NIGHTMARE----lost 900 images of wedding

hello,

I despise myself right now, and am racked with guilty feelings for the Bride & Groom, the entire party, the

family and for myself and my portfolio.

Last night i shot one of the best weddings of my career, i wasn't nervous, i was creative, funny, entertaining &

spontaneous. Halfway through the bridal party portraits my 4GB card ran out, so i replaced it with another in the

middle of doing headshots of the 20person bridal party.

 

All were in good spirits, so i lined them up school portrait style to have them come in and give me a nice

portrait then a funny face for laughs and to keep people entertained. It went really well, everyone had fun

making fun of eachother -- THEN i did the Bride with her ladies, the Groom with his men.. then we had an extra

hour so went to a pub unexpected -- took over a VIP room, everyone had pints - i shot that, got some really nice

candids and captured the whole feeling of the moments, the bar even let us do a big group shot with the gals up

on the bar & everyone crowded around... moments of pure gold -- then to the reception, where i got great shots of

the receiving line, candid portraits of the moms and dads and grandparents, then the big family group shots...

card ran out. then after the next card in the middle of the best mans speech i changed cards and unknowingly did

the unthinkable, i formatted that golden 4GB card... UNKNOWINGLY... and proceeded to FILL it with silly dance

floor stuff (with considerably less emotional meaning than the original content)

 

It was this morning when I uploaded that i realized what i had done. i've spent the last 4 hours having a fit of

guilty crying and anger at my own stupidity. I"VE NEVER DONE SOMETHING LIKE THIS, and just can't erase from my

mind all the great shot I had, and now don't.

 

I had them sign a contract with a clause about this kind of error (technical or personal) stating that if it

happened I refund the percentage of the images lost versus successfully captured from the package price... my

question to you dear forum are these:

 

1. should i tell the truth? Or make like the card crapped out on me? (save my reputation a little, but ethically

i feel terribly)

 

2. HOW do i really get the value of those images -- they were 900, i have 2100 today - BUT I was there and I know

those were emotionally the most important shots of the day (cause even though the ceremony was important, to this

B&G their friends and the pub, and family were the biggest part of the day for them) ???

 

3. WHAT CAN I DO?? Any tips on how to soften the blow for the B&G? I am going to have their Proofs ready by the

time they are home from their honey moon, and have some amount of $$ to refund them.. .i could even offer a free

shoot... i have NEVER felt this stupid, guilty and all around horrible about ANYTHING i have ever done....

 

5. and on the slim chance that a super tech wizard reads this... IS THERE ANYWAY IN the UNIVERSE to get images

off a 4GB that has been formatted and then 100% shot over?

 

please dear forum members... help! (i'll be posting a version of this in wedding nightmares when i can stop

crying and get on with life)

Well if you posted this under your real name, it will be in google for eternity, so you might as well tell them the truth. There is absolutely no way to recover the images, you wrote over all of them, so there is nothing to recover. You should NEVER format a card on the job, you reformat all the ones you have on you before the shoot, and that way you can't do something so dumb.

 

 

Sorry.

 

.

It is very unlikely you'd be able to recover images if you shot over the formatted card. If you didn't shoot over them, the formatting would probably have just erased the index of the disk, and not the image files itself, in which case you could have recovered them. It is possible there are fragments of files still in tact, but I think the chances are very slim they could be recovered without damage to the files.

 

One part of my workflow is to NEVER EVER format cards in the field. They are ONLY formatted right after uploading them to my computer, and if they're important, burned to a DVD for a backup.

 

Another thing I don't do (if I can help it) is shoot weddings... it's too much pressure<g>.

 

To answer your questions: 1. I would be a little vague and say there was a technical problem that cause the images to be lost. 2. I would do whatever I had to do to recreate the event shots at no charge. 3. I think the sincerity of your remorse, conveyed to them, is very important. You can't beat yourself up though. It happens.

number your cards with a magic marker in the future, if you haven't already. That way, when you're done with card#2, you're less likely to put card #1 back in and format it...

yikes. nightmare indeed.

 

in the future, you should never reformat a card until you get home UNLESS the images are copied and verified on two esparate hard drives. I break the 'golden rule' at jobs all the time and reformat cards during shoots - but only after copying to two hard drives.

 

but that doesn't help your situation now.

 

my experience is that a card that is simply reformatted is still useable to recover images, because the actual information is still there - the card just pretends that it isn't.

 

however, if you shoot over the card, you are erasing that information and replacing it with something new, so I would put my bets on those images being gone forever.

 

what to do? be honest with the couple and do whatever you can to redeem your reputation here.

 

they are going to be shocked and upset, and they will be able to sense if you aren't giving them the truth - you don't want that.

 

of course, give them back whatever $$ you say in your contract, and I think that reshooting as many formals as possible would be helpful.

 

you might also want to offer to get the best photos that their friends took during the day and put it in a nice album - all for no charge, of course.

 

sorry to hear about this. I have had this sinking feeling twice in my career but both times the data was recovered.

Refund 100%. You missed all the important stuff .Then offer to try to recreate it all at your total expense including clothing rental and travel.

 

They will not be happy still, but it is the best you can do.

Be ready to discuss this with your insurance company.

Don't give up just yet - a recovery service MAY be able to potentially recover files. I would contact them ASAP before you attempt to contact the clients about this situation. If you are a member of PPA, then contact Drive Savers at 800-440-1904 (PPA offers a 20% discount). If you are not a member of PPA, then you can do a Google search for other data recovery service providers. Another popular recovery service is OnTrack Recovery at http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.com.

 

At this point, in your situation, I would leave the card alone and not attempt to do any recovery - each attempt you make to read the disk may potentially lower your chances of recovering your data.

 

I would have recommended trying some recovery programs yourself, but since you formatted the disk already and wrote over it, your chances of recovery are already slim. So, I would recommend getting professionals on this before any more damage is done.

 

Good luck!

It may be possible to get some of the images but don't do anything else to card...reformating for a 2nd time would make things much worse. Perhaps some pro-resecue resouces could give it a go.

 

Honesty is the best policy when dealing with your clients.

I'd never add insult to injury, you feel bad enough I know. This is one of those life lessons that is learned the hard way. Learn it well. NEVER format a card unless you have the images intact elsewhere, and for best measure, make sure they're redundantly backed up.

 

I'd produce the images you have and give them to the client with extreme apologies, try every trick in the book to recreate the ones you overwrote (I'm not holding a lot of hope there), and refund them whatever amount of money THEY think is fair. Perhaps a percentage of the lost shots deducted from your fee, and then give them back a chunk more. That's the price you pay for carelessness. Offer to give them any sort of additional photo shoot for free, perhaps a bride/groom session where you rent the tux, pay for her hairstylist, and do some shots that way.

 

I would not try to lie about it, and yes, since you've used your name in this forum, this post will live in Google for eternity. The fact that you've admitted entertaining the idea of lying and blaming the card is not a good reflection on your professionally or personally. I know you're just trying to come to some resolution here, but honesty is the best policy.

Sorry to hear a bout this. The bad news is that onece a card is overwritten, the orinal files a long gone.

 

I'd be honest. GIve them all their money back, and that tke business lost at tax time. I'd also tlak to a lawyer. EVen though this is on your contract, better safe than sorry.

Welcome to the world of Wedding Photography...btw, if you don't have a license for the music on your website, you've stolen an artist's copyrighted work...like someone stealing your pictures.

For the future, if you continue to shoot weddings: Each and every time you remove a memory card from your camera, have a routine of what to do with it. Take some 3M post-its, mark 'em with RED lines, and wrap up your CF card before you worry about loading the next CF card. Carry a zip-lock bag and put the used CF card in the bag, zip the bag. Practice this several times until it is second nature.

 

 

You have a major problem and the bride (and her family) will be looking at what to do, contract or not.

 

 

Good luck.

To make mistakes is human.

 

I would do as Joshua suggests. Find a data recovery company with a good reputation and take the card to them. E.g.

www.ibas.com. Be prepared for a sticker shock.

 

If you can afford one, get a dual card camera for use in future weddings (Canon 1D series or Nikon D3).

how do you lose 900 images on one 4 gig card? I shoot RAW and am lucky to get 160 out of a card. Are you shooting JPEG?

yea that works out to about 4.5 megs per picture he has to be in jpeg.

"how do you lose 900 images on one 4 gig card? I shoot RAW and am lucky to get 160 out of a card. Are you shooting JPEG?"

 

Yeah, this is perhaps an interesting reason to shoot RAW. You would have to carry many more cards total. But, if you lost a card (for whatever reason) it wouldn't be nearly so many images.

I did the same thing, sort of. I reformatted a card with some of the most important wedding pictures on it, and saved new

ones on the card. I tried photorescue, the $30 version.

 

http://www.datarescue.com/photorescue/

 

first i downloaded the trial version to see if it could recover the images, once I saw that it had recovered them, I purchased

the license in order to save them. Best $30 I've EVER spent!

Contact Tallyns Photographic in Peoria Ill. He specializes in disaster recovery. He would be the final authority in my opinion.

I should say that you should probably refund everything at this wedding.

 

I would also not shy away from telling them that you made an error, instead of hinting at any technical problem.

 

yes, it is a technical problem, but one that was caused by human error :-(

 

the reason is that if you tell them it is a technical error, they are going to ask everyone they know what they think the problem could be, and it won't take long for someone to tell them "digital cameras these days are pretty good. if there's a technical error, it's probably because the photographer did something really stupid."

 

which is sort of the case, here.

 

if you just tell them that you messed up, they will be angry at you, but they won't think that you are hiding something. resentment builds and they will wonder if you are dealing straight with them.

 

result - everyone starts talking about how incompetent you are and how they think you are trying to blame the equipment. if you just say up front that you messed up, they will still be angry, but the fact is that people mess up (I have made mistakes during shoots before!), and they will give you credit for being up front. the end result is that the relationship still has trust instead of resentment.

 

oh yes, when you break the news, do not email or phone them. go over to their house and do it in PERSON unless that is impossible.

 

bad news of this type should always be done in person.

I'm sorry to hear about your mistake. Hopefully you learned your lesson! No matter how much fun you are having you always have to be paying attention! I never format cards in the field, and I don't even format the cards for at least a week after the wedding until I have all of the images burned to DVD and uploaded to the clients viewing website. As others have said it is best to format before the shoot and never during the wedding. I keep enough cards to do 3-4 weddings on hand and rotate them as each wedding is done. I also shoot raw (which I believe every wedding photog should, since no one can get perfect exposure on every single shot) and usually use 1 or 2 gig cards, which limits the number of photos per card, just in case of card failure. If I lose 100 photos it would still be terrible (hasn't happened to me, thank god) but not as bad as losing a bigger chunk. The only hard part is timing it so you can swap cards during a lul in the action. I often change cards when there are a few shots left rather than waiting for it to run out at an inopportune time. I keep my unused cards in the pocket of my jacket and as I take them out of the camera I put them into a small waterproof plastic case which has a string tied to a zipper on my jacket for extra protection. I started using the case when I was doing lots of weddings on ships in NYC cause I figured the cards would be ok even if the boat sank and we had to swim for it, but now that I'm almost always on land (in AZ) using that case makes me feel like I know that the couple's precious memories are safe, and that's the most important thing. Feeling bad won't get your clients there photos back. Hopefully this makes you realize how important it is to be "on point" when you are shooting weddings. As others have said I would suggest refunding all of their money, unless you can recover the images, but it will be difficult if not impossible since the card has been written over. Good Luck!

I cannot offer any better advice than what others have said, only my humble opinions. Definitely be honest. This

doesn't make you any less professional, instead it makes you more of a professional. I would also refund everything,

regardless of your contract, and give them all the images you do have. I would also follow up with every company and

person mentioned by others in this thread to try to recover what you can. Also, develop a good system to keep track

of which card is what, several people mentioned some great ideas.

 

Bottom line is, the bride and groom had a great day, and yes, pictures are great, but they shared it with a lot of

people and the memories will always be with them. They will be upset, very much so, but if they are reasonable

people, they will understand, you are a professional, you are also a human. I do not think that because you are the

photographer you do not get to enjoy the wedding's atomosphere, rather because you were able to enjoy it the

pictures were that much better. That speaks volumes about your ability to connect with people and make great

photographs.

 

To be perfectly honest, I would still hire you (if I needed a photographer) even in light of this. This should not end your

career, if it is handled carefully.

 

I am so very sorry this happened, and I do not envy the conversation you must have (in person!) or the difficulty you

will have in trying to recover the images. I would also say, even if you do recover the images, I would NOT charge the

couple a red cent.

 

I might even ask the couple what they would feel is fair, perhaps no charge, give them all the images, and re-do the

portraits at no cost. Don't say 'yes' to anything completely outlandish, but if the couple wants something resonable, I

would do it - no matter the expense to you.

 

As my mother says, 'This too will pass.'

All my best!

Does anyone buy new cards for each job, and just never reformat them? Cards are cheap these days. They should be

much cheaper than an equivalent amount of film.

Hi Pearl,

 

Errors can occur when you get caught up shooting weddings. But one can minimize them.

 

I use 2 identical cameras when I shoot weddings, with different lenses but some overlap focal length like the 24-120 and the Tamron 28-200.

Images shot with camera A are often also shot with camera B.

Using 2 identical cameras also has the advantage of one not having to think when I switch from Camera A to Camera B

 

Portraiture work is done with the 60 Macro F2.8 (I prefer using this lens on the DX cameras rather than the 85 F1.8 and it also comes in handy for close ups of the wedding rings and jewelry shots) or the 105 F2 DC

 

When longer lenses are needed there is the 80-200 F2.8 and the 80 - 400 VR.

 

Of course the work is easier if my Assistant (er...wife) shoots the same wedding with me.

 

We both carry spare PRE Formatted CF cards in the left pocket, and once the CF card is filled it goes into the right pocket. Every thing is shot RAW.

I use mainly 1 Gig and 2 Gig cards as a precaution against card failure..

 

NEVER FORMAT any thing when you are on the job.

 

And yet even with these precautions I made some errors at the last wedidng we shot,......... like not swtiching the SB 800 from TTL balance to TTL when I came to shoot indoors from outside, this error was soon caught when I had a look at the images on the LCD and I was able to reset the SB 800 and re-shoot some of what had been improperly exposed.

 

That's another thing check your images in the LCD when ever you get a chance so you know if all is well or not.

 

After the wedding the CF cards were downloaded into the computer then to a DVD and the cards will remain unformatted until I am sure that all is well before these CF cards are used again. Oh, I forgot to add that when the images are saved they are also saved into an external drive.

 

CF cards are cheap in comparision to the old days when film was used, so buy more of them and buy the better quality stuff, personally I prefer SanDisc or Lexar..

 

Tell your customers the truth, they will remember you for your honesty, they will also remember you even more for your dishonesty and even tell all their friends about it... so how would you like to be remembered?

 

And try and make it up to them in which ever way you can, full refund, re-shoot, more free prints, whatever it takes, that way you minimize the damage you caused and hopefully the remaining shots that you have will still show the quality of work that you are capable of and they will be more forgiving and hire yhou again for other jobs.

 

Nothing is a greater nightmare than screwing up a wedding both for you and the couple and the family involved.

 

Hope I could help..... yes also pray, that also helps ....perhaps they won't sue.

 

Eb

first i must respond by saying thank you for all the advice. it is very helpful and i am sure it will help others in the future.

 

second, i must tell you that this is one of my most embarrassing screw ups in my personal history, (and there have been a few before) and to add to it I shared it on the photo.net forum.... i jumped the gun before i had all the facts in my seekign of photographers advice... when i had uploaded all cards & didn't see those shots immediately in the gallery i paniced (i also didn't note the exact number of files that were on the card in question when i uploaded, it was the last one i did and walked away for lunch...it seems confusing now to try to explain myself...i think there is still a chance for the images...

 

 

as well --

i didn't realize what a response i would get from the forum (i'm not an overly active member), and now i fear that some comments may also jeopardize my reputation, above and beyond what i have already done on my own, and will have to do my best to correct... i would greatly appreciate it if members kept their brash remarks to themselves -- i'm sure i've already said them all to myself in my own head anyway.

 

i am a professional, and will handle this situation as one, if i cannot or even if i can recover the files...i have already started to create a plan to help prepare for handling the issue with my clients. Following up with the technical advice and sparing no expense to see if anything at all can be done for the card.

 

Speaking of the card, it has frozen my finder, giving me spinning wheel of death as i try to access it...i am nervous to force quit the find (it's been frozen for about 4 hrs now) the last thing I saw in my finder window when the card's folder was opened was 87 frames then a series of symbols, no file numbers, labels or of images whatsoever -- so i do believe that i didn't FILL the 4GB card in question, and that there is some sort of error with it...

 

I have insurance as well and will be in touch with them (thanks for that advice), and believe me I have kicked my own ass all day about this, i don't really need to be told what a dumb mistake i made....

 

i do accept my actions and their impending results, I do know with confidence that from the rest of the 2000 images will still excite and please the couple... i know it's pretty freaking bad, but it could have been worse... i WAS on-point the whole day, and really caught creatively and professionally into the action, why i blanked out for that split second...i will never know. and i can never get it back, i can only go forward.

 

I am definitely grieving this as it is a devastating and disappointing loss for all involved. I can assure you, I will never forget it, and hope that in my young career I can go forward into photography confidently...i was NOT going to lie, you'll notice I wasn't suggesting that i would, only seeking advice on what others would do... so thanks to those who offered their advice.

 

I am going to hope that i can recover files from the card -- as although there seems to be larger problems at hand than my flash-human-mistake, i have hope that there is something there.

 

sincerely

bp