RIO RANCHO, N.M. – Some say if a picture is worth a thousand words, photographers are worth a million. But some moms in a local Facebook group have much more to say about their experience with a local photographer. 

“People spend their hard-earned money for moments to be captured and not only are you out the money, but more importantly the moment that you miss,” said Brandi Dillard.  

Dillard says she booked with Bethani Yannis of Seven Rose Photography back in April for her daughter’s graduation. She made it clear she needed the pictures by early May for invitations. 

“Got it all in writing, the agreement was that I would get 40 pictures by May 4. May 4 came around, and I still hadn’t gotten the pictures. I got a couple of sneak peeks, she sent me like three to four sneak peek pictures,” said Dillard. 

Weeks passed and Dillard says she heard nothing from Yannis. So she decided to go back to the source, a Rio Rancho Moms Facebook group where she says Yannis originally reached out to her.

“Within the first day, I had probably 50 comments on the post and private messages saying, ‘Hey, I had the same thing happen to me.’ By the end of the week, I think I had over 45 people contact me with similar situations,” Dillard said.  

Multiple people wrote claiming they paid for pictures in the fall but just got proofs last week — they couldn’t send out holiday cards. Another mom says she paid for a photo shoot but can’t get a hold of Yannis to book it. 

Meanwhile, Maria Luna says Yannis took newborn photos of her baby last year, and she still doesn’t have them. 

“It’s now mid-June and I still don’t even have the pictures that I originally took in November. And what is really upsetting to me is I don’t have newborn pictures of my baby, which is all that I wanted,” said Luna. 

Another mom says she’s still waiting on baby shower and maternity photos from last year, and her baby is now six months old.

“It’s frustrating because those are life memories that I wanted to create and have forever, and I barely have any pictures,” said a local mother.  

KOB 4 reached out to Yannis and Seven Rose Photography three times to talk about these claims. But our calls were sent to voicemail, and we have not heard back.

In the meantime, these moms hope more awareness will save other families from the same frustration.

“Just warn people because I spent a lot of money on the pictures, and I didn’t want someone else to have the same situation happen to them,” said Dillard. 

Dillard says Yannis did give her more pictures after she posted about her frustration on that social media site, and asked her to take down the complaint post. 

Dillard also says she contacted police because she thought she was being scammed. Police haven’t gotten back to us about whether anyone else has filed a police report.