disatster!!!

Do you have wedding insurance? If you do they might be able to pay for a computer tech to work on it - they might not be totally lost I really hope not

If you do have insurance and they can't do that, then they will pay for a re-shoot. I know it's not going to be the same as actually on the day though.

Hope it works out for you

I'm a bit confused as to how a power cut would damage a computer that badly, I would ask him to get a computer technician to look at it asap and see what can be recovered. Best of luck.

Surely a professional wouldn't download them all on to a computer and delete the backup before the editing was completed? How awful for you! Defntiely contact your insurers and get a reshoot for your formal shots, but goodness me, I really would be giving the photographer some hard questions on how he made such a stupid error.

How terrible.....my H2B is a professional photographer. I have asked him what he suggests.

He has said, you need to ask your TOG to rescue the files using photo rescue (a software package), this will work EVEN if he has formatted the card. The only way he wont be able to rescue the photos is if he has formatted the card, then re-shot other photos on top. However, NO proffesional photograper should do this.

I really hope you get this sorted. My H2B has also said a powercut could frazzle the hard drive, but wont affect the memory card, so the above should (fingers crossed) work. xx

That is a disaster, and to be honest it is not something people realise could happen.

If your photographer is a professional they should be insured for professional indemnity, this is insurance that covers him/her against exactly this type of problem.

You need to be asking for a full refund and a private photo shoot at no additional cost.

I know this is not going to get back the memories of the day but to just have some nice photos of you in your dress and your husbund is something to look back on.

Again this should be at no cost to you.

As already stated, this is not the way a professional photographer should work, I for example download all images from the memory cards to my hard drive, then I make 2 more copies one on to a seperate hard drive not attached to the PC, and a copy on disks which are then placed into a fire/bomb proof case.

Get them to have the hard drive professionaly looked at, even images on damaged hard drives and formatted hard drives can be recovered.

Hello...

I'm so sorry to hear about your situation! I work for a television production company and we are doing a brand new show that seeks to help people who've had photographic disasters at their special events. We are hoping to restage the event and get amazing magazine-worthy pictures taken.

Please get in touch ******@***********.**

Many thnaks

Sat

Satmohan Panesar

Producer - Silver River

As someone said before to restore photos of the memory card should take no longer then couple of hours (depends on your machine performance) if your photographer says he cannot do it he is either a d***n a***e or is not professional or lost them in some different way whenever i am taking photos i am backing them up first on 2nd computer then onto the CLOUD for extra security and never ever overwrite cards with new photos (just in case of emergency - as long as noting has been put on it you should be able to restore all the photos fairly easy and you do not need to be a tech dude to do so)

end of story!

I have used Don't Panic which is photo recovery software when I had a memory card malfunction after a wedding a few years back before I had chance to download them to my laptop. Went and bought the software for about £25 and I got 95% of the photos back - some were corrupted due to the memory card failing, but luckily not any important ones! Needless to say, that card went in the bin! Its saved more photos since - my own photos from various situations. I never delete the wedding photos until I had them backed up and on a CD which has already been given to the couple and they're happy.

Thanks everyone for your replies the photographer keeps coming back to me saying he has done everything everyone is telling me could be done still now wedding shots , no refund and got him telling me its up to me what i do next its really annoying now

Granted he ought to be paid for the hours worked, but surely he cannot keep all your money for a service he's technically only half provided!?! If that was me I'd be modified and do everything I could to try and make it up to you! I really think you're entitled to at least a partial refund. You've had the 'service' yes, but you haven't had the goods. There must be something he can do, regardless as to what it costs him, your photos are the most important thing in this, not a profit!

Could you try going to Citizens Advice to see whether you could go to the small claims court or something? I'd not let this drop (that's how I am LOL). XX

Is the photographer a member of a professional association?

Ooh I’m so sorry to hear about this disaster. Ask your photographer to reshoot if he can’t get the original photos recovered.

Maybe ask for a copy of the memory card and hard drives to recover them yourself? It makes no sense that a powercut would damage the camera's memory card. Did he explain how the photos on there are also lost?!

Have you sorted anything with him yet?

To be brutally honest, I don't believe your photographer. I think he's made an epic failure somewhere along the line and your wedding shoot has gone irreparably wrong.

Trust me, no professional photographer worthy of the name (I am a press photographer as it happens although I do a few "by invitation" weddings every year) EVER, EVER, EVER, fails to back up a wedding shoot before editing it. As well as afterwards! You always download and back up to external drives before even considering clearing the memory cards. It's absolutely standard practice. Because if your computer fails, you've at least 2 or 3 places where the pictures are safely stored.

As others have said, there are so many disk repair utilities out there that I'd be surprised if nothing can be restored. But also, there's no way you should be paying this buffoon for work that he was contracted to provide and didn't. He should be insured and part of that insurance should cover a re-shoot too - it's a standard part of your professional insurance. Check your wedding insurance though too. You might be covered for a reshoot by a different photographer. I realise that nothing will replace the original pictures but I remain suspicious about just how good they would have been if your photographer was so ignorant about protecting his client's work.