photographer is freaking out about my review

[SunBride]

This just really casts a bad shadow on my photos. I really hope one day I'll be able to look at them without thinking of the negative stuff, but for right now it will definitely makes me enjoy them a lot less when I spend time this week choosing my photos to print, and putting together photo books and stuf. Even before today, my enjoyment of my photos was slightly (but only slightly) hampered by remembering all the stress having my photographer come caused me (i.e. like people would say I made the right decision by choosing her, and in my head I would think "yeah but it caused me some stress") but now after this it's much much worse.

[Maura]

i read your review and think theres nothing wrong with it. you were honest (and very nicely honest about the problems you had with the vendor). vendors are supposed to be able to grow from customer feedback. i dont think you ruined their rep at all. in fact, based on the immaturity on the photographer's part at this point to cut off contact with you other than fulfilling your order, i would not recommend her to others based on THAT, rather than anything you said in your review!

perhaps some of the photogs can chime in here... but you need to have a thick skin when you work in the media arts. its like being a doctor almost in terms of how patients rate the physicians bedside manor. you can be the best doctor in the world, but if your bedside manor sucks, then people are going to possibly think twice about being under your care. KWIM? same with a photographer. if your photos are beautiful, but your customer service is bad, its not worth my time and stress levels as a bride to deal with you. that is just my honest opinion. your vendors are supposed to be there for you to make things easy, not hard, no matter how their services turn out. you cannot honestly expect people to give you a glowing review as a vendor if you didnt provide for all your customer's needs...

[Leslie-Xcaret09]

I dont think your review was bad at all, it was honest. Photographers should be able to take constructive criticism...they should appreciate it so they can find areas they need to improve.

After reading your review I was still very impressed by her work. I thought she took many amazing pictures for you. Now is when she is making herself look bad...

[TammyB]

Ok so I remember back when I got married many women were upset with JC because he was behind in his photos, ono bride posted a VERY honest review. JC commented to it and accepted that is was a problem and is taking the steps to correc it. My point in telling you this is because IMO she should have accepted the review as it was and took it as a learning experience. That is pretty sh*tty on her part that she is blaming you for ruining her rap. Shame on her..


BTW on this forum we are happy to hear comments back from vendors, sometimes it helps to see both sides of the story. Ya know?

[Jackie]

She must be a very sensitive person I guess because that review was not bad at all.

[LC_Rachel]

Originally Posted by TammyB

Ok so I remember back when I got married many women were upset with JC because he was behind in his photos, ono bride posted a VERY honest review. JC commented to it and accepted that is was a problem and is taking the steps to correc it.

I remember this Tammy and I was actually just thinking about his response. It was very humble and diplomatic. That impressed me MORE than his gorgeous photos.

[TammyB]

Exactly, If a vendor really wants to make things better for future brides it takes a few negitive comments to let them know what they need to improve on. My gosh it only helps their profession, right?

[twinkletoes]

Ok, i'm going to play devils advocate just for a quick second. Did you give her feedback before you posted your review on all these forums? If not, then maybe that is why she is so upset, having to hear/read about it from another source.

On the other hand, I read your entire review and it was very honest in my opinion. I agree with Maura. Clients are going to have different experiences with vendors, and I feel like you were honest and open about your experience. You provided constructive criticism, you didnt just bash all of the negativity. If I was a photograhper and knew that one of my clients was a little disappointed in certain aspects of my work, I would first and foremost apologize and see what I could do to correct/admend the situation if at all possible, not send nasty emails. That is very unprofessional. Becoming a reputable vendor, its all about providing great customer service and client satisfaction on all levels.

[Morgan]

I just went back to your reviews. She did a weeks worth of photography & all the work that goes into it afterwards for $800! It looks like she put so much into your wedding to possibly to get great feedback to do more DWs in the future. She did your edits amazingly fast. I imagine it's just really hard to put so much into it & then read anything negative. But, I think your feedback was all constructive. Hopefully it will just help her improve her business.

I can be a really anxious person & I have found that when I'm in work mode & everyone else in in play mode it's really hard for me & I'm not fun to be around. But, getting that critism was good for me & I'm so much better at handeling stressful situations. I'm learning how to not stress out others when I'm stressed. I've also been influencing my mom to be the same way (we are basically the same person) & our holidays are getting to be much more fun. I feel like if i tried to be a wedding photographer I'd have a hard time not coming off as a drill seargent. it really impresses me how a great wedding photographer can do what they do. It takes some serious people skills & a ton of stamina.

So when i read your review I just saw some of my own flaws in what you said about her. It inspired me to work that much harder at managing it. I don't want to be a stress ball at my wedding. I can't imagine being in her situation & spending a week with strangers trying to fit in, then having a lot of work to do while there.

[SunBride]

Originally Posted by Maura

if your photos are beautiful, but your customer service is bad, its not worth my time and stress levels as a bride to deal with you. that is just my honest opinion. your vendors are supposed to be there for you to make things easy, not hard, no matter how their services turn out.

THANK YOU, that is exactly my point. My photographer should not be adding to my stress level. In fact, in between the time I booked and left she was the only thing that caused me stress, and it was really bugging me because I was trying so hard to not stress and I was being so successful at that with all other aspects of planning.

Thank you for the support ladies, I really needed to hear this. And I'm very happy to hear that my review did not ruin her reputation, becaue I really didn't want to do taht, she did a fabulous job with my photos. It's just that in a perfect world I would have gotten a photographer who did pretty much exactly the same job, but didn't stress me out. So I wanted to warn others that if this concerns you, than maybe you should think carefully before hiring her, it's not like I went out saying "DON'T HIRE THIS PHOTOGRAPHER".

One part of her reply was:

"I hope you realize how unfair it is to make comment on a forum where I can not also make comments about the negative experiences I had or defend or explain the comments you made - such as your train which would never sit properly because it was an add-on of a clump of material that did not move well."

Okay, we did have some problems with my train because it was detachable and the clasps weren't tight enough. Once we realized this problem (because I noticed it wasn't hanging right), my mom tightened teh clasps and it was fine and I thougth it was beautiful. But why didn't she notice it was clumpy and see if it was fixable? I mean I understand if we had tried to fix it and it was still looking clumpy, but basically she's saying that she thought it was clumpy and she didn't even bother seeing if tehre was anything she could do about it. And how rude of her to say that it was "a clump of a material".