So we booked a newborn photographer when I was about 34 weeks pregnant with plans to do the photos about 10 days after birth. Except I had a pretty rough birth and recovery (even though it was a scheduled c-section I developed pre-e and became anemic) and was in no shape to be driving an hour to do a 2 hour photo session 10 days out. So I asked her if we could postpone the photos and do a Christmas/2.5 month shoot instead. She said no problem.

So on the 2nd of this month I emailed her asking to set up the day. No response, so I emailed again on the 5th. No response until the 11th!! She then replies back with two possible dates saying those are the only dates she has available. Neither will really work, so I wrote back that day (the 11th) and said that the one day may work but did she have anything available the first week of December? Still no response.

She is AWFUL at contact. Every time I've emailed her it's taken several emails to get a response. Even when I was booking her originally! The only time I've gotten a quick reply was when I said I couldn't make the newborn shoot, and when she sent over the paypal invoice (quick as hell). She even has an auto-reply set up that says if you haven't heard back in 3 days to email her again!!

I'm fed up at this point. I can easily get another photographer to do these photos, one who will actually reply to me without me having to hassle them. My question is, do you think I should ask for my $150 deposit back? The problem is we can't afford to lose that $150. So if she says no to giving it back, we'd still have to do the session with her and that would be super awkward. But I need to book something quickly in order to take the photos, have them edited and sent back, and then order christmas gifts. I've wasted almost two weeks now trying to book.

What should I do? Stick it out? Ask for my deposit back?