Missed key photos and was unprofessional
I wish I wasn’t writing this, but I unfortunately didn’t have a great experience. The photos from our engagement shoot and wedding were okay, but for the wedding several key photos were unfortunately missed. My biggest issue with Daniela was the lack of professionalism once we got our photos and I followed up with her. I also wish she had taken some initiative or been a bit proactive at the wedding to try to get our desired shots.
My wedding day was chaotic and busy, but that’s most weddings and I would expect a wedding photographer to be able to navigate through that and take the initiative to get the necessary photos. She forgot to take getting ready photos of me (the bride), didn’t get photos of our rings at all, and while we chose to give up my husband’s solo photos with his family during the allotted photo time because we were crunched for time, I would’ve hoped she would’ve tried to follow up with him at some point afterwards to try to get some of the photos, in any way. We were also very clear from the outset photos with and of our family were critical to us.
I probably wouldn’t be writing this review if it wasn’t for Daniela’s lack of professionalism, especially at the end. We paid for 2 photographers for 8hrs and didn’t get the variety of shots we were expecting. When I reached out to her to ask for a few more candids and more poses (maybe 30 photos in total), she said she didn’t have anything. When I gave her an example of a shot I knew was taken, she conceded to sharing that one. At one point she just ignored my messages and I had to follow up with her days later, and she kept trying to avoid answering my questions or requests. When I finally called her to discuss, she was extremely defensive and dismissive, and kept saying the day was busy and that’s why she doesn’t have more (all weddings are busy!). Throughout these conversations she kept saying different things - at times saying she gave us the best shots, other times saying she already gave a lot, and other times saying she didn’t have any more to share. While she gave us a decent amount, a lot of the photos were random (eg a lot of photos peoples faces were covered) and again we didn’t get the variety of photos of family we expected for 2 photographers at 8hrs.
When I noted she didn’t get my getting ready shots or shots of our rings and I was trying to just focus on what was available, she said “I don’t know who was responsible for the rings” (and ignored my comment about the getting ready photos). This is one of the most basic shots to take for a wedding and I couldn’t believe her lack of accountability. A simple apology would’ve gone a long way.
She unfortunately just wasn’t proactive at all throughout the process. She didn’t scope out our engagement spot in advance even though she’d never been there, I had to follow up requesting both our engagement shoot photos and our wedding photos after delays on both, and the day of the wedding she didn’t take initiative herself to ensure what we wanted was captured, she had to keep being told what to do throughout the day (our guests also commented on her lack of initiative).
Again, I would’ve let this all go had she just had an honest and respectful conversation with me when I reached out to her after getting the wedding photos and took some accountability. This experience left a bad taste in my mouth and was completely avoidable with some basic professionalism.
I would not recommend this person for the most special day of your life.