I keep hearing this same story, just a slightly different version every time.  Wedding photography has become very similar to the used car salesman.  They will use what ever trick they need to so that you’ll sign on the dotted line.  Here is Mandy’s story….

Mandy had lots of friends who had gotten married, but none of them here in Gainesville.  She asked all her friends how they chose their photographer and most of them said, we looked on the web, made a phone call and booked one.  They are all the same, her friends told her.

After doing a google search Mandy realized they were right.  All of the photographers looked a like, how do I pick one?  So on her day off Mandy called 6 of the photographers she liked the best on the web.  The first three she called, didn’t answer the phone and had no message, just the automated answer that repeats the phone number.  The 4th one she called said she’d be happy to meet with Mandy at the local Starbuck’s to further discuss her big day.  The next one she spoke with was a man, he said she could come to his house and meet but only in the evenings as he worked until 6pm every day.  Going to some guys house made her a little uneasy so she just got some pricing information.  The last one didn’t have time to meet but was super friendly over the phone.  She talked, the talk.  She was saying everything Mandy wanted to hear.  At the end of the conversation she asked Mandy if she’d like to put a deposit down.  Mandy said she’d need to talk with her fiance first.  The photographer said, “well the price I just quoted you is a special price we are offering that ends today.  So make sure you call me back as soon as you can.” Nervous, Mandy gave the photographer her credit card number.  After all her website was beautiful.  A co-worker knew her, she hadn’t used her for her wedding but the price was right and this special price ended today.  Boy, was she lucky.  She was going to save them money by booking now.

The wedding day came and went.  There were no major red flags, everything seemed to go off as planned.  Her friends and family made a few comments about the day that included stuff about the photographer being a little pushy, but nothing to stress over.

Now fast forward 6 weeks…the photographer called, the disk was ready to be dropped off.  Mandy was so excited to share these amazing pictures with her friends and family.  The photographer came into her house and handed her a disk in a white paper envelope with their name written on the front of it in black sharpie.  Mandy was not overly impressed, they had payed her over a $1000 and this was the final product?  Oh, well Mandy thought, the images will be great.
After the photographer leaves, Mandy heads to her computer to take a sneak peek before her husband gets home.  Mandy opens the disk on her computer so she can quickly look through all the thumbnails.  Wow, these don’t look so good.  Maybe it is because they are small.  Let me open one up and see it big, that will make it better.  Yikes, why is my face blurry, Mandy thinks to herself.  She opens up another, their heads are cut off.  And then another, it is dark in the reception you can’t see the beautiful room.  What is going on?  In a panic, Mandy opens up image after image, horrified by what she is seeing.  The family picture in front of the beautiful glass window at the Baughman Center, the outside looks beautiful but the family is all dark and you can’t see any ones face.  Mandy starts to cry.  Her parents are going to be so upset that the pictures are so bad.  And what about her husband, what is he going to say.  I’ll call the photographer, maybe she gave me the wrong disk.  She calls the number for the photographer, no answer.  She leaves a panicked message.  Pacing she hopes she calls back soon.  She just left her house, where could she be.  About 20 minutes later she calls again, still no answer.
Mandy would try for over a week, but could never get in touch with the photographer.  Finally she gets a call from someone who says that they work for the photographer and she need to quite harassing her or they will call the cops.  Mandy explains, she thinks she has the wrong disk, everyone in her family agrees, these are not professional pictures.  The person on the other end of the line says, you have the proper disk, the images are amazing and you should be happy you got this photographer for a steal.  Then they hang up.
They thought about suing, but for what.  By the time they spent all the money on a lawyer all they would be doing is putting themselves out a few thousand dollars more.  The pictures couldn’t be fixed.  She already tried taking them to a well established photographer who said there was not much they could do.

Moral of the story…look beyond a website.  Anyone can take a few good pictures.  Meet with the photographer to make sure your personalities mesh.  Look at a full wedding, what do all of the images look like?  Are they a consistent quality?  How many are there?  If someone refuses to show you a full wedding, run.  They are not a professional!

This story is a little off topic, but totally makes my point.  As many of you may or may not know, Gregg and I teach a basics of photography class at the studio.  The 2-hour class covers everything, soup to nuts.  It’s great for those people who don’t know how to get the camera off “auto”.

We ran a Groupon last February for this very beginner course.  We sold 158.  We already had an idea that we might get a few people taking the class that were looking to break into the photography biz, but nothing we were teaching was anything a professional should not know.  There were no special techniques, just an explanation of ISO, shutter speed, and aperture.  All the things you need to know to take a good picture.

Well, we were right.  One of the very first classes included a girl who already had a website & facebook page.  Her website included special packages for maternity, boudoir and family portraits.  Here is where I am very shocked.  She knew NONE of the basics.  She always used auto.  She had no idea how to move her focus point, what an aperture or shutter speed even was.  Yikes.  And she claimed people were paying her.  If you look at her work, you might question her knowledge.  But if even one person paid her as a “professional” they got ripped off.

After taking our class many people tell us it was awesome, but they are overwhelmed.  They never realized how much goes into taking a picture.  It is much more than pushing a button.

We have a lot of friends.  Once in a while they’ll ask us if we want to be a guest or if we’d mind photographing the event/wedding.  I will photograph the event/wedding, but it will cost them 50% of my normal price.  Yes, you heard me I charge my friends and family (minus parents of course).  We did a family portrait in Lake Tahoe a few years ago.  We agreed to do the portrait, but no one expected it to be free.  All of the family paid a minimum of 50% off our regular price and for a few items they paid a little more.

So right now, I can imagine everyone saying, OMG you scrooge!  No, my family understands it costs money to retouch a photo or make prints or Christmas Cards.  This is not free and they don’t expect me to do it for free.  My sister-in-law in California even had us photograph her sisters wedding about 8 years ago.  They paid all the expenses to get us there and then 50% of the package price. And as they will tell you, it was all worth it.

So on with one of my latest story…Erin had a very good college friend, Alicia, that was a “professional” photographer.  She’d been in business in Chicago for over 5 years and was doing this full time.  Her husband, the lawyer was very supportive of her career path and now Alicia was starting to make it on her own.

Erin was getting married.  Alicia was excited for her friend and said, “instead of me buying you a gift, let me do the photography for your wedding.”  Alicia told her if she wanted an album or frame or something she’d need to charge her, but her base package that included a website, images on a disk and a proof book was all part of her gift to the happy couple.  Erin did not love the idea because she had heard stories of friendships going south over working together, but Erin’s fiance pushed for her to accept.  He said, “it will save us a ton of money.  Plus what are we going to do with another toaster.”  So reluctantly Erin agreed.

The wedding day came and went.  It was a terrific day with a few small little hiccups, but nothing that “ruined” the day.  Erin and her new husband were thrilled, it was exactly as they planned.

After things settled down and all the thank you notes were sent, Erin thought she’d give Alicia a call and see how the pictures were coming.  Alicia didn’t answer so Erin left her a message.  Nothing bossy or demanding just “checking in”.  Several weeks pass and Erin still has not heard back from Alicia.  She was now getting worried.  She calls Alicia again, this time she answers.  She explains things have been extremely busy and she has not had a chance to finish Erin’s pictures, but she promises to have them ready in a few more weeks.  A few more weeks comes and goes, no pictures.  Erin gives her friend the benefit of the doubt and waits a couple extra weeks before calling her again.  When Erin place’s the next phone call it has been 10 weeks since the wedding.  Alicia explains the images are done, but she’d really like to get her the wedding album she wants out of the way too.  Does Erin mind paying her the extra $600 so she can finish it and send everything at once in a few weeks.  It will save on shipping.  Erin says okay, but can she see a few pictures.  Alicia mails her a couple pictures of her and her husband and takes the additional $600 for the album out of her bank account.  The pictures she e-mails are fine, but she really wants to see some more, these are just a couple pictures of her and her new husband.

Fast forward a month.  Erin has called multiple times and left multiple messages.  No Alicia.  Finally Alicia’s husband the lawyer calls and speaks with Erin in a very rude tone.  He threatens Erin with a harassment suit if she doesn’t stop bugging Alicia.  Erin states, “I just want my wedding pictures from 4 months ago.”  Alicia’s husband says, “she needs to deal with paying customers first.”  And then he hangs up.

Erin lets a few months go by.  She talks to her husband and they agree, it is time to threaten legal action.  Alicia has had money for the album and her wedding pictures that she still has not seen.  And it is now more than 6 months.  Erin has now been informed by another friend that Alicia is being sued by another couple.  Erin’s friend says, google her studio name and read the reviews.  Erin is shocked!  Alicia does not have complaints from one couple but MANY couples about their wedding photography.  One of the reviews state it “had been more than a year and the photographer had over $3000 of there money and NO PICTURES!”  Another complaint stated, “she ripped them off.  No pictures and it had been 6 months.”  Complaint after complaint.  There were a couple “good reviews” but as one person stated on their google review, “the only good reviews have been written by staff or the photographer themselves.”  (I’ll do another blog on how to tell a fake review from a real one.)  Erin had no idea.

A few more months go by and Erin finally gets a hold of Alicia.  She told her she need the pictures by December 20th (9 months later) or they were hiring a lawyer.  Their friendship was over.  And by the looks of the google reviews so was Alicia’s business.  Alicia promised everything was being overnighted by the lab, the album would be ready a few days later.  On December 21st, the package came, the wedding pictures were here!  The package came directly from Alicia studio, not the lab.  The proof prints contained in the box, were on glossy paper and had Walgreens stamped on the back.  These weren’t even professionally printed.  But the story gets worse, the pictures were awful.  The picture she had received from friends and guest were better than these.  And the couple pictures of the couple that she was e-mail by Alicia a while back, were the only pictures of her and her husband on the disk.  Erin cried.

Moral to the story…Don’t let friends to do work for you if you want to keep them as friends.  Erin trusted Alicia could do the job, but never did any research.  Sure she saved herself a few thousand dollars by not hiring a professional.  But was it really worth it?  She spent months trying to get the pictures, her friendship is ruined and the pictures are snapshots at best.  Her wedding memories are lost.

Before I start this new series Photobuse, I want to share some insite with you.  Photography is evolving faster and faster.  And with this evolution comes a bunch of new terms.  The term I created for this series is Photobuse which is defined as anyone who has been abused, mistreated or mislead by someone calling themselves a professional photographer.
Some other terms are:

Truncated~ in photography, this term means the digital file on your media card can not be opened because it is missing part or all of the image.  The first time I shot digital at the newspaper, 11 years ago, all my files from a polo match were truncated.  I could see them on the back of the camera but could not get them off the camera.  That was frustrating.

Noise~ this is the thing you don’t want your kids doing when you have a headache.  But in photography it refers to the grainy appearance caused by using a high ISO on your digital camera to take a picture.

Pixelated~ refers to an image that show the digital pixels that make up the image.  This occurs when someone tries to make a print from a file that is not large enough to print at that size.  Great example, you shoot a picture on small jpeg and try to print it as a 16×20.  The image is going to show a bunch of small squares because the file is not big enough to support that size print.

Client Abuse~ is when a  photographer spends hours with a person, child or family to get there pictures taken and then the results from the session only yield a picture or 2 worth even using or printing.  In some cases there are no usable images.  Yikes.

These are just a few terms that refer to this new digital photography evolution.  Photography has never been about the camera or just “push the button” and I’ve got a great picture.  It takes more than a fancy camera and good eye.  It takes knowledge and skill to take a good picture.  And that will never change.

Recently we’ve gotten bombarded with horror stories of people hiring a photographer for a commercial shoot, a wedding, a newborn session and get results much less than what they expected.  In today’s world of everyone owning a camera and websites being FREE it is much harder to determine who is a real trained professional and who is not.  Even a recommendation from a friend can be disastrous and harm a once solid friendship.

I have decided I’d like to share some of these stories with you in a blog series called Photobuse.  Not to embarrass anyone or call anyone out (not that I wouldn’t like to call some of these so-called photographers out), but to educate.  The best way to learn is to learn from your mistakes.  And I hope some of these stories will help you avoid the same mistakes other parents, couples and business owners have made over the last few years.

I have changed the names, the places and even embellished some of the story, so that it will make it almost impossible for you to tell who the photographer is.  And you definitely won’t know who the client/consumer was. And though the story has been embellished to hide who it is, the wrong doing, the unethical act, the horror a client lived through is ALL true!

As I said, these are being told to educate the public.  Please feel free to share this blog on your Facebook page, tweet it, e-mail to friends far and wide.  These exact same type of stories are happening everywhere, not just in Gainesville!