kristin_cook

Hi Everyone,

I am going through a nightmare-ish experience with my wedding photographer,

and would really appreciate the input and advice of people in the business.

I paid out wedding photographer a $500 deposit prior to the wedding, and was

to pay another $500 after recieving the photos. I know this is really cheap,

but I liked his style and he seemed like a great guy at the time.

He was at our wedding for over 9 hours, taking photos the entire time. We had

a large wedding with about 250 people at a beautiful church and reception hall

downtown. He took many fun outdoor group shots, and a lot of candids. After

the wedding, I was super excited to see the results! He told me (and stated in

the contract) that the proofs would be available in 2 weeks (seems like an

extremely quick turn around I thought).

3 weeks passed, and I emailed him to ask how the pictures were coming. He said

he had them done and we set up a time to view everything. He then cancelled

that day and said he had to go on a last-minute trip. I politely told him that

if he needed more time, to just let me know and I would be fine. I asked him

how many proofs he had, and he said 200 or more. To make a long story short,

after 2 months of excuses, he finally said he was ready to give me all the

photos. I asked exactly how many proofs he had to give me and he said "54." 54

total photos!! To make matters worse, the photos are horrible--I mean, blurry,

people's heads cut off, bad lighting, etc. There is not a single photo of my

mother and I, no first dance, no bouquet toss, etc.

I emailed him and asked him why there were so few photos when he was there for

9 hours. His response was "not enough happened at your wedding to take more

than 50 photos." I told him I would not be paying the $500 balance. He then

threatened to sue me. I said, go ahead.

I was obviously extremely upset, but decided to just leave it at that and move

on. I was out $500 with no pictures worth having, but I figured it was my own

fault for hiring someone so cheap. A few months went by without hearing from

this guy.

Then, about 2 weeks ago, my husband and I got a letter from a collection

agency, demanding we pay the photographer $700!

What can I do to end this?? I am not going to pay this guy, but do not want my

credit being ruined by this either. Do you think it's necessary to take this

to small claims court and get our original $500 back? More than anything, I

just want to move on from this!

Thanks for letting me rant. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much for the great advice, Tony! What you are saying about pricing makes a lot of sense, and I hadn't thought about it like that before. It is really hard to walk that line between being seen as a bargain or "cheap" photographer, and, like you said, a good photographer who is just getting started. I will have to think about how I can better word the "pricing" section of my site.

Thanks again for all the feedback! I checked out your site, and judging by your photos, you obviously know what you're talking about!

I am just getting into the whole wedding photography business. I have 4

weddings booked starting in May (a couple of these are for friends of mine),

and recently did my first engagement session for one of the couples. Any

comments, feedback, suggestions as to how I can improve my work before I do

weddings this summer would be awesome! Here is the link to some of my first

engagement shots and an informal "photo session" I did with a friend:

http://kristincook.foliosnap.com/?goto=engagementandportraits Thanks in

advance so much!

--Kristin