Tim Miller, owner of Red Vine Studios Photography in Springfield Missouri provided my husband and I stellar service last April at our wedding. It was a small wedding, with only 50 people but my mom absolutely loves our photos and keeps printing more and more off. Tim charged a fair price (less than 2,000), and we got a lot out of it. Besides our wedding, he provided a complimentary engagement session as well and the dvd of files from both were included. We also had a photo book included as well and we look through it often and remember back to our special day.\r\n\r\nMy husband Rob even commented later that night that he actually had a good time taking photos because Tim worked fast, knew what he wanted and took control stepped back when he needed to.\r\n\r\nDuring our communications I got to know Tim and his family some and even met his little girls (so cute). He\'s a family man who takes great photos. He always took the time to take my calls and answere any photo related questions I had. We went over my photo list of what I wanted and he made sure we got the shots I have always dreamed about. :) I have recommended him to my friends and am happy to recommend him today. The best way to reach him is by email or his facebook fan page. I found him through Yahoo search.

The general issues:

1. Images in gallery were not touched-up as discussed

2. Images in gallery were not color-corrected as agreed upon

3. MANY engagement session photos had un-necessary shadows (my fiancé’s nose would leave a shadow on his face, for example) that could have been prevented with properly adjusted lighting

4. The photographer agreed to send a DVD disk of all images up until the point of the contract cancellation …. It took nearly three months and several e-mails for it to arrive.

The red flag that I missed was at the initial meeting….he talked to us for 2 hours, except 30 minutes was relevant while the rest was a waste of time. He talked about his kids, his wife, and way more than just a short personal biography to get to know him. He tried to create a friend-relationship rather than a professional one. This left the photographer room to make excuses, and he did. Many times – when we went to schedule appointments, when our photos were late, when he took over a week to respond to phone calls or e-mails….

The details:

I disliked the amount of time Tim spent during our engagement-session talking to my relative while I was paying to have photos of my fiancé and I taken. Two family members communicated to me that they thought it was not very professional…

Tim was clearly trying to network and was much more interested in talking with other people than getting some good photos.

I was intending on paying $1,900 for his skills and services, not to have a friend. I'm not anti-social… my point is business should be business when we're talking about a couple of full paychecks going to ONE person. While I'm human and have feelings, I don't feel a professional relationship was maintained when I'm told about events in his personal life.

When scheduling the engagement session, Tim informed me he was unavailable all week days before 4:30 pm - and said something like, "remember, I told you I was a full-time dad" - EXCEPT – that he never said anything about this during the meeting, in any conversation, or the contract.

General Conduct - I was put-off by the fact that he posted images on facebook that were not touched up. I would think that the photographer would want everything and everyone looking their best, but our ideas obviously differed here. I’m not all worried about people seeing a blemish or something, the entire thing just stuck me as odd.

He is contradictive. in his e-mail he once said "I service many clients per week, and at times can be in and out of touch" which I can understand, except that he later went on to say this is the slower part of the year. My wedding is in JUNE - wedding prime-time. If I cannot get desired communication during the slower part, how will it be satisfactory in June?

RUN, don't walk, away from this photographer!!!!!!!!! We had family pictures taken and it was a trainwreck. The "lighting" wasn't right and all he did was get frustrated. Also, 6 weeks later, and a handful of not so good excuses, and 2 tried and failed on his part meetings later...still no pics! I finally emailed him and said we didn't want them (luckily, no money traded hands).
I am writing this on a wedding website because he talks (a LOT) and was bad mouthing weddings saying he couldn't get good group shots if kids didn't stand still (we have a 3 year old) AND if the couple walked too fast down the eisle. Really?