BackdoorArts
Senior Member
Just heard from my nephew. I have refrained from talking much about what I witnessed at his wedding (I may have shared one or two anecdotes), but let's just say that I wasn't very impressed with the family friend with a photography business they hired to do the shooting. My brother in-law asked if I wouldn't mind tagging along and taking pictures before and after the ceremony, and for the most part I was able to shoot a bunch of stuff for them as well, but missed all the group shots that were done when I stopped paying attention (I was told they Bride & Groom were changing, but they spent 30 minutes shooting group shots lakeside). I did my best to get as many shots as I could as she didn't inspire much confidence. First, all of her shots were taken with the camera held to her face with one hand while the other hand held an Infrared Remote trigger in front, used to actually take the pictures. REALLY!!! The other thing was that I was the one to ask her if she really wanted to set up the Bridesmaids for photos in an area that had electrical cords running through it, and wouldn't it be better if she at least moved the extension cords out of the way before shooting?
OK, enough about the photographer. So, as I said, I heard from my nephew today, 3 months after the wedding. It seems he just heard (3rd hand, from his mom) that the photographer is "having trouble accessing the photos from some of the SD cards and only really has photos from before the wedding, and just some film stuff she shot during the ceremony and afterword." This was sort of troubling to me because I'd already seen plenty of photos from her on Facebook soon after the wedding - quick edits for the family, so I'm thinking either she never backed them up, had a hard drive failure, or something else. Regardless, not having them backed up from the cards onto an external drive immediately after the wedding seems unconscionable for a "professional" wedding photographer. Tack onto that the 3 month lag time before hearing anything and I feel bad for the kid, I really do. He says she's sent the cards to a couple companies and "already paid, like, $50-60 a pop to try and recover something", and is now looking to send them one more place for "like, $500 cost to her" to try and recover something from the cards, but it seems like a whole lot of dropping the ball for it to have reached this point.
Thankfully, I've got about 4GB of shots for him, and I promised to send him the RAW stuff under the condition that he be the only one to work on them (in other words, don't give my shots to your photographer). I suppose you get what you pay for. I never would have done the job for him, paid or otherwise, but knowing his Mom's penchant for "hiring church friends" I had a feeling it was the right thing to do to tag along.
These are the kind of "professionals" that take jobs away from real working photographers weekend after weekend. It's a shame.
OK, enough about the photographer. So, as I said, I heard from my nephew today, 3 months after the wedding. It seems he just heard (3rd hand, from his mom) that the photographer is "having trouble accessing the photos from some of the SD cards and only really has photos from before the wedding, and just some film stuff she shot during the ceremony and afterword." This was sort of troubling to me because I'd already seen plenty of photos from her on Facebook soon after the wedding - quick edits for the family, so I'm thinking either she never backed them up, had a hard drive failure, or something else. Regardless, not having them backed up from the cards onto an external drive immediately after the wedding seems unconscionable for a "professional" wedding photographer. Tack onto that the 3 month lag time before hearing anything and I feel bad for the kid, I really do. He says she's sent the cards to a couple companies and "already paid, like, $50-60 a pop to try and recover something", and is now looking to send them one more place for "like, $500 cost to her" to try and recover something from the cards, but it seems like a whole lot of dropping the ball for it to have reached this point.
Thankfully, I've got about 4GB of shots for him, and I promised to send him the RAW stuff under the condition that he be the only one to work on them (in other words, don't give my shots to your photographer). I suppose you get what you pay for. I never would have done the job for him, paid or otherwise, but knowing his Mom's penchant for "hiring church friends" I had a feeling it was the right thing to do to tag along.
These are the kind of "professionals" that take jobs away from real working photographers weekend after weekend. It's a shame.