S/O of missing photos, help me write an email. ETA: her response

jena.n.ross · January 2011

Christie's post made me think about our photos, and how I also felt we were missing photos. Going through and actually counting them makes me want to contact the photographer. I'd love help drafting an email that isn't b!tchy, but is firm enough to get what I want.

The pictures I have on disk from her are numbered (IMG_0573, IMG_0574, etc), and there are some gaps. I understand if some of those photos are blurry, etc, but all of them? Our posed pictures (family and wedding party) go from IMG_0550 to IMG_0758, there should be 208 pictures, right? There are only 67. All of the "missing" pictures were unusable? Reception pictures go from IMG_0854 to IMG_1063, and there are only 104 pictures out of the 209 there "should" be. And these are some of the pictures that were really important to me that I felt she dropped the ball on, family pictures, guest pictures, and the pictures of the wedding party staggered on the benches that I wanted SO much.

The packages she offers specifically says she includes:a high resolution disk with all the pictures taken on the wedding day with rights to use as you?d like.

The disk I received started at IMG_003, and went to IMG_1121, but actually "only" has 594 pictures, and some of those are duplicates (in colour and in b&w, etc). I know 594 pictures is a lot, but I want the rest of them, to decide if I think they're usable. (I'd say we, but Ross has really left all photobooking up to me).

So far I have:

Dear Jenn,

____________________________________________________

Not much of a start.

Xan921 · January 2011

Dear Jenn,

Where are the rest of my pictures biatch? Nope, no excuses accepted, give em to me or I'll cut you.

Love,

Jena

msmerymac · January 2011

I would just say that you noticed pictures are missing, and while you're sure she gave you the best of the bunch, you'd really prefer to review all of them yourself.

I know someone who had that happen to her. And when she got the rest of the pics, she found some that 1) had people who were not in other pics, 2) included inside jokes, like special dances or whatever and 3) she thought were actually better than some of the pics she had gotten before.

pondering_gal · January 2011

Dear Jenn,
As I am making our wedding album, I can't help but notice that there seems to be some gaps in the pictures you gave me.
For example: On our disk of pictures, it goes from 001, with the next one at 200. That leads me to believe that there are 199 pictures that I have not seen.

While I understand that you may have omitted some because of blurriness, I would love if I could see the rest of the pictures.

Please get back to me ASAP, as I am giving my parents an album for their anniversary [a lie, but it explains why you need them sooner rather than later] and need to see every possible picture option.

Thank you,
Jena

christieep · January 2011

In addtion to what Brooke said, I would add that you thought the package included all of the photos, even those she didn't edit/touch up. Just as a reminder that this was promised to you.

campergrlsugar · January 2011

Dear Jenn, Why does the nest always post my posts before I am finished LOL

I would just agree with what the PP said and let her know that you would like to be able to choose what pics you would like to use, We received over 1200 pictures, and they were not ALL of them...But I still emailed our photographer and asked if he had certain pictures i knew he took, but I didnt see....

He was awesome and sent them to me....even though i would never use them!!

jena.n.ross · January 2011

How do we feel about this?

Hi Jenn!

I'm in the process of putting together albums (ours, parents, grandparents), and have been going through the picture files. It looks like the pictures are all consecutively numbered, starting at IMG_003 and going to IMG_1121, but the disk has 594 files. I understand that some of them may be blurry, etc, but I'd like to search the missing files for additional hidden gems, even if they haven't been edited or touched up.

Thanks so much,

--jena

RavenBeautie · January 2011

jena.n.ross:

How do we feel about this?

Hi Jenn!

I'm in the process of putting together albums (ours, parents, grandparents), and have been going through the picture files. It looks like the pictures are all consecutively numbered, starting at IMG_003 and going to IMG_1121, but the disk has 594 files. I understand that some of them may be blurry, etc, but I'd like to search the missing files for additional hidden gems, even if they haven't been edited or touched up.

Thanks so much,

--jena

Sounds good to me Stern and to the point, but definately not b!tchy

jena.n.ross · January 2011

I sent the message just as I wrote above.

Sorry that this is a little of a rehash of the **Jena** thread.

Here's her response, with commentary.

grumble. While I do understand her point, I have a few issues with her email.Hi Jen. Not my name. Even if she didn't remember from the wedding, it's all over my email, address, signature, etc.I take over 1000 pics and delete almost half of them cause because I like to have options and at least 3 of each pose so I can choose the best and the one that came out the best to give to the client. The ones deleted are either over or under exposed, very blury, closed eyes, to too much glare, not the right setting etc. I assure you there are no gems missing. almost Almost 600 picstures say it with me kids.... spell check is ALOT a lot for a photographer to offer, most photographers limit their photos taken and only take about 300-600 total! ummm... I know a lot of brides, and I wouldn't say this is all true. all the other pictures not on the disk have not been edited and I dont don't offer up unedited pictures for many reasons. Its It's my name and business that gets attached to those and hense hence why i I only offer the pictures that are, in my opinion as the professional, the best ones. :)_________________________________________________________________

Her opinion as the professional? And my opinion, as an intelligent woman with an artistic eye, and OH YEAH I'm THE CLIENT doesn't matter?

1) I wasn't overly impressed with her pictures in the first place. She dropped the ball and missed many of the important things. I didn't provide her with a hard copy list of must-take pictures, but I did direct her to an album I set up specifically for her, showing her the type of pictures I'm looking for. But really, hello, the bride with her mother? The groom's face AT ALL during the ceremony? The bride and groom's entrance to the reception?2) Some of you may remember, I won a free shoot from her in October (breast Cancer Awareness Month) for a story about my mom, my brother, and I. I gave her my mother's information, and told her the shoot was ultimately for her, and she would set up a time. She never contacted my mother. I got a vague "oh yeah, you won that shoot" message in another email, and I again gave her my mother's contact information. At this point I'm just kind of disgusted with her, and don't feel like arguing with her about it.3) In addition to missing important pictures, I'm not happy with her editing. I had to specifically ask her to go back and fix the glasses glare. She kept saying well it won't be as obvious in the large file as it is on facebook or my website. Why? How do you figure? Her second attempt to fix it didn't come out any better. And I had to ask her go back and edit out my erect cold nipples. That just strikes me as common sense. 4) I don't appreciate this latest email. Or really any of her emails. As a "professional" you'd think she'd take a little care as to how she's representing her own company. I understand that not everyone has a firm grasp of proper grammar, but "u r" rather than you are, is never appropriate in an email to a client. 5) As the client, I don't really care overmuch what her "opinion as the professional" is. Her package says "all" and that is clearly a false advertisement. Apparently it should read "all that I the professional deem fit." And just because some people have their eyes shut, it doesn't mean other things in the shot are bad. Just because my eyes are shut, doesn't mean it's not a fabulous picture of one of our guests, and I could just crop myself out. I've been hesitant to speak out openly against her on my local board (even though I know for sure one of the other brides has already booked her). I was worried about getting my pictures. As I understand it, it's only slander (or any other legal problem) if it's not something that's actually true.

New info:

I talked to Ross about it, and I'm surprised, but he's pretty irritated about it. We didn't have a physical contract, but her website clearly states all pictures taken. Is it possible that there isn't -anything- in the other 450ish pictures? Sure. Ross said email her again.

chantico23 · January 2011

That is super irritating! She didn't give you what she promised! If she wants to delete half of the pictures then fine. But she promised to give you all the pictures, so she needs to deliver ALL of them! I would be irritated with her too!

I had a similar battle with my photographer. She promised all images (which, by the way was over 900...so your photographer is just plain wrong) on one disk, and out of those she would edit 200 and put them on a separate disk. Yet on the edited disk there were over 20 pictures where people had red eyes left uncorrected. That's not editing IMO. Yet when I addressed it with her she got super defensive, just like your photographer. I ended up spending 4 hours re-editing everything myself. But sadly, you can't just make images appear that she failed to give you. I say you e-mail her again and if she can't produce the images then she needs to compensate you. That'll at least encourage her to change what she is promising.

EmDizzle · January 2011

Boo! I think you need to take your next email to a "new" level of disappointment, sincerely addressing those issues you mentioned above, in detail... like photos with your mother, photos of the grooms face during the ceremony, any other type of photo you can think of that she "should" have taken. I don't think it's rare for a photographer to miss a moment (my photographer never arranged a "standard" photo I wanted), but it appears she's dropping the ball in too many ways, not meeting all of her in-contract promises, and on top of that, not being professional about it.

I think it's time to bring out the big guns, but obviously in a sincere way.

and, yea, effing spell check. jesus.

S/O of missing photos, help me write an email. ETA: her response

Re: S/O of missing photos, help me write an email. ETA: her response

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