Unacceptable!
We booked Jennifer as part of a package deal which included the reception, cake, DJ and a few other items. All parts of the wedding went smoothly with the exception of the photographer. Here are my feelings on Jennifer and her photography skill.s
First, be aware if you book her as part of a package deal. Ther will be hidding costs for more hours, and especially if you want a DVD of your images. Our package included 4x6 prints of all the photos she took at the wedding. When we requested a DVD of the photos, we were advised it would be $300 for the DVD AND we would nto get the 4x6 prints. When we tried to explain the 4x6 prints were already included in our package, we were advised they were, but not if we wanted the DVD. The DVD and 4x6 prints would cost $500.
Now for professionalism during the wedding. While me and my wife enjoyed ourselves very much, we found Jennifer to be lacking in several areas. First, not once did she suggest for us to stand a particular way or setup for a particular photo. Instead, during the formal photo shoot, she stood their and said what do you want. This may be fine for some people, but my belief is we paid a lot for the wedding and had a lot more important things on our mind than deciding on what photos our paid photographer should take. We were expecting her to direct us for the photos, but that was not the case. Also several of the photos of the ouside of the church had temporary signs posted in the church garden in the shot. A good photographer would have seen these were in the shot, removed the sign, taken the shot, and put the sign back in place. Also the back drop for my wife exiting the limo was a gas station. Again, a good photographer should have picked up on this and asked the limo to pull up a few feet so the backdrop would have been the nearby wooded area. And we found out after teh wedding that several guests familiar with the layout of the church had suggested different areas on the church grounds for nicer backdrops. According to these guests, she dismissed their ideas. Then as we moved to our formal wedding shot, all of our guest got to the location correctly, and our photographer was no where to be seen. After approx 10 minutes, we find out she went to a different access point to the area, instead of the area we specifically requested weeks before the wedding. Is it that hard to follow the two limos?
Now for the reception. Once again, instead of taking control and directing us to where and how we should line up for our photos, Jennifer and her assistant just stood there making my and my wife gather people together, decide where we wanted the photo to be shot and chose how we wanted people to stand. Then, during the wedding, we were dumbfounded when she came up to us and said, "You need to tell me when your going to dip your wife during dancing so I can take a picuture." No...with two photographers, one should have their camera on the bride and groom at all times when they are dancing so if they do a spontaneous "dip" you capture the actual moment instead of some staged moment.
So now onto the actual photos. We purchased the DVD and as we were viewing the images noticed several key points. First, the majority of the photos were not composed properly. For the most part, they were not centered, some were not straight, and then others had important aspects cut off. The photos of our cake included no close ups of the unique wedding topper. The cake was never centered in frame. Then a smoke stake that we had requested to be not visible in the background of our formal photos was clearly visible and a good percentage of the shots.
I could go on, but I am sure you can gather our overall feel for the day. After looking at all 800 plus photos with several other people, we all had the same reaction. While some of the photos were acceptable, for the most part, they were candids that could have been snapped by any of our guests with a digital camera. There was not artistic thought to how shots were layed out or use of b&w to fade the background. There were also none of the typical articstic shots from different heights or of the bride and groom with the background blured. They were simply unacceptable for and expensive wedding photographer. Obviously her paychecks go into paying for her very nice studio and expensive computer equipment instead of how to use photoshop and a digital camera properly.