertise, we got the shots. Also, the images conveyed more of my personality, instead of that vacuous stare that many portraits often are victim of. Marc creates these meaningful images and just doesn’t merely click a button.
I usually check with Unilocal before I decide on a business and carefully read the reviews. As you can see, the overwhelming majority are very favorable, but there are always a few bad reviews. One common thread in Unilocal bad reviews is that the lengthy rants and rages convey that these people are generally high maintenance, immature and unreasonable who like to blame everyone else for their unhappiness.
For a $ 39 Groupon (of which Groupon takes half), unreasonable people not only want professional services for next to nothing, they always want miracles. The photographer can not control your stressed life, the windy weather or spoiled kids who will just not sit still. If I had brought a bad attitude to my photo session, I would end up with ugly images of myself because that’s what I’m projecting.
Those very few bad reviews did not deter me from choosing Marc, but they did influence me in that I made sure that I did my part of the bargain, which was to come to the session with a friendly, positive attitude. I was rewarded with the best photos I’ve ever had taken of myself that I will be tickled with forever.

I purchased the Groupon and have to say it was an amazing experience. Marc was on time, professional, and worked with us to get exactly what I wanted. If you want an AMAZING photo the only place to go is On the Marc Photography.
Marc is excellent and he has a way of getting the right expressions for the perfect photo that captures the heart of who someone is. My son can be very shy but Marc made him feel so at ease.
Marc is super friendly, professional, and will give you amazing photographs.
I love my sons Senior portraits, which I had to me within a few day. :)

I purchased the Groupon deal as some of the other posters. Marc was very professional and friendly. Easy to be around and took great shots.
Thanks Marc!

Marc was pleasant to work with and he was prompt to respond to all of my emails. We also received our photos promptly.
Marc was also very good with my one year old son. I know it’s hard to photograph young children because they move so darn much so I give him credit for managing to capture my son.
During the photo shoot I made a few funny faces because I was concerned with my son and making sure he was looking at the camera. I wish Marc had told me something about my funny faces. Also, my bangs were covering my eyes in some shots and they created an awful shadow. I would have appreciated it if he told me that I needed to brush my bangs off to the side to avoid having a nasty shadow on my face.
Overall not a bad experience but I would have liked a little more direction from him so we would have had better pictures.

Like other reviewers, I got the impression that Marc was totally annoyed at having to book people with Groupons — in addition to an extra fee for scheduling a date after the expiration date (we tried to schedule before the expiration but his schedule was full), he wanted to charge us a travel fee even though we’re within the 20 miles of Moraga as stated in his deal. He didn’t want to travel outside Moraga, and kept saying «I don’t know Oakland at all» even though he has photo sessions in our neighborhood on his website. Sounded like he just didn’t want to deal with us — when combined with the poor reviews for his work with kids, we decided just to forget it and get the money back from Groupon. If you don’t want to book Groupon clients, don’t offer Groupons!

I have to say — it’s just okay… Even with the Groupon deal, quantity and quality of pictures not worth the price

Marc is not a family photographer. If you have younger kids and you want a good family photo he is not the guy for you.
We bought a groupon for his services which included a pre-​photo-​shoot consultation, the photo-​shoot and the images.
He had poor customer service over the phone and was quite unprofessional acting like it was a bother to answer my questions. If he didn’t want to do a consultation he should not have put this as a service in his groupon.
We met him at St. Mary’s college. He had ideas about where he wanted to take the shoots and how to take the pictures. Which i thought was great. The part that really got to me is his half hearted efforts to get the kids to look at the camera and smile. When my husband asked him about it his response was «i can’t help it if they aren’t looking.» That may be true, but honestly he didn’t even try! We ended up with a bunch of photos with kids that weren’t looking and weren’t smiling.
I feel like Marc didn’t show that he took great pride in his work. My amateur friends have done a much better job than he did. I am surprised that he feels good about doing a half hearted job and charging for it.
He did say on the phone kids are not his specialty but a photographer who take pride in their work tries their best. They do research on taking good pictures of the kids and try to connect with them to make them look and smile.
In the end he gave the camera to my husband and told him to take the pictures! After my wasted session with Marc we decided to buy a nice camera and take photos ourselves.
We got the pictures back and we didn’t like any of them. One of them may have been adequate but he didn’t take the time to touch up minor flaws so now we have nothing.
I got the impression from him that he had too many groupons responses. He was bothered that he had to put in so much effort and time for so little money.
I wasn’t going to give him a bad review but seeing that he is selling groupons again i want to spare others from this experience.
He has some really good reviews I am sure he can do good work with adults, older children and mostly when he feels like it.

Like many of the other reviewers, we found Marc on Groupon. We’d had a bad experience with another Groupon photography deal from a different photographer, so we went into this session without a lot of expectations.
We were blown away.
Marc was on time for our session and had obviously had the foresight to figure out which specific spots would have good lighting for the time of day we were shooting (1 p.m. — not notorious for great light). We ended up with about 15 photos with a variety of different backgrounds. We LOVE them — we have fun shots, we have serious shots, we have shots where my stomach looks flat and my arms look toned. I’m not sure if that’s a specialty lens or what, but if so I want it.
Marc was thoughtful, fun, and just a great guy to be around — it took my husband and I approximately 2.3 seconds to feel comfortable in front of the camera with him.
Further, for $ 30 (the price of the Groupon), this guy made approximately $ 0.14/hour when you count time for the shoot and post-​processing. It would have been completely understandable if he’d shot a few shots with us in front of one background. Instead, he took multiple different shots in several locations over almost an hour. He never seemed impatient or rushed, and I really got the sense that he just loved what he was doing. I’d use him again.

I found Marc on GROUPON! Boy what a GREAT find. He did a great job, my pictures where amazing and the turn around time was 48 hours. What more can you ask for, especially at a discounted rate. We will definitely use him again, he was super friendly and extremely flexible with our shoot.
P. S. I would have paid full price

Marc immediately put me at ease, and took some of the very best photos of me I’ve ever seen. I am planning to use them on my website and book jacket.
I recommend him with out reservations~~~ Cheryl Cohen Greene, DHS

We found Marc on Groupon and he turned out to be the worst photographer I have ever booked. He was not flexible on the location/​date for our shoot. My fiancé and I live in SF and wanted to take engagement photos at the Sutro Baths. Marc said he could do the photos either at 10am or 3pm. We went to Sutro Baths at 10 and he was not there and we could’nt reach him! We returned at 3 and he wasn’t there. He then called and said he was at Crissy Fields, and that «one of us would have to drive.» He made us go to him because Sutro Baths was too far for him since he was going back to East Bay. We drove to Crissy Fields and by this time, the sun was already almost down as it took us a while to find exactly where he was.
We got a few shots in with the Golden Gate Bridge, then went over to the Exploratorium for some shots. By the time we got here, it was pitch black out. He tried some experimental shots, but he was definitely not equipped with the right lighting for nighttime photos so all of these came out terribly.
Lastly, he told us he would send us the files in a week. It has now been over a month and we just got them after emailing him to remind him.
Pros: allowed us to shoot photos with our dog, reduced rate from Groupon, did not charge us his travel fee, and said he would redo the session at no extra charge (not that we will bother with that)
Cons: terrible experience, poor communicator, inflexible, and bad photos.

Update: I recently noticed the owner comment and the link provided to our images. The photographer did not obtain a release to use our images on his blog and I sent him an e-​mail asking him to take them down.
This was his response:
«i spoke with my lawyer before posting the images, since i Copyright all of my work he said i am able to use especially in defense of my business. He recomended i serve you with a cease and disist letter to not use the images. I would prefer not to do that so at least you can use them if you like.
If you want to remove your Unilocal review i would be happy to remove them from my site. let me know how you would like to proceed. I hope we can find a reasonable solution for us both.»
I purchased the Groupon deal and did not have a good experience. Thankfully it was a Groupon and backed by their guarantee (100% refund, no questions asked).
I had a bad feeling when touching base regarding our appointment and some possible weather. Marc wanted me to call him the morning of an hour before our shoot and check-​in. Well, we live nearly an hour away and I would need a little more lead-​time to get our two kids ready. When I asked him to call me a bit earlier he said he was «not a morning person.» Fortunately the weather cooperated, but this seemed unprofessional to me.
The day of seemed to go okay and some of the images looked okay on the view finder. However when I got the images they really did not meet my expectations. Some were overexposed, some too dark. Little details were overlooked like parked cars in the background and some of the poses looked awkward. All I really wanted were 4 images for my Christmas card (a family one, the kids individually and the kids together). I was left with one okay one of my oldest, a family one I’d need to edit and crop and no photo of my youngest or the two kids together that were usable.
I let Marc know that I was unsatisfied and felt that the images were too heavily retouched. I let him know that I would like a retake session free of charge.
His response was that he couldn’t control my kids’ «inability to look into the camera» and that I would need to pay $ 289 for a retake session. Seriously? They are 1.5 and 3.5 and it’s going to take some work to get the kids engaged. This is really the hallmark of a portrait photographer’s job! Not to mention that my main issues were not whether or not the girls were looking at the camera.

What a great experience! I found out about Marc via a groupon deal. I wanted some professional photos taken of my new baby, since it can be hard to capture really great photos of infants. He was wonderful! He picked a great location, shot a ton of photos in multiple locations with different backgrounds. Then by the end of the week he sent me the photos. I couldn’t be happier with them! They are wonderful. Marc mainly does weddings, but I would highly recommend him for anything you need to have professionally shot. He’s easy to get along with, very flexible, and very professional.

EPIC on all levels! Marc of On the Marc Photography was superb!!! He was on the Marc each and every time we e-​mailed, telephoned and/​or met in the preparation stages. The consistency of Marc’s quality service was shown at the 4^th of July Family Reunion session that we had at 3 locations and then for the other session at the catered dinner a few days later in Walnut Creek.
He was extremely professional in answering my Mother’s tough pre photo day questions and to top it off, she was in a mood that particular day (due to a 95 degree heat wave) and he very graciously (with all of us sweating too), explained what he would like to capture and the type/​style of photograph he’d like us to be able to have. A+!!! He nailed it!
On that note — my folks have asked to book him for another session with the family Golden Retriever of 13 ½ years and I have a feeling our families has found our photographer for future sessions to come.
My ENTIRE family had nothing but awesome, kind things to say, mucho kudos for Marc, his work, his character/​personality and the awesome time we had with him… we got him to stick around and party with us… super fun.
He is a quality, top of the Marc person and his work reflects that same value.

AWESOME!!! PERFECTION… is the word I was looking for. Very professional and friendly. Marc was very precise and timely. He worked with us for our family photos and didn’t hesitate to answer any questions. I will be going back to him for more pictures in the near future… thanks Marc!!!
YoU RoCk!