Photographer

This sounds really odd. Does this guy have any experience? I'm wondering if you've booked someone who has just decided to set up as a photographer and doesn't really know what they are doing. It's usual for photographers to ask before the wedding about particular shots you want, but I've never heard of one who expected you to get the groups together yourself. And if he did expect that, he should at least have told you, so that you could delegate it to someone, not just decide that he wouldn't bother to take photos at all!

Oh, and your age has NOTHING to do with it. This would be unacceptable treatment if you were 150! There is no age limit on being able to have a special wedding day.

I was just about to mention your age having nothing to do with it. I’m 45 and wouldn’t want anyone behaving like that. What a shame as it leaves a bad taste. We gave my photographer a list of only about 5 group shots as it was important to me that people weren’t waiting around to be photographed as I’ve had that at other weddings. He sent us 760 pics in a link for us to download. We are thrilled so I’m truly sorry you didn’t have the same experience. If you have his number then I would just call and speak to him not wait to have an arranged time according to him. Try putting your views across. I would also put my complaint in writing but I doubt you will get any more pics or a refund- the photographer on here called Bill may have better advice. You should not have to arrange the shots yourself that is their job! I’m sorry it’s happened and hope you get a satisfactory response

Noone should put up with unprofessional behaviour at any age. This wasn't your fault, you hired a professional to do a job and they failed to deliver. However, there is some background work which should have been done by you (and I only know this through trawlling though loads of photographers website and speaking to a few). When choosing a photographer you should decide on the style you want, their website should he transparent as to their style, how many digital photographs they will take, how they will deliver them to you, how they edit the pics and their packages available. When we spoke with our photographer he confirmed we're aware of his style, what he'll do on the day and that we'll have a discussion as to what will happen on the day, family member who must be in the pics and a designated helper on the day. Their contract should also detail the above and any other t&Cs (inc travel fee of applicable and their lunch). If this was made clear in the contract and they've delivered something different then technically that's a breech. If this was stipulated in their contract and you over looked this then unfortunately you might have to bite the bullet. But in all honesty, he sounds completely unprofessional, 1500 pics is way too much and it sounds like he didn't bother filtering out the inusable ones. I'm sorry this happened to you, hopefully he'll pull his finger out and do his job.

Thanks Yorkshirelass sorry for my late reply in here but had a busy wedding weekend.

But everyone else has said much of what I was thinking. It all sounds very odd.

One thing I noticed is your name - Amalfi Coast, is that where you got married and it was it a case of using someone who was just booked through the venue or planner to turn up and shoot. That is my only explanation for the odd way of working.

A documentary only photographer may get way with not speaking to people but interaction is essential and is part of the art of a portrait photographer which is what you will be for some shots.

1500 says to me they are just downloading everything from the camera without even going through them to filter out the rubbish, let alone further artistic editing, maybe that's standard for a destination wedding.

Any Uk shooter offering that amount of images is a good sign that they are not professional so its no surprise when they act unprofessional. 1500 means they are using a machine-gun approach taking at least 10 of everything on high speed shutter and leaving it to you to choose. Problem is there may not be a best one out of the 10 they took, could be a sign sticking out of a head or eyes shut, an unfortunate grimace - something wrong with all of them.

Which is one thing that separates a pro from a part time shooter. A pro will go through them and should be editing out that exit sign sticking on the grooms head so instead of giving you 10 dodgy ones - will be delivering 3 perfect ones. A part time shooter will not have the time to do this and so will give you everything, which also makes them seem better value but this is a case where quality is better then quantity.

View quoted message Thank you for everyone’s response. No we married in Scotland. When I have tried to resolve he is getting quite agressive. Saying things like it is not up to him to ‘organise’ my wedding referring to family photos. It was such a beautiful day full of love. I think it’s best not to have any communication with him now. He is awaiting for me now to send him photos that I want edited. He never mentioned this til i told him how unhappy I was with my photos. Which was six weeks after the file I sent him. Thanks for reading.

Right, as its a UK shooter I cannot comment on their working methods. But every weddng I shoot I will have an in-depth pre wedding consultation to discuss, timings, what groups they want - just detailing everything really. Did you not have this.

Then on the day it very much is my job to organise family groups - that is also a skill in itself to do it quickly.

How many photos are you allowed to send back for editing.

View quoted message We had no conversation about anything before wedding just about payment all done on Facebook messenger. He has not said how many photos. The thing is I have spent about a week filtering all photos that were not good and organising photos and then two hours in Asda printing any half decent ones.

How much did you pay and for how long coverage.

View quoted message I paid £500 for coverage beginning from ceremony til about 5 o’clock. I should have done more research.

Ok so £500 for a half day. Do they have a website ? or just operating out of facebook ?, did you have a contract ?

Are you saying you have sent him a file of images that you would like him to properly edit and that was 6 weeks ago now ?

One thing though is that if you are printing at Asda even the most carefully edited photo will suffer as a result and so may not be the best way to judge the quality of the photos you have.

View quoted message This is such a useful reply Bill. I’ve had a similar experience and it helps to know what I can argue as expected service. We have discovered that our photographer has used stock images on his social media implying they are his own and we hired him in the basis that he took those kind of artistic creative and carefully choreographed photos . It’s so upsetting.

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That is something that really triggers me !!! ( but its not about me its you I feel for )

But before I go nuclear.

How did you find out about the stock images.

Do they advertise on here.

Have you had your wedding photos back.

Is the standard and quality and style different to what they have been showing on their website.

Do they have a website.

View quoted message Hi Bill, I did a reverse image search at my friends suggestion and book there it was! One of his photos used in hundred of websites all over the world for love quotes, wedding magazines etc etc - it’s not his photo. It’s an Alamy photo. I’d say there are 6-10 that are really good. Ie I’d happily frame them and put them in a wall. There’s 440 that I’m not even interested in showing to anyone. I’ve just put a post on setting out my experience . Have a read if you have time.
I’m so grateful for your response.
Jo

He definitely should have consulted with you before the day to discuss what shots you want, what style, anything you’re not wanting etc and it’s usually the photographer that instructs group photos as they know what will look good in a shot… usually!