photographer

[cocolaw]

we had engagement pics made on sunday. i was hesitant about using this photographer--she was the cheapest one (by about 2k) that i could find in the area. very nice girl, but she gave us no direction. every picture was my fiance and me with our arms around each other with a cheesy grin. she never told us to close our mouths or make a serious face, or to stand any differently-we will have about 200 shots of this same pose. i brought a brush outside with us (VERY windy location) and near the end of the shoot i asked to brush my hair--she never even stopped us to push hair out of my face or anything, or even tell me to tilt my chin up..no direction!

im still waiting to see how the pics turn out, but i am a little nervous. i feel bad because i already paid a deposit. do you think it would be possible for my fiance and i to "direct" her....to decide that we are going to have a serious picture, etc? i don''t know anything about photography, so maybe im worried about nothing.

 

[cocolaw]

oh one more thing.....i found her review on wedding wire. she has all 5 stars and all glowing reviews, but 2 weeks ago there was a VERY negative review saying that she gave no direction and the pics came out bad. the review is gone! thats sketchy.

 

[Porridge]

I'm sorry cocolaw I don't mean to be harsh, but *usually* - good deals aside - you get what you pay for. If the only reason you chose her is because she was the cheapest by a long shot then I wonder was the photographer an important component of your wedding for you? We all have different areas where we save and splurge. Is having loads of interesting photos important to you? If not, I'd say you will definitely find at least a few lovely ones from the bunch she took. How many photos do we need anyway?? You can try to talk to her about what you want from her and see how that goes. You are paying her for a service and she should provide it to your satisfaction. If that talk doesn't go well, I'd suggest researching another photographer.

ETA just read your second post - that is sketchy! I would ask her directly about that.

 

[Morgie44]

Our photographer didn''t really give us any direction for our epics either. She just said pretend like I''m not there and like you guys are just hanging out. She did have us do a few things toward the end. (Dip me in the middle of the road, look up for a pic, and put our hands together so she could get a shot of my e ring. Overall, I am very happy with the photos (our thread is floating around below) As someone suggested, I did ask her for feedback on what we could do to improve on our pics for the wedding, and she mentioned that she gives more direction for the wedding, and that she uses the engagement shoots to get to know her clients and how they interact, etc. We do still have a lot of very similarly posed pictures, but overall, I love them.

As many people told me, just a few days ago, wait to see your pics and then decide if you are happy with the results and go from there.

 

[AmberGretchen]

Ditto Morgie - I really didn''t have high hopes for our engagement pics, but 4 years later, they are still my favorite pics of us ever. I''d just wait to see how you feel about how they come out and go from there. Fingers crossed!

 

[cocolaw]

thanks for the replies. that''s definitely reassuring. if for some reason the pics are horrible then we can discuss how to make them better. there are not many options where we are being married--like 3 photographers! ....they should be arriving today or tomorrow. i''ll post some.