I have something to say...

Posting public websites and public contact information is not slander but posting fake emails full of personal and business attacks, is in fact, slander. Not many understand the difference. 

Out of over 200 weddings I've done, I will admit, I've had a couple people upset over the past 10 years not liking the end result. There has even been a few other disputes... the common "you didn't make me look skinny" or "you didn't get enough of so n so" (even though they didn't want the photos taken of themselves and I don't push anyone that feels uncomfortable). Or that I took 6 weeks rather than 4 weeks for turn-around time. This will happen in business and no one is perfect. But for the two big ones - I'll explain both. 

The first one was upset that I didn't do enough color accents (where the bouquet was in color and the rest is in black and white), she was also upset that I didn't fix her bruise on ALL of the photos and that the photos took 8 months. In my defense her bouquet was fully white with white feathers replacing the leaves so there was not even green or any colors to pop out for color. I also do not edit every single photo so yes I may miss a bruise or acne here and there. I take so many this is understandable. Simply ask, give me the image numbers and I'll fix for you if it's a favorite! So I offered all fixes and even sent a new disc with the additional color accents with the bridesmaids green bouquets standing out. And at the time I was behind in photo processing but have since changed my schedule to accommodate this issue. Live and learn right? It's part of being in business. I've heard some photographers take a year or more and hopefully your marriage is a lifetime so it's really not unrealistic. But of course I ruined her entire life and wedding. Saying that she hated all the photos even though she wanted a free album of them, used them all over facebook and I have emails of her loving the photos I had up on the website. I'll let you be the judge... I personally LOVED her photos: http://www.outoftheordinary.biz/vallejo_hold

The second one was not actually a business relation but a so-called "favor" for another photographer friend. It started as a contract but since this "friend" said she wanted photos taken of her daughters wedding to be raw, unedited photos, as-is at a discounted price, this annulled all contracts and became a friend favor instead. I try to avoid this type of agreement now because it NEVER works for any type of business and you just end up losing a friend in the long run. The daughter ended up with over 2,000 photos and they were gorgeous. I never posted them or made a page because I was so busy at the time and I don't usually take the additional time to edit and process the weddings that ask for them unprocessed; I have better things to do with the ones that paid me for the processing! So I sent out the discs right away being that they were unprocessed and a YEAR AFTER she received them decided to write me saying she hated the photos and that I ruined her wedding. It was completely out of context and in my opinion full of fake and outrageous lies. Everything went smooth at the wedding and I even got a referral from the wedding who loved my work. In the end, it seemed all a way to bring me down. And, hey, once you take photos raw, you better know how to edit them to my standards or they won't look like my standard. There is a reason why photographers edit photos now, the quality has gone up tremendously and it will never look the same as when a professional edits them. For the record, I've covered 4 other professional photographer weddings and 2 of them took them raw and unedited with no complaints and only good things to say... so who has a better record? Here are two photos (one is the same in a color accent bouquet version) from her wedding that I did edited for the videographer (the blurred edges effect was done by videographer). Apparently they liked at least one of the photos, I'm guessing, since they used it for their custom video cover but all the rest were just terrible, huh? I know... confusing, right? I've thought about making a page of all the photos to prove my point, but honestly, I've wasted enough time on it and I have nothing to hide or prove. Ps... all this is public information found on the videographer website.

As with all things, there is always so much more to the stories, there are two sides to everything and everyone has their own perspective. I'm not saying that no one should be allowed to express their dislikes or have any complaints what-so-ever, I'm just saying that it should be within realistic reasoning and dealt with less drama and more with the facts. I'm not perfect and besides, how do you grow without all the challenges of owning a business? I certainly have had some hard times and dealing with an illness at one point but I will say this -- Out of the Ordinary has never missed a wedding, there has always been coverage, everyone got their photos and albums (pending they did their photo choices for me to design)! I always say, in every garden there are always a few bad seeds. In the end, some will not be happy no matter what you do and you cannot please everyone.

Cheerio~


MY CURRENT PROJECT: Kramer Wedding
SONG STUCK IN MY HEAD: She Wolf by Shakira
CRAVING: more downtime
NEEDED A MOMENT: I'm not a wedding planner; I'm a photographer
BEST MOMENT: A relaxing Sunday