NBR: wedding photog is a slacker

AmyLaurel89

I was married in November. We chose a friend who is in school for photography to do the photos since I love love love her work as an artist. I had been warned that she isn't punctual and is apt to not answer phone calls or return messages. She takes a long time to edit photos.  It is now 7 months past my wedding date and I have recieved 3 separate disks of pictures. They are amazing....

BUT I've sent one email per month since FEB asking for the pictures I'm missing which are.... any pictures of my immediate family, any of my mom, of my 80-year old grandparents who were lucky enough to be in fair health on the day of my wedding.  

I have TONS of just me and of my in-laws but not a single posed shot of my mom or any photographical evidence that my grandparents even attended. I am livid that she gave me the "last disk" which had a few more shots of the bridesmaids. Now my DH wonders why I'm so cranky.

I'm leaving town this weekend to visit my grandparents (T&P's appreciated for my grandfather's health and mental awareness- his alzhiemers is worsening) 7 hours away and was hoping to bring a complete wedding album with me. Turns out that isn't going to happen all because my photog is a slacker. (

 

sunflower8710

Awww. I am sorry. Our photographer was a bit slacky as well, but she did our entire wedding day, copyright free for $100 (she is my sister's good friend in art school) so I totally didn't mind and LOVED my photos.

I am sorry you have to wait this long. What a bummer

AmyLaurel89

Oh and I lent her my veil (I was happy to do it, she looked great in it.) and she hasn't returned it. Plus I feel like since I didn't charge her for the use of my veil, I'd get a little more effort in the turn-around of my photos. I'm just too mad to even talk to her but I really need to communicate with her clearly how important these photos are. 

klynn83

Why don't you just tell her that you want all the photos she took edited or non edited. That way you will have a copy of every photo she took and you can edit them yourself if needed. 

Mention that you are going to visit you grandparents and ask her to email you any photos that have your parents and grandparents in them. I would call her and not stop till she picked up. 

7 months is crazy for just edited pictures on CD's!! I got my CD's with 800 edited photos in 2 weeks and they were posted online for ordering 5 days after the wedding. Hopefully your friend isn't trying to make a business out of photography. 

boxtonmom1014

I did a lot of research before choosing a photographer for my wedding because pictures were my #1 priority. I ended up waiting over five months for my proofs, and then when I got my photos was sorely disappointed.

Luckily, the photographer took over 1000 shots, so you're going to get some good ones. But she didn't take some major ones (the only pic of my cake was black and white- and it was decorated with red roses!) and didn't edit any of them.

I ended up doing a lot of editing on my own and made my own album because I was so disappointed and disgruntled. It was really frustrating because I paid her a lot of money and definitely didn't get my money's worth.

Luckily, with some of the nice shots she did get, and some great shots a friend got with her SLR camera, I was able to put together a great album. But, almost five years later, it still really bugs me that she 'got away with' doing such a crappy job for a paying customer.

AmyLaurel89

I think she sees photography jobs as a way to fund her art. Which is fine, but I agree with you she doesn't have much business sense. I would recommend she find a business partner to work with who can wrangle her and help get this stuff out on time.  

I did like you said and told her I want these photos,even unedited. She finally agreed to send them and will be emailing them by tomorrow.... lets see if it happens.  I honestly haven't hounded her relentlessly until this last week. I just know that if I show up at my Gran's without any photos of her, she will be hurt. (Still ranting a little-- It baffles me because I KNOW we took a photo of just me and her... why wouldn't that be sent to the bride. Its a classic shot?!?)

Okay. I feeel better.