Complaint Review: Image 1 Studios - Tazewell Tennessee

My name is Kristina Youngblood, and I am the author of this thread.

I am publically recanting my claims against Image 1 Studios, Lawrence Meredith and Stephany HURLEY.

I apologize for the mispelling in the previous attempt to recant.

Please dis regard all of my previous complaints and accusations against the company Image 1 Studios.

I am the auther of this rip of report thread and since I can not remove my posting here I am publicly recanting my statements against Image 1 Studios, Lawrence Meredith, and Stephanie Hurly.

Seems the Ripoff Report on your company is growing.  For those reading, read my post (and there's another post in the same thread) look at the related Ripoff Report threads on image 1 studios.  This guy has the mind of a 12-year old, and Stephanie Hurley (the VP of a 3-man operation LOL!)  needs a lesson in professionalism!

I too used to be an EMPLOYEE of Image 1 Studio's.  I say EMPLOYEE because that is in fact what I was, although I was called a SUB-CONTRACTOR.   I don't need to explain my experiences with Image 1, due to the fact that the other former EMPLOYEE hit it right on the head!!  We were used and abused by this company.  YES 14 hours +!!!  I went to 2 conventions where my blood sugar ended up dropping because we had NO breaks and NO food was provided to us!  We were paid well???  All of our commission went to hotels, gas, food, etc.  By the end of deducting what we paid out of pocket for on the road living expenses there wasn't much left.   I was lied to by your VP.  I was lied to by YOU LM!!  I was told by several other photographers and by your VP that you are in fact an idiot!  To NOT listen to your instructions because you did not know what you were doing.   It was your VP that let everyone know what your little excursions overseas were for.  Had to buy a wife o_O  I am thrilled I am no longer with Image 1 Studios.  Worst mistake of my life was taking that job.  The way you work things with your EMPLOYEE'S is in fact ILLEGAL!!!!  I am sure the above former EMPLOYEE has figured out who I am as well.  I figured out who she is rather quickly.  My message to her is GOOD FOR YOU!!!!  YOU GO GIRL!!!!  And if you need ANYTHING from me, testimony, call me as a witness IF this lawsuit goes forward.....I'm THERE!!!  It's time for the Department of Labor to know the truth about how Image 1 Studios operates.   

Okay so this has been an interesting ride.  I used to work for the Image 1 Studios... not a bad company if you don't mind being pimped like a prostitute for less than a percentage that an actual prostitute would get.
 Short story.... as the photographer you have the talent..... but also take a very small percentage.... then you are dictated to by idiots with not a creative bone in their body (LM) as to what you should do better.  If you have any questions as to whether or not this is true please post here and I will upload some shots and link them to my next post that the owner did that I had to reshoot.  More than one customer told me the bought from him simply because they felt sorry for him.  He sports a used car salesmen routine to sell and his images have been described by the actual clients as "bobble headish", "distasteful", and from "OMG" to "WTF"! No joke.    BUT, okay so he is not a photographer..... my only thing is then... don't pretend to be one.  

Let's address his last post (which he says will be the last one lol).
He wrote:
" we have had a problem with a small group of our contractors violating their agreements with us and the posting of this complaint came in time to clearly indicate it was in reaction to her receiving a court issued order that she is very unhappy with."

My response:
A.  This was no small group about half of the work force flew Image 1 the bird.
B.  There is no valid agreement in any state for those who left.
C.  LOL there is no court order..... they literally begged the courts for a hearing many times but did not
     get one until I responded saying 'let's do this'.  A judge somewhere is laughing at their case and won't
     grant them anything.
D.  She IS NOT unhappy.... to the contrary we spend a lot of time making money and other times just 
     laughing at YOU LM.

He wrote:
"Let her put her name to the above post and do the same."

I say:
"I'm your huckleberry" ( not mine.... Doc Holiday in Tombstone... GREAT movie btw)
I look forward to the day for court and you will hear sooooooo much more than you expected! ;)
So be sure to bring your cowardly a*s to court.  

He wrote:
"and gave her a bonus that was very generous."

I say:
She earned this you knucklehead!
Image 1 owes a lot of people a lot of money.  Your day is coming very soon to realize that.... I just feel sorry for your lawyer... truly.

He wrote:
"She was always very high maintenance but she had skills and potential so we kept giving her assignments."

I say:
OMG..... You are as about as high maintenance as it gets LM..  So Pot meet Kettle.

He wrote:
" She even had the nerve to try to recruit my VP!"

I say:
Your VP brought up the idea of leaving.... get it straight.  She wanted to start her own company to compete with Image 0 Studios.  I hear she is no longer with you LM....  Tell ya what, I made you a few promises about ending Image 0 Studios...  I have not even begun and look who and what you have lost so far..... all by your hands.  lol

He wrote:
" We offer a sign on advance of up to $3,000.00 (up from $2,500.00) for new photographers who complete our training program.  It is not some evil plot to trap them as she accuses."

I say:
It is an evil plot.

He wrote:
"She would have been over $2,000.00 per week but she violated her contract with us by only a week or two before it would have been due."

I say:
You are a bold face liar and this is just an excuse for you to keep her money as you did everyone else's.
You have a a lot of facts coming your way so please show up to court so i can see the stuplified look on your face.


He wrote:
"We require everyone to sign an NDA for obvious reasons. Our marketing is very good and original.  We need to trust them in order to share sensitive information that they need to know to do their job."

I say:
There is nothing special going on here that a country boy from TN could not think up while chewin' on some straw.  Nothing ground breaking and nothing even half original.  Sorry... just the truth.

He wrote:
"My fianc would be shocked to learn I have no love for people like her. She is from a different country, is of a different race, a different skin color, has a different culture, and has a different religion.  We are a diverse company and have about a 30% minority photographer rate."

I say:  So... long story short LM goes to Thailand a few times a year to try and buy a wife... I guess he found one.  30%..... blah blah..... I cannot WAIT for court.... so try harder to get them to listen to you so we can have an actual trial!

He wrote:
". My VP is one of the hardest working people you will every meet and is not, by any means, an emotional wreck most of the time. She made the mistake of confiding some personal issues she was facing with a very disloyal and untrustworthy individual who stabbed her in the back and did the same to her company and associates. She has assured me she will not make that same mistake twice."

I say:

Well I guess you did not believe her since the word is you fired her.... but I hoping she quit.
Stephanie is a good person with good intentions.  She put up with a lot of crap from you LM, a lot!
Remember that new photographer at that trade show that quit because of the way to talked to her?
You should get her back.... because she was the best thing (also Steve and Kathy) that you had going for Image 0.  "Stick you head between your legs and kess yer own arse" (Braveheart) and beg her to come back!  I pray she does not.

He wrote: 
"13. We will have our day in court and this posting will be brought forward as further evidence of the mindset and lack of integrity shown by it's author and her associates. Anyone with an ounce of reasoning power can see the truth when reading all of this. "

I say:
Finally some truth!  We will have this day.... and you will lose the shirt off your back.

Well the rest of your post is either a lie or just plain boring.
Remember this LM. Everything I did, I did for a reason...  as I said before there is nothing, NOTHING that you can think of or do that I have not planned for.  So far I have read your every action like a children's bed time story.... easy.   In the end I will fold Image 0 Studios like a piece of paper and file it away in a trash can.  Simple fact is you have no case, the court knows it, you know it and I picture you throwing a tantrum like a kid that broke his favorite toy.

Oh and you know who I am...  I will surely post my name after I win in court.
See you in court if you have the courage to show up and not just send a lawyer.

I have been slow to respond to this posting for several reasons.  I seriously considered not responding at all.  I wanted to make sure my response was carefully considered and not out of shear anger and disgust.  To be crystal clear there is absolutely NO validity to this post and I know who posted it and why.  First let me point out that while she saw fit to put my good name, and the good name of my company, in big bold letters at the top of the post, she made sure she did not include her own name anywhere.  I find this to be cowardly and also not surprising considering the other things she has done that I became aware of.  

As the above response from one of our outraged contractors indicates, we have had a problem with a small group of our contractors violating their agreements with us and the posting of this complaint came in time to clearly indicate it was in reaction to her receiving a court issued order that she is very unhappy with.  I really don't want to get down in the mud with her because we are taking our grievances with her to the higher ground of the courts where she doesn't get to hide behind anonymity and her accusations will not hold up to the light of day. I dare her to say these things there in front of a judge and under oath!  Although this will make for a rather lengthy response, I wanted to take this point by point and do so with my name out as the author of this post.  If the things I am saying are false I would expose myself to damages caused by slander.  Let her put her name to the above post and do the same.

 She came to work for us over a year ago.  At the time she was a friend of a photographer who worked for us and also did recruiting and training. She signed a nondisclosure and non compete agreement with us when she came to work but already knew we were a good company because her friend told her we were.  

She did not have much by way of equipment so we purchased many things for her as we often do.  When she completed her training and was ready to take her area in Orlando she did not have the money to move and asked for money to help her move.  We did that for her. Upon her arrival she needed more money and it seemed to have no end.  At one time she owed us over $5,700.00 and had advanced her much much more as a total and we barely knew her at all. It was over 8 months before she paid us back and was able to make her final repayment only because we kept her schedule very full, paid her well, and gave her a bonus that was very generous.

 She was always very high maintenance but she had skills and potential so we kept giving her assignments.  There were a couple of times we almost stopped using her because of complaints but we firmly told her to change or else and she seemed to have done that.  After a while we decided to use her to train other photographers. This was short lived as she needed to be home with her husband and children so we made other arrangements.  

She became pregnant and I communicated to her that at some point I thought she would not be able to work due to that and having a new born at home. We discussed bringing her on as an executive with our company and offered her a position, changed our minds due to her indicating difficulty in travel, and then offered her a different executive position in market development as the head of a new division. This she accepted and we discussed a timeline for moving forward with that. At all the times when she accepted the training contract, and both executive positions, she was given extremely proprietary company information.  

At one point in time I called her and assured her that even though we had no revenue whatsoever from the new venture, and she was unable to photograph due to her situation, we would make certain she was financialy taken care of and not to worry. Little did I know what was going on in secret.  She was colluding with her friend who had left us many months prior. What she did next was beyond belief, unethical, and I have been assured by my attorneys, illegal.  She began using her contact and access to our contractors to recruit them to work for her friend who started his own company.  She even had the nerve to try to recruit my VP! She did this while continuing to work for us and making me believe she had accepted, and would soon begin her new position as an executive.  In short, she used her situation to violate every belief I had that she was acting in good faith.  I gave her an opportunity to come clean and revoke her association with the other offending party but she only lied to us further.  I cut ties with her immediately. 

She has done big damage to my company with her actions and displayed an amazing lack of appreciation and lack of personal integrity. 
Here are a few facts:

 1. We offer a sign on advance of up to $3,000.00 (up from $2,500.00) for new photographers who complete our training program.  It is not some evil plot to trap them as she accuses. That is just plain silly and impossible. We're Americans, we can come and go as we please. There is no debtor's prison in the US.  It is because most photographers are more interested in pursuit of their passion and don't have much money when they start with us and taking a couple weeks to go through training is very difficult. They also almost never have all the equipment they need and we choose them based on skills and never based on equipment they do or do not have.

 2.  The time she spent with us was not short. It was more than a year and if you read her statement she contradicts herself about that saying "in my short time with ..." and then "... came and went in less than a year".

 3. In the part of 2011 she was working for us she earned in excess of $54,000. For the portion of 2012 she worked for us she was payed in excess of $19.000.00 and her pay averaged close to $2,000.00 a week. This is way above the average for photographers. She would have been over $2,000.00 per week but she violated her contract with us by only a week or two before it would have been due.

 4. Booking agents are paid higher commissions when they keep our photographers at home because of two reasons: Our photographers like to stay home as much as possible with their families so we want to give the agents a financial incentive to keep them home and we pay the photographers about 50% more when they travel so less is available to pay the booking agents.

 5. There are specific hours because we work for executives at their place of business and make ourselves available during regular business hours and we also work at trade shows with schedules for them to fill. 14 to 20 hours days with zero breaks? What trade shows could possibly have hours like that?

 6. We require everyone to sign an NDA for obvious reasons. Our marketing is very good and original.  We need to trust them in order to share sensitive information that they need to know to do their job.

 7. I do have a Christian upbringing from wonderful but strict parents who taught me to always tell the truth and to love everyone. My fianc would be shocked to learn I have no love for people like her. She is from a different country, is of a different race, a different skin color, has a different culture, and has a different religion.  We are a diverse company and have about a 30% minority photographer rate. She is the one making race and ethnicity an issue. I care about character, skills, and results. 
Most of my contractors have been with me for periods ranging from one to three years. This is good to know since we are a five year old company and I did not start adding people until after the second year.

 8. I live a very modest lifestyle living in the mountains of TN. I live in a renovated old double wide trailer I turned into a craftsman's cabin, grow my own garden most years, and have my own chickens and am a member of the same church now for almost 15 years. I donated almost a fourth of my income to charities too numerous to mention. We had a modest profit margin of around 20%. 

 9. I do have a bit of a temper and it is common knowledge. I am quick to calm down however and quick to forgive. I also allow others there little flaws as well. I am simply very passionate maybe a bit like a few other executives or coaches that are better known than me.  I never attack anyone as a person but only address their actions that angered me and never use profanity when angry with someone or insult them and I seldom yell. I do raise my voice but only yell very rarely. Oh well! 

10.My company is a member in good standing with the BBB with no complaints registered ever to this date, no civil court actions against us and no government actions against us either. I work hard to maintain this status.  You can check this for yourself on the BBB website. We have an A- rating because we have been in business for only five years.

 11. We are highly regarded in our industry nationally and work with an impressive list of clientele who call us on a daily basis requesting our return.  

 12. My VP is one of the hardest working people you will every meet and is not, by any means, an emotional wreck most of the time. She made the mistake of confiding some personal issues she was facing with a very disloyal and untrustworthy individual who stabbed her in the back and did the same to her company and associates. She has assured me she will not make that same mistake twice.

 13. We will have our day in court and this posting will be brought forward as further evidence of the mindset and lack of integrity shown by it's author and her associates. Anyone with an ounce of reasoning power can see the truth when reading all of this. 

 I will not post any more rebuttals to this posting here.  I prefer to use the Court System as people cannot commit slander and liable anonymously and without impunity there. I once again challenge her to post her name here. I know she won't because she thinks she is safe here from being sued from slander.  

Thank you for taking the time to read and consider my response. If you have found this post in researching our company for the sake of considering working for us or letting us work for you, I can assure you that upon request I can document everything above. She can't and you don't even know who she is.  I believe some day she may change and have many regrets as she is relatively young. Things posted to the internet never go away however so I have been careful to contain my comments. My feelings about the terrible things she has said and done are much deeper than is apparent here.  

I have been working as an independent contractor for nearly a year now and I am very proud to be associated with Image1Studios. I also know that a former associate has recently started his own company based on Image1's business model, in spite of a legally binding non-compete contract, and am highly suspicious of this report (with no name)
immediately following legal papers being served that will hinder the operation of that competitor.

I have personally seen  Lawrence to be a person of exceptional honesty and integrity. Image1 HAS grown at an amazing rate in spite of the failing economy and has paid it's contractors equal to or above the average pay other companies offer for similar services. I have seen him bend over backwards to accommodate his contractors, especially when he is made aware that they are going through difficult times.

In addition, I was requested to locate clients closer to home for the photographers after many complaints that they didn't like traveling so much. The demands on photographers are great as the standards of the company are exceptionally high, but the above average pay is compensatory for that. No one else offers what Image1Studios does.

And finally, Lawrence Meredith recently sat with the president of one of the largest real estate companies in the country and received an award  for most money donated to their company charity in 2011. He also committed, without being asked, to make a standing donation of thousands of dollars immediately when a community is struck by disaster such as the hurricanes of last year.  

The standards Image1 demands require a great deal of hard work to maintain, and not everyone can hold up to that. This company has grown at an amazing rate even as so many other companies are faltering in these unprecedented uncertain economic times. I think I'll stay with Image1 Studios.