Funny situation playing out on FB

[scorpio_e]

There seems to be a trend with yellow blown out pictures or some other dreadful color created by a Photoshop action. I wonder how many people will be complaining in six years that their images are yellow or whatever.

It cracks me up to see before and after of these actions. Funny thing is the before usually looks better.

End of rant *L*

[jfklein13]

This did get me thinking that you could have someone coming back 20 years later complaining "You made me look like an 80's bride!" and the photographer responds "But it *was* the 80's!"

[Steven G Webb]

This David Jay character is getting more mileage than Rockwell or Fong here of late. If any publicity is good publicity David should be in publicity heaven. I'm seeing his name batted about like a troublesome gnat on several forums and internet groups. Even Missy Mwac, bless her sarcastic little heart, has made mention of him.

[alexindiana]

Hey guys

I wanted to post on this thread as I think something needs adding. I don't personally know Stacey & Hugh but I know more about this situation than I think you do...

They paid $6000. They paid this because David Jay was a great marketer and had a lot of buzz about him a the time. The brides MoH worked for DJ too.

On their FB page they have since posted all the photos DJ took. They are indefensible. I'd be ashamed. He also packaged his quality service to them by hand scrawling their names on blank DVDrs - not exactly pride in presentation.

They didn't complain before because:
1. Bride's friendship with her MoH made her feel very awkward and she didn't want MoH to feel it was her fault for recommending DJ
2. She was bitterly disappointed and wanted to move on, not go over it when they couldn't be re-taken and the wedding day had happened.
3. Bride and hubbie were about to become wedding photographers themselves; DJ was a big name and they were worried about creatinga stink in their new industry - not the start you'd want.
4. After a while they felt it was too late.
5. Stacey eventually showed her close photographer friends the photos and they persuaded her to at least get closure by writing to DJ. His reply was cruddy imho.

I do agree there's no much you can do (in practical terms) if someone gets in touch 6 years later, but you could say at least how sorry you are that they feel disappointed, that you could have offered a reshoot if they'd come back sooner; that maybe the work wasn't up to normal standards. I don't know. I'd feel awful producing work of that poor quality, that I DO know.

[deluco]

Thank's Alex. Do you recall how many images the bride was given? It appears that for $6000 she got all the images on a disc and a slide show that was very short. I noticed that the 49 images she showed that she didn't like, some were in the slide show...and the ones in the slide show were adjusted for exposure, but the ones she posted to complain about were not adjusted for exposure. For $6000 the exposures on everything she got should have been adjusted...and she should have gotten all "keepers" and nothing that should have been tossed. Mass exposure adjustments are simple these days.

[alexindiana]

On the other forum (DWF) Stacey wrote that she was living in Scotland at the time but marrying in the US.

They spoke to DJ on the phone, didn't meet in person until the wedding day. They viewed one entire wedidng, photos had effects applied and looked good.

She said that the slideshow images look way better than the others and they had his effects applied. Quote from Stacey: "The rest of the images that he delivered to us did not look like that, but like what was displayed in our fb albums and the picasa album. Regardless of how good those handful of images are - does that really excuse delivering the other 99% as total crap? I know I'm a bit biased, but there is NO excuse for charging $6k and delivering underexposed images - this doesn't get into poor composition, lack of focus, lack of bokeh, etc. etc."

Anyway, I don't really feel it's my place to add much more as this took place on a DWF forum and we pay $99 a year to be on there!! I just didn't want people to have a perception that this was a client being unreasonable - it's more complicated than that.

[The Viking]

Hey,
I'm yet another one who knows nothing about this...

But it's funny how it's always at least two sides to every story.

DJ's version of the events can be found HERE

In short:
"Stacey and Hugh Wedding Photos
by David Jay on Friday, 6 April 2012 at 02:06 ·
I'm sure some of you have seen the unfortunate situation that I had recently with a photographer and past client. I shot their wedding in 2007 and it certainly wasn't my finest day. I wish I had gotten better pictures. I think they got some really nice photos but they certainly weren't my best.

Here is a link to their same day slideshow -> Stacey and Hugh

I never heard that they weren't happy until a few weeks ago, five years later, which was interesting to me because I knew the groom was upset at me for shutting down a photography forum that he had been very active on. More on that later but first I want to share the facts of the entire situation.

In 2007 my assistant asked me if I would be willing to shoot a wedding for her best friend for less than my going rate. She let me know that the bride went to the Brooks Institute of Photography and if I would shoot for a discount then they would handle the editing.

I went out there and shot the wedding along with my assistant who was pulling double duty as the Maid of Honor as well as photographer and my brother came along to take care of the gear. My brother had never picked up a camera in his life! ... until that day. I told him if he wanted he could use the extra camera and take some pictures. They weren't paying for him to be there so I figured if he happened to get a decent shot then it would be a bonus for them.

After the wedding we sent them all the RAW photos so they could do the editing and printing. They were photographers and friends of my assistant so I figured that was an ok thing to do. Of course I didn't typically give people RAW files.

After receiving the photos the groom went online and thanked me for shooting his wedding and even posted some of the gorgeous shots that were captured."