bad wedding photography stories?

I don't have a URL but the story of MY wedding photography is not too shabby if you're looking for a greek tragedy.

I was married about 8 years ago and for the most part the planning was quite easy. The photographer was hard, my community had 3 full time photographers at the time and then a bunch of part timers. I had seen the work of 2 of the part timers and I really felt like that was the wrong road to go down, they were really bad, so we talked to the three full time studios. The first started at $5000 which was way out of our price range, the next was about $2000, doable but sheesh, that's a huge portion of our budget, the last had packages ranging from $600 up to $1200. We liked the products offered in a mid range package and the sample albums and brochures he brought to our house all looked great, so we paid him half of his package $400 to hold the date.

We got a free engagement portrait included so a few months later we went to his studio and when we got there the place was jam packed with junk from ceiling to floor, old exercise equipment, boxes of christmas decorations, I think I even saw a transmission in one corner. There was one path leading to a door and we went through that door to his "camera room." He took the portrait, he didn't have any real skills when it came to posing or directing, but the proofs he showed us a month later were fine, the finished enlargements we bought were really overexposed, but not that bad we wanted to lose our retainer.

So we have no more contact with him until the wedding day. He showed up on time and directed through some posed formals taking pictures with a really really old manual camera, I think it was a Minolta, maybe an X-700, not sure, but definitely old. Which is fine, old cameras take great pictures. We got through the whole day and a few months later he drops a stack of 300 4x6 proofs on my porch. They were absolutely terrible shots. His flash didn't illuminate anything, it a

A couple of weeks ago, I have my car in the shop and the manager notices my studio name on my SUV. We get to talking and he tells me that his fiance found a terrific photographer who will shoot his wedding for less than a thousand dollars and give them a CD with all the images on it. Not only do they get him, his wife also works as his assistant and takes photos as well so they actually get two photographers! So he pulls up a photo on his computer screen and shows me an engagement photo of him and his fiance...and then pulls up the disc with about 30-50 other images from the engagement session in the park. This guy has studied some poses and had some cute/fun poses but they were all taken in bright sunlight without any fill light so you've got raccoon eyes and squints. She's a pretty girl with nice skin, he's got plenty of acne....there was zero touch ups with PS and it was obvious that the images were straight jpg files straight out of the camera. So how do you tell this guy that the work is ameturish and horrible? How do you explain that instead of getting a good deal they are getting ripped-off?

Honestly, it's difficult to educate clients beforehand and explain the value of real pro wedding photography. Frequently it's difficult to explain the value of good wedding photography to other photographers......

Sorry about your experience Ryan,...wish I could have shot your wedding for you :-)

I'm in temporary retirement from wedding photography, but reading stories like these makes me want to get back into it just to give good people good photography for a good price.

I was married 11 years ago. The first thing we did was hire "The" wedding photographer as it was my first priority. He was well known in the community and his portfolio was amazing. Our wedding package would cost us $3700.00. The day of the wedding he and his wife showed up at my house. He immediatly scolded me for getting ready in such a small location. He continued to complain about the lack of air conditioning and at one point asked my sister "Are you really wearing your hair like that?" His choice saying of the day was...and I heard this over and over..."Hurry Hurry...time is money"! As I was preparing to walk down the Aisle with my father...a touching moment when my father placed the veil over my face before walking down the aisle was interupted by the photographer stating "No No! Veil over the face looks bad in photos!". He then proceeded to move me from my fahters left side to his right...stating that is was my better side. I stayed where I was and shot him my first of many dirty looks. Throughtout the day he yelled and scolded his wife for not being fast enough, to slow with his water, stating it was a waste of his time to bring her. I wanted to cry every time a moment came that I knew required a photo as by this time I was sick and tired of him and his attitude.

My husband and I went on our honeymoon. The day after our return we were delivered a beautiful flower arrangement and the most beautiful and stunning proof album you can create. Along with a note that stated what a beautiful day he had as our photographer. Our completed album was delivered 8 weeks from our wedding day...and to this day...11 years later, I still cry when I take it out.

Tears of joy or pain?

i had a temp job at an album binding company. i expected to see some good photos since all their clients were "professional photographers"... the photos were horrible. just because u have money and the equipment doesn't mean you take good photos. most of the photos had unneccessary objects.... like... a cigarette, some random person's hand sticking out infront of the bride or the groom... really bad angles... crazy! backgrounds, really corny poses... just horrible. i visited their websites to see how bad their portfolios were... but they were actually good. if you goto a studio with more than one photographer, i suggest that u see everyone's portfolios. especially of the person who's going to be doing your wedding.

I don't think there's any comprehensive resource for this kind of thing, but with a little effort you can find a few. The truth is though that most of the horror stories I read about don't usually have anythihng to do with an amateur or low-budget photographer providing low quality work, usually it's about a pro photographer scamming somebody, skipping town after the wedding, not showing up at all or sending someone else when they had agreed to photograph the wedding themselves. I did read one in which the bride was dissapointed with the pics but it involved an expensive high-end photographer which was gracious enough to offer a substantial discount.

I think if someone hires a low budget or non-pro photographer and ends up unhappy with the results, they usually don't post it on the web. They probably figure they got what what they paid for.

Another thing is I really think most people aren't all that picky about the quality of a photograph. As long as the photograph isn't overexposed, underexposed, or blurry and as long as you can see the people's faces, then to them it's a good photograph. (and with todays auto-everything consumer cameras, it's kinda hard to mess this up). My mom is definately one of those people and my girlfriend used to be (until I educated her). When my aunt asked me to photograph her anniversary my Mom actually told me to "take it seriously and not take those 'weird' pictures I usually take". To these folks, it's all about the memories.

Well - how about having the uncle of the bride (who was the one that walked her down the aisle and gave her away) dropping dead of a heart attack just as the priest was saying do you take this..., wedding was put on hold until the EMT's arrived, and took the Uncle out, then it was back to the ceremony and on with the party.

This is gonna be a bummer post, but today on Oprah there was a story about a drunk driver who went the wrong way down an interstate and crashed headfirst (at 70mph) into a limo filled with a family that had just left a wedding. All members of the family were seriously injured, the driver was killed and a 7 year old girl was decapitated. Her mother (who was in the limo, too) sat on the side of the road, holding her daughter's head, watching the fire department pull her family one by one out of the limo. How HORRIFYING is THAT?! I was seriously crying the whole time this story was on, as they showed beautiful picture after beautiful picture of the little girl and her family at the wedding just hours before her death. I'm serious, these photos were gorgeous. The family could not have asked for a better photographer to record the last night of that little girl's life. It really, really affected me and made me realize (again) just how important our jobs are to the families we work with.

(told you it was gonna be a bummer)