Wedding guest LOL moment....

Shot a wedding for friends of my wife a few weeks ago (it was the first time my wife was a guest at a wedding I was covering - that alone would make its own thread - and doing another on 11-11-11)... and this bride was uber fast at sending out Thank You cards - got one in on Monday. It included a picture that didn't come from me, but I didn't think much of it.

Get an email this morning from another guest. I had spoken to her quite a bit during the reception. Older lady (I'm guessing 65ish) that used to be a wedding photographer. I had let her check out my 5Dc, etc... but she really wasn't sold on digital vs film... and had questions about all the remote flashes I had setup, etc... her last wedding assignment was roughly 18 years ago...
Anyways... her email this morning is to express her disappointment in the picture she received with her thank you card, how it doesn't look even remotely professional, and on and on and on... going so far to say she will never recommend me to anyone....

I debated at first on how to break it to her that I wasn't responsible for the picture she received. I reached out to the bride to find out what her relationship to this lady is first, just to make sure I use the best approach. Bride was very apologetic and told me she would let her know I wasn't involved in that.
But I still wanted to send this lady an email. So I sent her something short, indicating that I had offered to provide thank you cards and/or thank you pictures but was declined.

Then she called me. I don't know how many "I am sooooo sorry" I heard...

anyone else ever have guest photos get confused with your own - before you even get to deliver them? Bride is meeting my wife and I tonight to pick up her photos...

I love that, assumption. Gotta love humanity and our trates eh?

Hope they enjoyed your actual photos!

This is why I always try to get a few "teasers" onto Facebook right away. With cell phone cameras and digital cameras being so accessible and posting images to Facebook just takes a few moments I want guests (and the bride and groom) to see my images among those first few from their wedding day because I have had some guests confuse a non-pro's image for one of mine and make a bit of a snarky comment on it. And even if they bride or groom corrects them, a lot of times the damage can already be done.

yikes, very sad how she'd tear into you like that with zero provocation. She must've been a lousy photog and is simply projecting self-dissatisfaction upon you.

Daedalus34r wrote in post #13321658
yikes, very sad how she'd tear into you like that with zero provocation. She must've been a lousy photog and is simply projecting self-dissatisfaction upon you.

she was very 'in my business' at some points too, saying stuff like "unless you have a very wide lens, I think you were too close for those shots" and "I think those remote flashes are firing too hot" and then saying "Oh that looks very natural" when I showed her a sample shot...
and we were near an indoor pool for some shots, and she pointed to the stairs and asked why I didn't use them for any shots - stairs lead to the pool, and they're the only stairs that do... i pointed out that the stairs were wet and bride has said no to wet stairs, and wedding co-ordinator said no blocking stairs when pool in use...

I wonder what will happen once she sees the actual pics... maybe she will throw in some "I would have done this different"...

What a colossal waste of time. I'd probably say something short, professional, and to the point, like, "I appreciate your honest feedback, but that photo was not mine.". Then I would contact the B&G separately (to avoid embarrassing the guest) and let them know a) what she said in case they want to deal with it privately and b) what I did about it, and that I consider the issue closed.

Wow, that would annoy me. That's rather presumptuous and rude of her to email you with those comments. I had a couple that wanted a photo guest book. Normally I would use photos from their engagement shoot, but they didn't have an e-session, so they gave me a bunch of photos of themselves that they took over the years to use for the book. Needless to say, they were not good photos. Sweet pictures of them, but obviously just causal snapshots. Putting the book together, I kept thinking "I hope people realize that I didn't take any of these photos." A lot of them were from family parties/holidays from years ago, so I wouldn't think the guests thought it was my work. Nobody came up to me and said that the photos in the guest book sucked either

love this thread. I have so many stories like this one it drives me crazy. But that's the way it is with the instant-availability of images these days. I don't/won't have Facebook but I do make sure my online gallery is stocked with images immediately after an event.