Bride Unhappy with Photos: ADVICE PLEASE

I am not saying the bride is not in the wrong here as well (we still have yet to see the photos), but look at it from this point of view:

It sounds like you are the one who has been HOUNDING the bridge and WC up to this point dragging this on. If you just stopped all communication when the ball was in the bride's court weeks ago to set up an appointment I don't believe this would be an issue anymore. If I were the bride I would be extremely annoyed that this photographer keeps trying to contact me by email, text, and phone calls. You should have just let it be. STOP CONTACTING THEM. You are making it worse. Especially because this may become a legal matter, it is even more important to keep your distance.

I work in a direct customer service position and one of the biggest complaints I receive from customers while "shooting the breeze" with them is how other contractors and service people will call and call and call to set up appointments, get questions answered, or whatever and it actually has the reverse affect because the customer is so annoyed they wont respond back just out of principal. Once the ball is in the customer's court a small reminder in a week or two later is all that should happen. After that, just move on.

ewheeler20 wrote in post #16602655
I am not saying the bride is not in the wrong here as well (we still have yet to see the photos), but look at it from this point of view:

It sounds like you are the one who has been HOUNDING the bridge and WC up to this point dragging this on. If you just stopped all communication when the ball was in the bride's court weeks ago to set up an appointment I don't believe this would be an issue anymore. If I were the bride I would be extremely annoyed that this photographer keeps trying to contact me by email, text, and phone calls. You should have just let it be. STOP CONTACTING THEM. You are making it worse. Especially because this may become a legal matter, it is even more important to keep your distance.

I work in a direct customer service position and one of the biggest complaints I receive from customers while "shooting the breeze" with them is how other contractors and service people will call and call and call to set up appointments, get questions answered, or whatever and it actually has the reverse affect because the customer is so annoyed they wont respond back just out of principal. Once the ball is in the customer's court a small reminder in a week or two later is all that should happen. After that, just move on.

This is not the case at all. The only time I've ever emailed or texted was in response to their emaila or texts. Since the bride cancelled our meeting and said she would call back to reschedule, I left it at that and have not contacted her since.

Over the weekend, I received another email from her wedding coordinator out of the blue asking for a $200 refund and saying she edited all my pictures ans the bride would be happy.

After hearing this, I saw that the bride had used my re-edited images. Wanting this to stop all together so it wouldn't drag on until 2015, I let the WC know I would only be communicating with the bride from now on and that she had no right to edit the photos.

I then left the bride a voicemail and a follow up email letting her know this needed to be settled this week or I was moving on. This needed to be done because I could not keep going weeks at a time not hearing from her only to receive an email from her or the WC out of the blue.

Id really love to see these photo's that are so "horrible" My guess is that you won't see anything more from her, if she is too lazy to meet you she is going to be way to lazy to find a lawyer.

Curious as some of us might be, I don't think it's a good idea for Stefesphoto to be sharing/posting any of these problem photographs through/on any medium. It is not difficult for the bride to end up seeing these threads, and seeing pictures of herself being analysed, criticised or even torn apart by third persons will not only enrage her even more, but might in very deed give her just another loophole to latch on and keep pulling.

I wouldn't even use these images for my own portfolio were I the photographer. Best to back them up to DVD and keep them locked in a drawer.

Alveric wrote in post #16602946
Curious as some of us might be, I don't think it's a good idea for Stefesphoto to be sharing/posting any of these problem photographs through/on any medium. It is not difficult for the bride to end up seeing these threads, and seeing pictures of herself being analysed, criticised or even torn apart by third persons will not only enrage her even more, but might in very deed give her just another loophole to latch on and keep pulling.

I wouldn't even use these images for my own portfolio were I the photographer. Best to back them up to DVD and keep them locked in a drawer.

More good advice! Don't post anything that has any chance whatsoever of being traced back or linked to you or Bridezilla.

smacatl wrote in post #16602057
Sorry - bad news here: Michigan is a dual consent state. Both parties must give consent to record telephone conversations. Best not to mention that part of your call.

Good luck with your saga. Hopefully once Bridezilla calms down, she'll realize that it would be best for all parties to move on.

Just a correction here. The Michigan law refers to "eavesdropping" which the state courts have defined as listening to another person's conversation. So, if you are a party to the conversation then it becomes a one-party consent state.

Reference: http://www.dmlp.org …de/michigan-recording-law

She isn't taking you to court. Trust me on that one. If she does PM me....

Next, post your versions of a couple pictures, I'm curious to see them (as is everyone else)

Mark H

MattPharmD wrote in post #16605910
Just a correction here. The Michigan law refers to "eavesdropping" which the state courts have defined as listening to another person's conversation. So, if you are a party to the conversation then it becomes a one-party consent state.

Reference: http://www.dmlp.org …de/michigan-recording-law

This is was I gathered, too. Thanks for clarifying!

I'm curious about a couple of things. Do you have the ability to talk to other businesses who were involved with her wedding about how they have been treated by her? I have a feeling you may find some solace after speaking to them. She's obviously a bridezilla, but I'm thinking she's a top 1% bridezilla and she's making waves with everyone she did business with. I'm still a beginner and I've never come close to shooting weddings, but after all the things I've learned from this thread, I'll definitely know what to watch out for.

Lastly, I was watching Entertainment Weekly a few weeks ago and they had a superstar singer on their show talking about her wedding. She was going on about how she expected the photographer to Photoshop her to look better. So I'm wondering if this happens to be a celebrity bridezilla that you photographed. Whatever the case, is this something that many or any brides ever ask about or expect from their wedding photographers?

Stefe, thanks for the 3rd party education. Still years away from hanging my shingle for business, but this particular situation resonates with me because of the problems the bride and WC caused themselves.
The bride obviously thinks she looks different than the reality. The WC edited (illegally) photos you had produced to something other than reality and she apparently liked them enough to post the shots. And both she and the WC made efforts to recover money for the shots they already used for their own purposes.
You did the right thing and walked away when it was obvious they were full of beans.

MattPharmD wrote in post #16605910
Just a correction here. The Michigan law refers to "eavesdropping" which the state courts have defined as listening to another person's conversation. So, if you are a party to the conversation then it becomes a one-party consent state.

Reference: http://www.dmlp.org …de/michigan-recording-law

Thanks for the clarification and correction.

Either way - I wouldn't publicize the fact that the call was recorded.

And, I would not contact the bride or the wedding coordinator again - let the matter die on your end. If they wish to revive it, deal with it at that point.

I always try to make brides look better than they really do in life. Same goes for portraits. That's kind of the whole point of it really. If they want reality they have cell phones.

There's a difference between enhancing the appearance of a subject by means of posing and lighting (which is an integral part of our job as photographers) and falsifying such appearance by means of image manipulation on the computer. Yea, I shave and comb my hair before going out, but I cannot change my face, however much I'd like to.

Alveric wrote in post #16608154
There's a difference between enhancing the appearance of a subject by means of posing and lighting (which is an integral part of our job as photographers) and falsifying such appearance by means of image manipulation on the computer. Yea, I shave and comb my hair before going out, but I cannot change my face, however much I'd like to.

I can change your face. I'm pretty good at it.

This is not journalism. We get to decide what we want to offer our clients. The money I get makes naysayers' and moral highgrounders' opinions mean very little.

Different approaches, mate. I've been asked by clients if I do Photoshopping, as in if I can make them look what they are not, and my answer is a rotund no. If they don't like it they can take their money elsewhere: my integrity is priceless.