natalie_deanne

<p>Thank you all for the very helpful advice. In response to the idea of a party and' recapturing' those photos...we were discussing the idea, our entire wedding party, including our mothers live in the state we grew up in, about 3 hours away from us. We paid all their wedding, travel, and room expenses to be here the 1st time. This is absolutely an option we are considering and I think we will go with. We put a lot of time and money into the biggest day of our lives and I stressed how important the pictures are and did not scrimp on the picture budget. Compensation will just have to be that she pay the expenses for a retake, at this point I feel that's the only thing that will resolve the situation. You are right, I don't want a discount, I would rather have the memories captured that we were paying for, and not have my mother in law hurt. I did pick up the good pictures tonight and my husband and I were again, upset, the photos of him with my mother were also lost and she is not in the best health, to put it lightly, hopefully we can get this scheduled immediately. In the meantime, I will also take the advice and assert that I do want the bad SD card to try to have the photos recovered myself.</p>

<p>I must add...the dispute our photographer had with the 2nd shooter was...the 2nd shooter has a child in school with the child of someone that attended our wedding, not friends, just parents of kids that go to the same school...The 2nd shooter found my friend on her child's Facebook, and before I had paid my photographer, before my photographer had even started her editing....the 2nd shooter was sending pictures from our wedding to the mutual wedding attendee, so at some point, she was able to get the pictures, I saw a few of them. There was a contract between the 2, the pictures belong to our photographer, but could be used for her portfolio after we paid the balance of our bill. Our photographer refuses to work with the 2nd shooter again. I only know this because the 2nd shooter contacted me via Facebook and apologized to me, and I had no idea of the issue she was apologizing for. Now that our photographer has the SD card, it is not working properly.</p>

<p>Our photographer did tell us the 2nd shooter was new. She stated you are able to view the images on the camera screen, but they photos will not load on any other device. My suspicion, I really don't like thinking negatively of anyone, but, I'm afraid the 2nd shooter may have intentionally sabotaged the photos she took. I know there was a dispute about unprofessional behavior from the 2nd shooter. Dispute was resolved, but you never know. Anyhow...I may never know what happened, but I am mostly concerned that my new mother in law, being very sensitive and insecure about the new marriage, will be hurt and I can't fix that. We made it a point to make sure she felt included and she had extra photo time with her son, and those pictures are gone. I know her well and she will feel like the photo time was just to appease her and be very upset with us. Now, being that she said bring no money tonight and decide what to do about discounted compensation myself...it's in our hands to figure it out and I'm more concerned with telling my mother in law about those pictures. I asked for advice here on the compensation, because I truly don't know what to do, just trying to be reasonable, we did get a ton of amazing pictures, but that was very important for his mother. It just HAD to be her pictures....there were a lot more lost, but these were the pictures that matter most out of all that were lost.</p>

<p>To start, I want to say, I have an absolutely amazing photographer that shot our wedding! Her personality meshes so well with my husband and I, she takes beautiful photos, and she is very professional.<br> Now for my scenario. Our photographer and a 2nd shooter shot our wedding photos, most of the time they were working together and both took pictures of our poses and very many other pictures. We were paying hourly, according to the contract, and they definitely fulfilled. Providing all the time and attention we asked for. The only time the 2 weren't working together was when our hired photographer was outside taking pictures with the girls and I, and the 2nd photographer was inside getting pictures with the groom, his mother, groom with bridal party, groom with my mother, groom with flower girl and ring bearer, groomsmen getting ready, and some of the groom alone. </p> <p>Our photographer called this morning, as we are supposed to meet so I can pay her for the extra hours and receive our photos. She informed me that the 2nd photographer had an issue with her SD card and that most of the pictures were corrupt and could not be downloaded. She took the SD card to a specialist to see if they could recover our pictures and they had no luck either. She felt awful, and I understand these things happen, and I did not want to make her feel worse. She said she had never had this problem before for a wedding and it was a horrible situation as we can't get this back. If it were anything other than a wedding a reshoot would be an easy fix. Thankfully, as they worked together most of the time, my photographer was still able to get some very nice photos, but the most important ones, of the groom that I stated are gone because that happened to be the SD card that didn't work. She said she is very willing to work with us on a discount or some kind of agreement to right the wrong, but wasn't sure what to do as this had never happened to her, and she sought advice from other photographers she knows, but they had not experienced this either, for a wedding. She wants me to think about it and talk with my husband and decide what we wish to do about resolving the discount issue. I told her, I understand the problem, because I have had experience with bad SD cards myself, even bought a few that didn't work at all. I told her a few were very important that she told me were on my list that she knew were gone, I told her my husband and I would have to look through all the pictures and see if there are some that may be 2nd choice to them but would suffice and discuss the issue with him, and then discuss an agreement at that time. She said that is not a problem, don't worry about bringing the rest of the payment tonight, she would give me the pictures, take our time and get back with her about that. I take that kind of trust as a compliment, so I really have more respect for her as a professional. </p> <p>The question here...<br> I have never had this happen either, and we are very understanding. I'm concerned my mother in law may get upset about not having those pictures with her son. As we have done a lot to help her feel included in our lives, and not feel like she is losing her son. I really don't want her feelings hurt about that. So, as we are upset about certain pictures, we also want to be fair and reasonable, and not dramatize the situation and go over the top crazy about it. What is a reasonable fair resolution for this mishap?</p>