We hired Melissa Barrick of MB Photography to photograph our wedding last year. Our contract included all day coverage (roughly 10 hours). Melissa also brought an assistant, stating she had full faith in her assistant’s capabilities. Close to 3 weeks after our wedding, Melissa called to inform me that nearly 2/3 of the photos she took herself on our wedding day were “gone.” She offered no further details or explanation regarding the photos, even though I kept pressing for an answer. I asked which photos she did have and she couldn’t tell me because she hadn’t gone through all of them yet, even though she had ample time do so by now.
My husband and I were devastated by this news. I emailed Melissa the next morning asking for an honest explanation. How are photos just “gone?” She replied that she lost one of her memory cards and was too embarrassed to tell us the truth, admitting this was a huge mistake on her part. She said she switched out the memory card from the first 2/3 of the day (6.5 hours of coverage to be exact) before our first dance, zipping up a pouch in her bag and when she got home that night, the memory card was missing. She said she checked her camera bags, her car, her assistant’s car, and only called our reception site and church, but never actually went there to look.
Again, Melissa never went over to the reception site to retrace her steps and look for the memory card. She only called to ask the vendor to do it for her. She had a responsibility to us as clients to ensure that her memory cards were properly secured and protected, and that she would take all necessary steps to look for a memory card if it did go missing, including revisiting the areas where photos were taken and retracing her steps. Melissa admitted to us that she did not do this. This is inexcusable and extremely unprofessional. Melissa should have informed us that the memory card was lost as soon as we returned from our honeymoon, not 3 weeks after our wedding, and she should’ve had the pictures that she did have ready for our review. Instead, it took her an additional week to go through the photos and post them to a gallery. I emailed Melissa daily inquiring about the delay and she stated her internet at home was slow because she lived in the country and it timed out during the day when she was at work.
There were about 900 photos uploaded for us to review. Out of these, around 25% were actually Melissa’s photos and the rest were from her assistant. The only actual photos from Melissa were from the first dance at our reception until after the cake cutting/bouquet toss. The list of photos not captured by Melissa included: everyone getting ready/dressed, details like my dress, flowers, rings, etc., first look pictures, formals of my husband and I before the ceremony, the entire church ceremony, formals after the ceremony with my parents and the wedding party, photos with the wedding party at the Lincoln Memorial, and photos of my husband and I outside our reception venue. This is a huge portion of the day on Melissa’s camera that was lost, specifically, 6.5 hours out of 10 hours, and most importantly, the entire wedding ceremony, which was extremely special and sacred to us as well as our family and friends.
Melissa explained that at least her assistant captured some of the morning and afternoon. Out of the pictures missing from above, her assistant provided only a handful of photos. Since Melissa lost her photos of the entire ceremony, I figured her assistant would at least have captured most of the ceremony. Instead, there were barely any of the ceremony (none of my father walking me down the aisle, giving me away, the wedding party walking down the aisle), the vows, ring exchange, and first kiss were blurry and out of focus or too bright. The formals after the church ceremony were not mirrored by her assistant so there is not one picture with my parents, nor any of us with our wedding party. The lost memory card contained all Melissa’s photos of us with our wedding party at the Lincoln Memorial, and worse, those few photos her assistant took at the Lincoln were terrible. They were extremely bright and not fit for printing.
I asked Melissa if she could edit her assistant’s photos since they were so bright and unclear and she informed me that she already had edited them and if she edited them anymore they would look worse. She admitted her assistant’s photos were “over processed” and that she was trying to “salvage” what she could at this point and was at the “mercy” of her assistant’s photos for any photos taken before the reception. Further, from saying how she put much faith in her assistant’s capabilities, Melissa changed her story and said she was still training her assistant and that she was still learning how to take photos. So, although we had a handful of pictures from her assistant that morning and afternoon, the majority were over processed and out of focus. They were not suitable for printing or use in a wedding album. To be honest, our guests took better pictures inside the church than Melissa’s assistant.
We spent the next 8 weeks trying to reach a resolution. From the time Melissa called me to tell me the memory card was lost, she should have made a clear offer of what she wanted to do to resolve what happened instead of being unclear and giving mixed messages, which only caused my husband and I more stress. Melissa’s email responses took days and even close to a week at times. In the end, she offered either a full refund or partial costs associated with a re-shoot to be conducted by her.
We decided against a re-shoot with Melissa as we had lost all faith and trust in her capabilities as a photographer and even trust in her as a person. She could very well lose the re-shoot photos as well. Melissa gave us the impression that she would rather forget about us and this entire situation. As a photographer holding herself out as a professional, who claimed this was the first time something like this happened to her, we expected her to go above and beyond in order to make things right. What struck a chord with us is that Melissa told us in our initial meeting before the wedding about how she had problems with her wedding photographer and lost many of her photos, having to use photos from family and friends to compose an album, so now that she was on the other end, we were surprised and saddened by how she chose to handle the matter of losing so many of our wedding photos.
The bottom line is that Melissa lost over half our wedding photos, not just a handful. Out of the 900 photos Melissa provided to us, around 700 were solely from the wedding reception taken by Melissa and her assistant, covering 3.5 hours. The remaining 200 photos were solely taken by Melissa's assistant, covering 6.5 hours in the morning and afternoon before the reception. This distortion between the amount of photos provided from the reception and those provided before the reception is due to the fact that Melissa lost her memory card which contained all images from those 6.5 hours before the reception (including photos getting ready, the entire ceremony, and formal pictures with our family and wedding party). It is not a matter of quantity, but a matter of quality, which we did not receive due in part to Melissa losing her own memory card which contained a large portion of our wedding day that was not captured by her assistant. Further, she waited too long to tell us what happened and wasn’t ready with a clear offer to remedy the situation when she did call us. Instead, it took over 2 months to resolve what happened, primarily due to the slowness in her email responses. We took her at her word of wanting to make things right, but in the end, her actions only illustrated how embarrassed she was and how she wanted to put this situation behind her, rather than go above and beyond and put all of her efforts into trying to make things right with her clients after she lost the majority of photos from the most important day of our lives.
MB Photography, LLC responded with the following comments:
I'm sorry to read that my efforts to fix the problems we encountered were not satisfactory to Denise. I refunded the entire contract price to Denise, and I'm happy that this money was able to help her get several still images from the videographer that she specifically wanted. I'm sorry that I could not completely reconstruct the wedding at an expense 4 times the original contract price, as this is an unreasonable expectation.
As a professional photographer I have a system in place for backing-up photos, inventorying memory cards, and providing a second shooter to eliminate the risk of not providing the customer with all the photos they expect. This process enabled me to provide 900 photographs to Denise from her wedding day taken by both me and my second shooter. The average bride receives 500-600 photographs for a 10hr wedding shoot, and is very happy with the results.
Photography is an art where style and quality of the images is up to artistic interpretation. I put samples of my work up on my blog so that brides can see samples of my photographic aesthetic. I stand behind my work and the work of my second shooters. I'm sorry that Denise was dissatisfied.
All wedding photos are priceless and each bride cherishes her wedding photos and her memories of her wedding day. I know this feeling personally and I try to provide each bride with the special personal attention she deserves.
- Melissa Barrick, MB Photography, LLC
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