*sigh* Friend/photographer dilemma

kelnyc

So, some of you may remember that DH and I have 2 friends who happen to be professional photographers who generously offered to shoot our wedding at no charge as a wedding gift to us. Great, right?! Not exactly. Maria took pics with me and my girls as we were getting ready, the ceremony, the toasts, and random shots of our guests. sean was with J and the boys while they were getting ready, and then he was to be our "main" photographer for the whole day. Maria gave us 2 CDs and a proof book about 3 weeks after the wedding, of which I was able to make beautiful prints and share with people. Sean created a slideshow (that I had posted on the knot, facebook, etc.) that was absolutely amazing! The problem is, the slideshow does not enable you to save the images, and these are just the "teasers" anyway. So we are 6 weeks after the wedding with only a small sampling of our wedding pictures. We never had a detailed discussion with him because he's not exactly a planner and detail guy, he's an artist and unfortunately flaky when it comes to correspondence either by phone or email. DH sent him an email 2 week ago just asking him to call us, and I sent a friendly follow-up note to him on FB, whic he posts on all the time. At what point should I be concerned? We don't want to irritate him because he is doing us a huge favor after all.

arobertson62282

I find that with those who are a little more creative, they need to understand what you are trying to accomplish in order to get something done - I can often be that way.

Shoot him an email and give him a ring - say that the slideshow was great but that you can't seem to save the images to your hard drive, and therefore can't start on your parent's albums. If he could send that to you in the next week, you'll be able to give them the albums as a Christmas Gift.

 

Or something...

 

But yeah, you can be concerned now. This is one of the reasons I was scared to have a friend shoot our wedding, but it'll work out.

Karen2905

It's a little unsettling, but I would try being a little more persistent in your attempts to contact him (-as in, some attempt, every 48 hours) before going into panic mode.  Are Maria and Sean connected, that maybe Maria might have more luck getting through to him?  Or are they two completely separate friends who both happen to be photogs?

nicoleabrock

Kelly, I am in the exact same situation!  I am starting to get really frustrated with my photogs (who are good friends with my dad).  I have sent them emails and they don't respond.  I have made requests and they aren't met.  Luckily I have a contract so I have gotten very "businessy" in my emails to them.  Do you have a contract?  This is how I worded my last email to them yesterday:

"I was wondering when we can expect to have the disk with 400 to 500 wedding images as indicated in our contract. We would like to create some albums for our parents for Christmas and would like to know if this is even going to be possible."

Put a little bit of heat on them!  Good luck girlie!

kelnyc

Whew! The FB message did the trick! He said he saw J's message, but was a little tipsy at the time and totally forgot about it. LOL! He'll have a disk to us right after Thanksgiving and he's been working this whole time on a special album for us (he has literally been spending hours in the darkroom according to a close source)! Maria & Sean are both friends in the same circle here in our Brooklyn neighborhood who just happen to both be photogs. We are so blessed to have such a network... even if they work in strange ways sometimes.   So happy it worked out and I didn't have to officially enter panic mode! Thanks gals!