Valter was great leading up to our wedding and the day of I have no complaints about his work for the wedding. However, we have yet to receive our wedding album. We've have reached out several times over the last couple of years and he has not gotten back to us. This is very disappointing as we feel that Valter was great and him not responding and ghosting us put a damper on things. Hopefully he reviews this and sends us what we are owed and I can update this review. Thank you

We were recommended to Valter's services by a friend, so we hired Mendes Photography for our wedding day. Personally and professionally Valter went above and beyond our expectations. He was funny, patient, and artistically creative – he captured the emotion and mood of the day, a rare combination in still photos. Valter took advantage of any moments of sun and natural light that came through the trees. He mixed in the perfect amount of posed photos with candid shots, which meant that every special moment, and person, was photographed beautifully in a variety of styles. The quality of his photos is unparalleled. All of our guests commented how impressed they were, and still are, on the unique quality of the photography. We would use him again and would highly recommend his services.

Valter and his team did an AMAZING job capturing our special day.
They were incredibly professional, flexible, and so much fun. We did an engagement shoot months beforehand to help myself and my husband get comfortable in front of the camera, and those photos are also stunning!
We love the photos and the same day edit video was incredible!
Thank-you for everything.

I hired Valter to do my engagement photos and wedding photos and although I felt like he rushed our engagement photos non the less we received beautiful photos…almost 6 1/2 months after I was constantly emailing him about them.

Our wedding photos on the other hand was nothing less than a disappointment. After getting them again 6 months after my wedding. The photos were un professional to say the least…photos with compost bags behind the groom, no attention to detail as my hair was stuck on my veil which he failed to notice….and most of all important family photos were missing, he failed to tell me about these missing photos prior to giving us our photos and once I had asked where they were he claimed they were “corrupt files”, when i had asked for the raw file so i can have them fixed in hopes i could at least have ONE photo with my grandparents, siblings and nieces and nephews but he claimed he didn’t have them!

We had paid him in full prior to receiving our photos (big mistake) but once I had asked for either the raw damaged photos or compensation he proceeded to give me excuses as he usually does and then eventually stopped answering or returning my calls, emails and messages all together!

He also promised a photo book to us at no charge due to his tardiness and lack of response to emails….and once again he didn’t keep his end of the deal!

Valter is unprofessional and frankly doesn’t care about your wedding or your important photos!

Working with Valter and his team was great! The team members (both in photography and videography) are ao professional. They are really patient in giving good tips to the couples and/or models to appropriately pose and they take fun shots. Every single of our wedding guests were amazed with the “Same Day Edit” video and were constantly asking about Mendes team. We will surely work with them for our future events :) highly recommended!!!!

Valter and his team were great to work with. Valter is kind, positive and patient. He was laid back and diligent at the same time. He made us feel great when we were taking our photos and has an eye for detail. He gave us many more photos then we were thinking we were getting and we were very happy with them. I'd recommend Valter to a friend!

I will start by saying Valter can take an amazing photo, he can turn almost any backdrop into something that looks like it belongs in a magazine, he is very talented.

There are a few things that I wish I had known before booking with Valter (some are my fault for not asking/understanding) and I will mention what I liked and disliked about his services.

Pros: We now have several engagement and wedding photos that are truly magazine quality, he did an astonishing job on a few photos.

Cons: Valter was on time for 2 things: our engagement photo shoot and our wedding day. Everything else was like pulling teeth to get. Wedding photos took several months to get, short of a few photos he gave as a "sneak peek". We were given several excuses, and were told several times that photos were coming "next week" and it was still months until we got them. If you are not a patient person, or persistent (as my wife is), this is maybe not the photographer for you.

On this website it says that Valter offers "proofs". What we did get was all of our photos in JPEG format. I asked Valter for the Raw files and he refused to give them to me, even after asking many times. I know in the contract it states that he is the copyright owner of the photos, but I thought that would be just so he could use them in his portfolio or advertisements (my bad for not asking more questions). I don't know what he gains from keeping those files from me, but there it is. He said I am not allowed to edit them at all myself either, it is against the contract, even applying a filter, and that if I wanted more pictures edited I could ask him and he would do it (like I want to wait another 8 months for a few more edited pictures). As you can probably tell, this bugged my a lot.

Last issue I had was with the pictures that weren't just of my wife and I (which were amazing). Family photos felt rushed, the only picture I have of us with my dad and his wife have a huge blue extension cord in the background. We specifically asked for candid shots as that's what we like, I think we got 2 decent ones.

To summarize, Valter can take amazing photos anywhere and is truly talented. He is fun to work with day of, and is a really nice guy. Nothing will be on time by a long shot (I am writing this because we finally just got our one large printed photo he promised, 13 months after our wedding). Family photos felt rushed and were sub par. Valter will not give out Raw files or give you permission to edit photos in any way by yourself.

Hope this helps someone in the future, as I wish I had known these things before we booked.

Valter is amazing. We had awful weather at our wedding and was able to ensure that our vision for our wedding is what we wanted. Valter and his wife were extremely professional and checked in with us throughout the evening! You will not be disappointed with Mendes Photography.

I met Valter at the International Center Wedding show and instantly knew he would be a good fit as photographer for my wedding. He was easy to work with, professional and very accomodating. He was extremely flexible throughout the many obstacles during the day. The pictures are absolutely amazing and make both my husband and I smile every time we get the chance to go through them. I would definately recommend Mendes photography to many others!

Valter was the perfect fit for our special day. His artistic eye is incomparable, we've received an overwhelming amount of compliments and praise. Not only is he talented, but having him as part of our team didn't feel like a business transaction - it was like having an extra friend there to help. He was responsive and polite with emails, even when I was antsy. I look forward to working with him again as our family grows. Thank you, V!