[Chea.Mo]

Hi ladies, I have a question, and this might get long, so I apologize now.

I was married on 8/29/09 and my photographer was my husbands cousin. She told us that she had done several weddings, and offered to do it all for our gift. Of course my MIL jumped on it and didnt ask to see her photos or anything.

Wedding time came, and she came down the day before for the rehersal, but was so focused on my husbands family. At our rehersal dinner she only took pictures of his family, she took ONE of my side. I told her I was frusterated and didn't appreciate that, but I didn't want to get an attitude and seem ungratefull. I told her what time and where to meet us the next day, and said goodnight.

The next day I had asked her to meet us at the salon to take photos while me and my girls were getting ready, and she never showed. We called/texted, and she never came. My girls jumped on it with our cameras, but of course those arn't the greatest quailty. I got to our location, and she took a few pictures of us walking in, then left to take pictures of the guys. That was fine, but when I was getting dressed we went to find her again, and she had walked over 3 blocks with them, so we couldn't find them. I had to get dressed, and I had no photos of that taken.

When we came back in she had no clue how to pose us, lighting, or anything like that. I got over it, and enjoyed my day. She said in a week she would email me the pictures. She never did, but I instead got a phone call from my MIL, she said that the photographer had called her that the prints were ready, and she was going to Nebraska to see them. I asked why I hadn't gotten an email, and she said that the photographer had called her to ask if she wanted to come up and see them first. I was a little put back by that, since they were my wedding photos.

We got our pictures, and I was so upset with them. The quality, the lighting, the posing, the people, everything was just off. Again I had all photos of their family, and none of mine. I literally had 50 photos of my BIL's family, who is in the army. She sat and posed them for half an hour, because she missed them and wanted a good family picture. I was so upset, but didn't say anything. I got home and tried to find some to order, and when looking loser realized that alot of what she did was just crop people out of one photo and then also print the cropped photo of that person.

I havnt ordered any pictures, I am totally upset with the whole thing, and I have no idea how to handle it. I just blew the picture thing off all together, and they are still sitting in the box next to my couch.

Well she just emailed me a link to her website, and asked if we would write a letter of appreciation saying how well she did for her portfolio. I said I would talk to DH about it. I checked out the link to her website, and she already had somthing on there from my DH, and he hadn't even talked to her! I was stunned, and so angry about it. I showed him, and he was upset too. I went to email her back, and I had another email there, asking about her services. It was a potential client, and she had just given out my information! I again, freaked out about this. I told her it was totally out of line, and she got mad at me.

Now I have no clue what to do. My photos are horrible quality, is there some way I can hire someone to try and work with them, or are there even services like that?

Also, how should I handle the letter she wants, and the client asking about her? I spoke with DH and he thinks that if it were someone she didn't know she would take even pictures, but clearly she dosn't know how to handle taking the photos of several different groups and managing the time. I am just so lost and confused about how to go about this from now on. I figured you ladies could possibly offer any advice or suggestions, and if you can I would greatly appreciate it.

[LadyK]

Well, did you guys sign a contract? Or pay her for her services? If not, then I think you're out of luck. I'm sorry that she cheated you out of your pictures for your big day :0(

If she works on word-of-mouth, I would just spread the word. I wouldn't want her to scam some other couple. If she was new, she should've said so. But if she worked weddings before.. she should at least know about lighting and posing. A wedding is a big commitment because there are no do-overs. So she should definitely have her priorities straight about when and where she should be at times. Especially during the times when you and your party were getting ready!!

As for the testimony, tell her exactly like it is. Maybe she'll think twice before doing another wedding! And she has no right giving your information to another client. I'd tell her I'd go to the cops or a lawyer... I wouldn't want my personal information being passed around like that.

You can hire people to try to correct the images. I could do it It depends on how the pic is before too so if the quality is bad to begin with, there isn't much we can do. We can try to enhance what little there is to work with but there's no guarantee.

[Wintersong]

This is really tough - it sucks that you have such poor images of your wedding day

Let's deal with the pictures first. The images that she took, whatever you may think of the quality, are protected by copyright. You can't have someone else edit them without her permission. If you think some of them may be worth saving, I would ask her to give you written permission to have the files edited. I would certainly be more than happy to edit some for you (after Christmas!!) if she agrees. If she doesn't, or if you don't think they're salvageable, I would call/email anyone else who was at the wedding and had a camera, and ask them to send you whatever they have. It's quite likely that there'd be enough that were worth editing to make up a fairly decent album.

Secondly, dealing with her... this is definitely much more tricky. I'm assuming that for the sake of your relationship with MIL if nothing else, you don't want to get angry/rude etc with her. I'd probably just email her saying that you really appreciated her gesture in offering to take the photos as a gift for you, but that you were a little disappointed with the images and you don't feel comfortable recommending her to other people at this time so would she please not refer anyone else to you. I'd then reply to this other person, saying that you're not able to give a reference right now.

[Chea.Mo]

Thanks ladies.

We didn't sign a contract, and we didn't pay her, since it was our gift. I know it was more of a nice gesture, but I just felt gipped because she didn't know what she was going. I do have the rights to all of the pictures, she already gave me everything for that, thank goodness.

I dont think the actual quality of alot of the pictures are bad, I just think the lighting totally threw her off. She literally switched back and forth from black and white, to color. I know theres more settings then that..

Here are a couple examples



See how they look so dark??

I also took those words and just told her that right now I am not able to give a reference.

Oh man....I am so, so sorry. What a disappointment! Your wedding looked beautiful and it's a shame that the quality of photos don't match

I completely ditto Wintersong. I would seriously bet that your friends with cameras took better photos than the 3 examples that you posed. I would collect all of the images that you can (highest resolution files available) along with the ones from the "photographer" (har har) and hire someone to work on them. I have no idea how much it would cost you, but since you didn't have to pay for photos to begin with it is probably worth it, even if you only have 50 of them done (enough for an album)

Good luck honey Darn that photographer! Grrr!

[Admin-Rachel]

Originally Posted by Wintersong

This is really tough - it sucks that you have such poor images of your wedding day

Let's deal with the pictures first. The images that she took, whatever you may think of the quality, are protected by copyright. You can't have someone else edit them without her permission. If you think some of them may be worth saving, I would ask her to give you written permission to have the files edited. I would certainly be more than happy to edit some for you (after Christmas!!) if she agrees. If she doesn't, or if you don't think they're salvageable, I would call/email anyone else who was at the wedding and had a camera, and ask them to send you whatever they have. It's quite likely that there'd be enough that were worth editing to make up a fairly decent album.

Secondly, dealing with her... this is definitely much more tricky. I'm assuming that for the sake of your relationship with MIL if nothing else, you don't want to get angry/rude etc with her. I'd probably just email her saying that you really appreciated her gesture in offering to take the photos as a gift for you, but that you were a little disappointed with the images and you don't feel comfortable recommending her to other people at this time so would she please not refer anyone else to you. I'd then reply to this other person, saying that you're not able to give a reference right now.

I agree. I'm so sorry you don't have good images of your wedding!