Couple sue wedding photographer ... “woefully inadequate” service
 

A newly-married couple have successfully sued their wedding photographer after paying £1,450 for a “woefully inadequate” service.

See the article here.

Yes, the services offered included video.

Andrew

Nice one Andrew!!

Alarm bells should have rung as he only did 20 weddings in 4 years. Surely they looked at both video and photo samples first???? On my web page I have a "pitfalls to avoid" page and always advise the bride to make sure that samples are current. Anyone can present a portfolio done in 2004 all from the one wedding that actually was OK!!!

With great publicity like that I'm sure he will have a lot of trouble getting customer number 21!!!

Chris

In this case it was justified, clearly the guy has no business taking on a wedding.

See 8 of his pictures here. Oh dear....

Bride And Gloom: World's Worst Wedding Pictures? | UK News | Sky News

It gets even better. You just gotta see the video on this page.

(scroll down a little)

Andrew

Some of the photos are still fixable in Photoshop (Dark ones). A good lay-out artist can still save the day for the couple provided the photographer shot the living day lights out of the wedding 1: 100 ratio of getting a decent photo, hopefully he shot at least 700 pictures, and have 70 good ones.

The video is really crap.

Oh... my... G.......

Horrible. Just checked the video credits against our database, and thankfully the culprits are not members here.

At least when it comes to crap video .... it's absolutely astounding crap.

(Can't just put out any old thing these days, y'know.)

Andrew

This is a tragedy but if you think that this is the worst thing ever happened to wedding video and photography, then you are not living in the Greek countryside. It wouldn't be fair (for the unlucky people presented in the photos and videos) to show you with examples what I mean, but I will guarantee you that that guy's work is EventDV 25 compared to what I've seen around my homeplace. And I kid you not.

Well, to put a positive spin on all this, at least you wedding guys now have a superb horror story (or two) to woo your clients with as you show them your highly professional portfolio and make them understand why they should hire experienced professionals/pay your chosen rates....etc.

Me, I'll just stick to corporate video - I guess that means if I ever get sued it will be REALLY big bucks!!!!

Ha ha - the video features the cameraman dropping the camera and swearing! Not only did he misspell the grooms name throughout, but he also misspelled "production" in his own company name!

I suspect a drinking problem.

I've misspelled a name or two in my time but it's not like I don't fix it when it's brought to my attention. Did these guys refuse to honor that basic of a request?

My favorite part of the video is the camera falling over followed by a string of swearing... and the fact that he left it in there.

I'd like to know what they thought they were getting for their money. Anyone able to dig up a website for the company?

Easy does it... we're not going down that road here.

I think the owner shut down the website. Name change in the works perhaps.

Chris it has been published, you can take this down if you want to.

The bride said she went to eleven wedding fairs to find this guy - - makes you wonder what she was doing at these fairs.

Jim if you have read the article, a different team came to shoot the wedding. I assume the guy does decent work, I guess he screwed up in hiring the 2 guys who shot the wedding for him.

Just for the record there was no malice in my asking, I was just curious to see their demos. It's your forum so I'll respect your wishes... even if I can find the site.

Noel, I did read the article and I invite you to reread it Couple sue over wedding snaps | The Sun |News "Bungling Bowers also did not bother to edit out a section of video where a camera operator dropped his equipment and swore during the church ceremony."

The photographer who did this botch job also edited the video that was shot by the crew that he hired. If he does such "decent work", why didn't he bother to edit some of the junk out of the video complete with the shooters profanity!? It's fine, well and good to blame a bad shot on the shooter but whose fault is it when the bad footage is left in the delivered video!? It's obvious that he applied the same lackadaisical slop to the video editing as he did to his photography. He "screwed up" alright - - with every aspect of this job. There wasn't even a modicum of "decent work" in any of it.

Jim, I agree the video was crap and so was the photography. I am giving the guy the benefit of the doubt, the article was indeed saying that bungling Bowers did not even bother to edit out the profanity but if you look at the end credit of the video it was a different company who edited the video and not Bower's Fresh Image. Could it be they do so many weddings (production line type of studio) they don't bother to qc the product, we will never know perhaps.

This would be funny (loved the "footage unavailable" in the video...) if it weren't so tragic... it's sad that this is the sort of "news" about the industry that gets aired.

They paid something over $2500 USD if I calculate right, and got back just a portion of it (they should have gotten 100% back IMO!!). Absolutely appalling. I'm fairly sure my 7 year old could have done at least as well if not better... and yes, he's learning to run camera and shoot stills properly - even his little sister could do better than 22 usable shots out of 400!

I'd expect a bare minimum of 100 usable (maybe with some post editing) shots - if those stills were representative of the "good" ones, I can only imagine how bad the rest must be, not to mention the horrid video/"editing". Can't imagine how anyone could stay in business with such low quality results/product...

And Chris, obviously these guys aren't members here - they would have learned enough to deliver good quality if they were!

I'm still laughing - that's the funniest video I've seen in years. - are we sure it's not really a joke?

I just love the 'footage unavailable' and the camera drop AND running after the carriage.

How could anyone actually deliver that?

Running after the carriage did show some dedication anyway...but then maybe he forget to get the check.

Hi All

This has become world news now!! Our 5pm National Channel 10 in Australia ran the story this evening so I suspect this guy is very well known. Even if he did hire free-lancers surely he would have checked the product before delivery??? He just might have saved his business if he had claimed total equipment failure are refunded the money!! Now he has no chance of ever getting another job!!

Chris

It seems warning were pretty public about this guy before this wedding.
www.gowild.org.uk: Problem with Photographer

Not only was it on the news in Australia, but Channel 7 now has it in the assortment of 'hero' news shots in their news promo.

Andrew

I also see that his website is now inactive. The pressure must have got to him and he has just shut down everything. Best to go into hiding after an episode like this!!! He would probably have to set up shop in some tiny country that doesn't know about his exploits.

He must now realise that he should be doing something else for a living now??? Hopefully not connected in the least with photography or video

Chris

From the photographer's website: "With all the pressures and costs of preparing for your special day you could be forgiven for not fully realising the importance choosing the right photographer. If that choice is wrong then it’s something you may regret for many years to come."

:)

My wife and I were discussing this article last night. We found it so horrible that we think it's a joke, or a marketing ploy (once you go to their website, it will say we caught you attention, let a pro shoot you wedding, we showed you what could go wrong blah, blah). It's so bad there must be a reason.

There are those so totally clueless that I could see this happening...

How's the old saying go... no one is completely worthless, they can always be used for a bad example!

I doubt very much if it's a joke or a marketing ploy, unless it's a cry for help. Perhaps a career in fast food service or as a Wally world greeter has always been the dream, and it had been stifled by the uncontrolable urge to shoot weddings... now the dream can be realized!

You're onto something Dave, he's acting out. It's a cry for help. He's actually a phenomenal videographer, but there is something going on -- something just beneath the surface.

He's an eagle that was raised by turkeys?

Andrew

I just read this story today. It was featured in Yahoo news. Guess I shouldve check this section first and I wouldve noticed the posting (I started a new thread in OpenDV, oops!). I guess even the wrong techniques can go here.

BTW I actually booked a gig with a company called Fresh Images here in the states, wasn't a good experience.

JS

As mentioned in the Sky News report, getting a recommendation from previous clients is tremendously valuable.

Positive, favorable word-of-mouth advertising is worth its weight in gold.

And worth more than its weight in advertising!

Did anyone catch the music in the first segment? I believe it was La Cucaracha in a musak style rendition.

As I am reminded, "But for the grace of God go I." I feel for the couple, I agree with some of the prior writers, some of the photo's can be adjusted hopefully helping things out. If that lame crap is in their final video, send me the tapes and I'll re edit probono. I think sometimes when we critique other's work that is substandard, we shouldn't forget the couple and that they had dreams that have been harmed by others who are out of their league. I recently had a bride send me her 'homeshot' video, and it was similar in terms of quality. Unfortunately the bad audio was so overwhelming, I couldn't help her.

What a sad story.

Hey Chris, could I look at that page?

I feel better and yet worse
 

I have been super critical of my work lately and this actually made me feel better while laughing. Then as the reality of how many potential brides see work only marginally better pass for "professional" it bummed me out again.

I do believe we are in a new world of amazing wedding video but events like this getting such incredible press hits hard.

I have watched this video clip over and over, and to me, it's appears to be someone's bad family video who's sister got married years ago who have not been able to edit out bad video.

But, this is what I keep telling myself, to rationalize that a so called professional video has been presented to a bride only recently. But I cannot rationalize it, because it is REAL, it is a very, very bad video, done by a person who has charged good money for this video. The mind boggles.