By the time I finally got my pictures from my wedding, 4 MONTHS after my wedding when my signed contract said 4-6 WEEKS, I was pleased with the amount of pictures received, and the pictures were creative and special. Also, the bridal shoot photos were beautiful and very creative. The photographers were, as I rated above, somewhat unprofessional. They were late to both my bridal shoot and the actual wedding shoot. My contract for my wedding day photos said 9:30 and I assumed that meant that that was when the actual picture-taking would start....I could not contact them via their cell phone and they didn't come to me and the bridesmaids dressing room until about 10:00 or 10:15 because they wanted to look around the church....Which should have been done before contract starting time. With this already wasted time, they did not use the remaining time wisely, as they seemed to take 10-15 shots of just one pose, and I was not able to get some of the photo shots that I wanted. The pictures turned out well in the end and the bridal photos were amazing, I think there was just some miscommunication between us.
MichelleB Photography responded with the following comments:
While we are glad this client was apparently happy with several aspects of her experience with us, we are certainly concerned (& a little confused) with some of the complaints. It is true that there was a lengthy delay in getting the client her photos, which is the first time EVER in our career this has happened. We'd like to point out that while our contract did state that typically delivery time is 4-6 weeks, our information on our website points out (& we address this at the original consult) that if for any reason we see that there will be a delay, we will inform the client as soon as possible. We had told the client we knew there would be some delay from the get go since we had a week long vacation planned within completion time for her photos. In addition to this, during the 3 months from this clients wedding, we experienced three family deaths, one being the suicide of my younger sister. I don't write this for sympathy, only to help explain the situation. Additionally, we began to experience indications that our computer was trying to crash, so we decided to switch from PC to Mac. this conversion ended up taking two weeks to complete, during which time we were unable to edit. I would like to clarify that during all this, contact and updates were made to all our clients about the situation and what we were doing about it. Once all of this was settled we began to diligently work on getting caught up. We're not trying to make excuses for anything, but we feel the full extent of these very extenuating circumstances should be taken into account, as well as our efforts to keep out clients informed. Next, to address the complaint about our being late-- we pride ourselves on our punctuality and make every effort to be where we are supposed to be ahead of time. We were a few minutes late to the bridal session because we entered the campus where it took place at the wrong end from where the client was. It took a few minutes to get back to the other end of the campus, but we got started within just a few minutes of the scheduled time, and we shot for extra time to adjust that for the client. Regarding the wedding, we arrived at the location ahead of time and began taking photos of the location right on time at 9:30. There were no indications anyone had tried to call us, as we keep our cells on us at all times. We also are confused about the statement that we "seemed to take 10-15 shots of the same pose" since we make it a point to never deliver collections with more than a couple of frames being the same pose. When we first meet with prospective clients, we point out to them that while we do take the formal after- and before-ceremony photos that people want, this is not the heart of our style, and we spend as little time as possible on these posed images because in reality they are not the ones the client is going to love in the end, and they also take up valuable time that could be spent taking photos of the newly married couple. In this case however, after the ceremony the client & family asked for more & more formal photos, while we were being told by the wedding director that we were running out of time & would have to leave. When the family was satisfied with the amount of formals, we were rushed out, but did manage to grab a few shots of the couple alone before being adamantly told we had to leave. From there the couple & everyone went straight to the reception. Only after the completed collection was delivered to the client did she express that she "didn't get as many photos of just" her and her groom as she'd have liked but that she was overall happy with the photos. I thanked her & reminded her that the unusually long time taken with the family & formal photos after the ceremony did interfere with how we usually get those images at that time. Lastly, we ALwAYS always tell prospective clients that, while we don't shoot by a list since it stifles creativity for us, we encourage them to give us a short list of ANY poses, family/friends, images they absolutely do not want their collection to be without. we regret intensely that this client feels she did not receive all the images she wanted & we wish we had been informed of those beforehand as requested. To end all this, we would just like to say that this client's wedding provided us with some of the most beautiful images we've gotten to date & we are honored to have been able to capture it. We feel that we did everything we could to keep our client informed as we worked through some debilitating circumstances, and we wish her concerns and issues had been made known to us personally so that we could have addressed them and perhaps left her feeling happier with her overall experience. We encourage anyone who is considering us as their wedding photographer to talk to us about this review & let us know anything that concerns you.
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