Website: https://luminusphoto.com/
Luminus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luminus_photography
Lumitouch Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lumitouchcolor/
Light it Up Workshops: https://luminusphoto.com/workshops/
Wedding Wire: https://www.weddingwire.com/biz/luminus-photography-dayton/9ca2f3a400dfb177.html
THIS PHOTOGRAPHER HAS NOT STOLEN PHOTOS
This is yet another submission for the Photo Shyster division. Buckle up because it’s a freaking ride.
Luminus Photography used to go by Carter Creativ and was a photography and cinematography team of Tanya Carter and Orlando Maldonado. While they advertised themselves as a “husband and wife” team, they were never married, only engaged.
Tanya is a MagMod Ambassador and Luminus as a team has a series of workshops they are booking for 2020. Tanya was also featured as a “How I Shot It” photographer on the MagMod You Tube.
Currently there are about a dozen photography and videography clients waiting for products that I am aware of, potentially more.
There are also photographers and videographers who were hired as additional staff who were not paid. Often these photographers were sent in without letting the clients know in advance and their work was not equal to the work Luminus advertised.
They are also booking workshops and advertising themselves as a team but according to both Tanya and Orlando, they have split up and are no longer in business together.
The more and more I’ve dug into this mess, the more apparent it has become that it’s a dumpster fire.
What spurred my decision to make a post is that one of the clients affected by this debacle originally hired another photographer I featured here – Choose 21 – and hired Luminus after reading that Choose 21 was no showing/not delivering files/had stolen content making up their portfolio.
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Update 3/5/2020 – I feel like this guy right now trying to explain everything that has happened with this company. Updates are at the bottom of the post.
Update 3/26/2020 – No videos have been delivered, communication is minimal at best and often coming via group chats with Tanya, Orlando and Trevor from MagMod. Click the update to go to the details.
Update 1/20/2022 – No clients that I am aware of ever received their products and the ones waiting for refunds that hadn’t received them yet from Tanya never got them.
Apparently now Tanya is ‘tiktok’ famous for being in love with her son’s friend. They go by Tanya & Josue and have been featured on Snapchat’s “Love Don’t Judge” series.
Also, sadly, some clients chose to believe Tanya when she informed them that I was lying and booked her for weddings after this post went live. They are also now joining the other clients from this post waiting for their products. For one wedding she ended up taking photos on her phone because her only memory card ‘failed’ and she missed a lot of photos when she went to the store to buy a new one. No professional photographer should EVER shoot a wedding with one card on hand. Ever.
At this point in time, as far as I am aware, there are still clients from all the way back to 2019 waiting for images and/or video.
If there is interest I can add to the bottom a bigger update detailing more of what has gone down since the last update here in March 2020. Just know if you’re reading this, per Tanya, you are a demonic follower of mine. Welcome!
Here are the highlights:
- There are at least 9 clients waiting for videos going back as far as May 2019.
- There are at least 5 clients waiting for photos going back as far as September 2019.
- There are photographers that were hired for work that were never paid.
- Luminus hired photographers to photograph weddings in lieu of Tanya and their work was not comparable to the portfolio presented by Luminus.
- One client had to go to the police due to the harassment they dealt with after they decided to fire Luminus for their upcoming wedding. They were issued a telecommunications warning.
I don’t even know where to begin or even HOW to tell this story in a way that makes sense so I’m going to start with how I got involved and go from there.
Over the weekend I saw a post shared to a local photography group. It was a lengthy review from a bride who had been waiting about 6 months for her wedding video and finally was fed up and posted about her experience with Luminus Photography to Facebook.
There has been a few photographers and videographers lately locally that have been leaving clients out to dry so I shared the post to my Facebook Profile to get the word out locally in case anyone was considering hiring Luminus.
Within a few minutes of my post, Tanya Carter, owner of Luminus Photography showed up and started up the excuses train. This continued not only on my post in public but in private messages as well. We’ll come back to that in a minute.
I quickly found another review that another client had posted about Luminus Photography on Facebook.
Needless to say, that review got my attention. I tried to find other reviews for Luminus online but I found out that their Facebook Page and Google Page had been deleted and only their Wedding Wire page remained.
At the bottom of their Wedding Wire page, there are three negative reviews (placed there since they are under dispute). Two clients are waiting on products and one client fired Luminus for their upcoming wedding after a disastrous engagement session and the growing concerns from other brides.
This is a reply to a bride who cancelled after a mess of an engagement session and the warnings from past clients.
This is a reply to a client from October that has had a ton of dates given and passed.
Take a moment to go to Wedding Wire and read them, especially Luminus’ replies. They are unprofessional to say the least.
Now, to back up a bit, as Tanya was replying furiously to my post, she was also sending me messages to my Facebook Page and personal profile.
She started with the personal profile.
She then moved on to my business profile when I didn’t answer.
She obviously thought that sob stories and/or threats work on me. Spoiler alert: they just made me dig more.
For the past two days I’ve been putting together a massive document on everything I can find about Luminus and what the hell has happened. If you know me, fact documents are kind of my jam and it’s what I needed to see what the hell is going on.
I don’t want to post specifics because these clients are still hoping against hope that they get their videos/photos. I do not want them to incur any more harassment than they are already getting from Luminus and their friends.
Most of these clients are waiting on full length and/or a 10 minute highlight video from their wedding. In the majority of the contracts (not all) there was a turnaround date of 30 days for the highlight reel.
I do know that for videography editing does take longer than photography but the deadlines that have come and gone were given by Tanya and Orlando.
Tanya originally promised delivery to the majority of the clients still waiting for products by Christmas at the latest. Then the end of the year. Then the end of January. Finally they just gave them the end of February as a date when they would receive their products. These clients do not have their completed videos and it’s now March.
There’s another issue with a lot of these weddings that at this point is neither-here-nor-there but it plays into the story. There are a few weddings where Tanya was booked but ended up not showing up for. Luminus sent in other photographers (often without telling the clients prior to the wedding). The work that the clients received from these photographers isn’t comparable to the portfolio displayed, especially the dramatically lit shots that Tanya has become famous for as a MagMod Ambassador.
I know the Tanya defenders will come in and cry about all the issues that have befallen Tanya and Orlando in the past year as reasons why they have fallen behind. The bottom line is that there’s only so much grace clients should be expected to give. When you are running a business, you have to manage client expectations and be professional. Luminus Photography booked weddings knowing Tanya was due to give birth in May. They took on the amount of weddings they did knowing they would need to work with 4 children at home. They gave the dates the clients could expect to see their products in contracts, email and via Facebook Messenger. They have fallen behind on these dates time and time again.
Tanya and Orlando split up either at the end of 2019 or early 2020 (the date is unclear). They are no longer a team and no longer will be working weddings together going forward. Tanya states she is the owner of Luminus Photography so ultimately this falls on her shoulders.
Hopefully a miracle happens and clients start getting their videos.
We are going to change gears and take a moment to look at the workshop/industry leader side of Luminus Photography.
Tanya is currently an ambassador with MagMod. Tanya and Orlando are also listed as Fearless Photographers. Tanya is also featured on Snappr. Finally Tanya has been featured numerous times in Rangefinder Magazine.
Tanya was supposed to be part of a photowalk for MagMod at WPPI in Las Vegas on February 23rd but I do not believe she ended up going.
They also have three upcoming workshops in 2020 in Cleveland, Dayton and Las Vegas.
The two day workshop in Cleveland and Dayton is $799.
The three day workshop in Las Vegas is $1499 with a $499 retainer.
Their registration page has listings for workshops in Pittsburgh, Mackinac, Los Angeles, New York, and Colorado as well.
The workshop details still mention Orlando as part of the Luminus Photography team despite their breakup.
Tanya is still advertising these workshops in the MagMod Group and possibly elsewhere. It is unclear if anyone has booked a spot in these workshops.
You all know how I feel about photographers that are running workshops. Yes, it appears Tanya is a talented photographer. However, with the long list of issues from her clients (and trust me, non delivery is the tip of the iceberg here) should she be lauded as a leader in the community? In my humble opinion it is not just talent that makes someone a leader, they must be professional and run an honest business as well.
Thank you for making it to the end of this dumpster fire. There is a LOT of information I’m leaving out for the sake of brevity/clarity.
Update 3/5/2020:
MagMod weighed in on the comments page for this post and has stated that they’ve removed Tanya as a MagMod Ambassador.
Not long after, many clients found that their shootproof galleries had been removed. When accessing the page they would receive a 404 error. One client emailed shootproof and they stated that their servers are fine and to email the photographer. 
The next day, 3/4/2020, Tanya appeared in the comments of the Photo Stealers post about this and began replying. It was not a good look.
Keep in mind that I have had messages from people going back as far as May (as of now, messages keep filtering in) that are waiting on products.
Tanya has stopped posting on Facebook and has emailed some of the clients stating more of the same with prettier words and a promise for products to be delivered. by the end of the month.
My breath will not be held but I hope these clients finally can put an end to this mess.
Update 3/26/2020
On March 4th Tanya emailed some of her clients with an email stating that she would be checking in weekly and turning off her Facebook until this was cleared up. This email was pretty professional, a stark contrast to her previous conversations with the clients.
That email only went out once. She has not sent out status updates since then.
Tanya also has reactivated her Facebook and has gone back to messaging clients on Facebook individually and in message groups with Orlando and oddly, even Trevor from MagMod, is on these group chats. Mostly it’s a lot of pushing the blame onto Orlando and stating what she’s doing in the future, not what she’s doing to get the clients their products.
On the client end very little has been done.
Some photos have been delivered but it’s been piecemeal.
No videos have gone out despite promises from both Tanya and Orlando that they are completed and being uploaded. One client even went as far as sending out a flash drive to Orlando when he told her he didn’t have a good connection for uploading and that has not been sent back.
Some clients have gone ahead and left negative reviews and/or filed complaints with the BBB.
Tanya has sold her home that was the base for Luminus Photography and the clients are concerned that she may be cutting ties to Ohio and running.