Our meeting with a local photographer was an unmitigated disaster.
A meeting with our photographer was an unqualified disaster.
So ixchelmala and I have been making preparations for our wedding. Our invitations have been sent to the print shop, and the envelopes are on their way.
The next piece of the puzzle was the photographer. We had initially met several months ago with Don Lupo and his partner, Mijanou. Mr. Lupo is an old friend of ixchelmala's from a previous job.
We struck up a friendship from the get-go, and their price seemed reasonable for what services they were going to provide. However, we didn't book them right away and didn't make any moves until recently when the deadline started creeping up.
Then a friend of the family referred us to a local photographer. His price was lower than Don & Mijanou, and he had the apparent benefit of shooting our venue many times over. He's also been in business for 15+ years, so I decided to give him a shot. We scheduled a meeting for Saturday (today), which caused ixchelmala to miss her very important monthly meetings with the hp_losangeles group. Regardless, the photographer is really important to this process, so we had to get it done right away.
On the way to the studio, ixchelmala and I started having a discussion about the requirements of this photographer-to us, a complete stranger-and whether he would be a good match for us personally. Because, as every bride and groom know, your photographer is the one person who is more important than the person whom you are about to marry. If you're not happy, they're not happy, and your pictures reflect it.
Our discussion degenerated into an argument when she asked me about any "red flags to watch out for.
One: if we don't like his personality or his attitude, then we bail; ixchelmala agreed with me on this point.
Two: How was he going to cover shots at the party when he can't be in two places at once? I'd have preferred an assistant to take additional shots when the lead couldn't get them.
Three: ixchelmala didn't want any posed pictures. In order for a single photographer to nab the candid shots, he'd have to "pose" a lot of pictures, and many of the shots on his website looked this way. I argued that many photographers find it necessary to pose some shots because they add a touch of whimsy or fantasy to the wedding album.
When we arrived, we found the studio in the back of a business park. When we walked in, we were overpowered by the odor of acetone and acrylic. His suite shared a foyer with a day spa / nail salon. The photographer came out, introduced himself, and led us back to the dark corner of his office space, into his private screening room, dimly lit and replete with an overstuffed brown couch and a widescreen flat-panel display. He didn't tell us to sit down; rather, I motioned for Milly to find a seat and then he popped a DVD into the player, fumbled with the remote to activate the TV, and then walked away. The DVD was three and a half minutes of sheer torture: posed pictures of an ugly bride and her family, assembled into a slick dog-and-pony show with quick dissolves and pseudo-Burns-eqsue camera moves.
It was probably a bad sign that Milly and I started poking fun at his transitions and the contrived photographs of the Bride and Groom and their families.
When the show was over, he came back into the room and sat down. I asked the opening ice-breaker: "So, what program did you use to make that slideshow?" I was careful not to insult it nor praise it too early. He replied, "I can't give away my secrets." I countered with my own guess as to what program and plugins he used, and he hesitated and repeated again that a professional photographer doesn't give away all his trade secrets. What a cop-out. I pointed out that his presentation looked to have been made for a regular TV and was being presented on a wide screen. This has a tendency to "make the brides look fat," I said. He retorted with, "well, why show this on a widescreen and have bars on the side, when you can use the whole screen?" (To which ixchelmala later commented, "Why not just design the video in widescreen in the first place? Moron...")
It got so much better from here: ixchelmala suggested that we knew it wasn't iPhoto; what she didn't say was that it lacked that certain special Apple charm, and she later told me that she was putting out the feelers in case this guy was an Apple fan. Clearly, he was not.
We tried to show how geeky we were, and he cut us off with a remark about clients getting too technical and micro-managing everything. It slows his work down, etc, etc. He's referring, of course, to the photographs themselves, when the bride and groom are trying to control each individual shot and order the photographer around like a servant on the event day. I just tried to explain that we were enthusiastic about computers and technology as it relates to audio/visual media. We met at the Apple Store, we're highly trained, etc...
He restarted the conversation and I asked about the kinds of pictures he takes, and how he coordinates the shot list with the family. At this, he seemed confused. I clarified: "Do you ask ahead of time about who to photograph?" "I take all the standard pictures of the bride and groom, wedding party, parents, etc." Meanwhile, Milly has tuned out and is scrutinizing the wedding albums. And by her show of silence, she disapproved of his work.
By the time ixchelmala had opened the third wedding album, the photographer started going on about price vs. quality; some couples try to go bargain-basement, and they end up unhappy with their guy because he can't do what they really wanted, and sometimes they don't click right away. The last question we asked him was about his ratio of posed vs. photojournalistic shots. He responded with 40% posed, 60% journalistic.
It was at this point that ixchelmala gave signals, and the photographer gave hints that he really didn't want to work with us. I agreed, shook his hand, and we left.
ixchelmala was appalled and speechless as we walked to the car. I got on the horn and left a message with Don, Mijanou, and sent them an email.
Our meeting with this Rancho Cucamonga photographer was an unqualified disaster, and it's unfortunate that he's been in business taking advantage of hapless families and couples for 15+ years.
Hopefully we will have our photographers for the wedding! :)
Until then,
flitzermusik
So ixchelmala and I have been making preparations for our wedding. Our invitations have been sent to the print shop, and the envelopes are on their way.
The next piece of the puzzle was the photographer. We had initially met several months ago with Don Lupo and his partner, Mijanou. Mr. Lupo is an old friend of ixchelmala's from a previous job.
We struck up a friendship from the get-go, and their price seemed reasonable for what services they were going to provide. However, we didn't book them right away and didn't make any moves until recently when the deadline started creeping up.
Then a friend of the family referred us to a local photographer. His price was lower than Don & Mijanou, and he had the apparent benefit of shooting our venue many times over. He's also been in business for 15+ years, so I decided to give him a shot. We scheduled a meeting for Saturday (today), which caused ixchelmala to miss her very important monthly meetings with the hp_losangeles group. Regardless, the photographer is really important to this process, so we had to get it done right away.
On the way to the studio, ixchelmala and I started having a discussion about the requirements of this photographer-to us, a complete stranger-and whether he would be a good match for us personally. Because, as every bride and groom know, your photographer is the one person who is more important than the person whom you are about to marry. If you're not happy, they're not happy, and your pictures reflect it.
Our discussion degenerated into an argument when she asked me about any "red flags to watch out for.
One: if we don't like his personality or his attitude, then we bail; ixchelmala agreed with me on this point.
Two: How was he going to cover shots at the party when he can't be in two places at once? I'd have preferred an assistant to take additional shots when the lead couldn't get them.
Three: ixchelmala didn't want any posed pictures. In order for a single photographer to nab the candid shots, he'd have to "pose" a lot of pictures, and many of the shots on his website looked this way. I argued that many photographers find it necessary to pose some shots because they add a touch of whimsy or fantasy to the wedding album.
When we arrived, we found the studio in the back of a business park. When we walked in, we were overpowered by the odor of acetone and acrylic. His suite shared a foyer with a day spa / nail salon. The photographer came out, introduced himself, and led us back to the dark corner of his office space, into his private screening room, dimly lit and replete with an overstuffed brown couch and a widescreen flat-panel display. He didn't tell us to sit down; rather, I motioned for Milly to find a seat and then he popped a DVD into the player, fumbled with the remote to activate the TV, and then walked away. The DVD was three and a half minutes of sheer torture: posed pictures of an ugly bride and her family, assembled into a slick dog-and-pony show with quick dissolves and pseudo-Burns-eqsue camera moves.
It was probably a bad sign that Milly and I started poking fun at his transitions and the contrived photographs of the Bride and Groom and their families.
When the show was over, he came back into the room and sat down. I asked the opening ice-breaker: "So, what program did you use to make that slideshow?" I was careful not to insult it nor praise it too early. He replied, "I can't give away my secrets." I countered with my own guess as to what program and plugins he used, and he hesitated and repeated again that a professional photographer doesn't give away all his trade secrets. What a cop-out. I pointed out that his presentation looked to have been made for a regular TV and was being presented on a wide screen. This has a tendency to "make the brides look fat," I said. He retorted with, "well, why show this on a widescreen and have bars on the side, when you can use the whole screen?" (To which ixchelmala later commented, "Why not just design the video in widescreen in the first place? Moron...")
It got so much better from here: ixchelmala suggested that we knew it wasn't iPhoto; what she didn't say was that it lacked that certain special Apple charm, and she later told me that she was putting out the feelers in case this guy was an Apple fan. Clearly, he was not.
We tried to show how geeky we were, and he cut us off with a remark about clients getting too technical and micro-managing everything. It slows his work down, etc, etc. He's referring, of course, to the photographs themselves, when the bride and groom are trying to control each individual shot and order the photographer around like a servant on the event day. I just tried to explain that we were enthusiastic about computers and technology as it relates to audio/visual media. We met at the Apple Store, we're highly trained, etc...
He restarted the conversation and I asked about the kinds of pictures he takes, and how he coordinates the shot list with the family. At this, he seemed confused. I clarified: "Do you ask ahead of time about who to photograph?" "I take all the standard pictures of the bride and groom, wedding party, parents, etc." Meanwhile, Milly has tuned out and is scrutinizing the wedding albums. And by her show of silence, she disapproved of his work.
By the time ixchelmala had opened the third wedding album, the photographer started going on about price vs. quality; some couples try to go bargain-basement, and they end up unhappy with their guy because he can't do what they really wanted, and sometimes they don't click right away. The last question we asked him was about his ratio of posed vs. photojournalistic shots. He responded with 40% posed, 60% journalistic.
It was at this point that ixchelmala gave signals, and the photographer gave hints that he really didn't want to work with us. I agreed, shook his hand, and we left.
ixchelmala was appalled and speechless as we walked to the car. I got on the horn and left a message with Don, Mijanou, and sent them an email.
Our meeting with this Rancho Cucamonga photographer was an unqualified disaster, and it's unfortunate that he's been in business taking advantage of hapless families and couples for 15+ years.
Hopefully we will have our photographers for the wedding! :)
Until then,
flitzermusik