Couple ordered to pay $1m for defaming their wedding photographer

ZOONAMI said:
So it's just about an album cover? And not the actual photos? Then yeah the bride and groom are being complete picks here. Did the fabricate the whole thing with empty frames then?
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They made up a whole bunch of crap *and* the stuff was in the contract to begin with and in various emails sent to them ahead of time. there's a reason they lost the case -- it was that obvious.

Also sorry about the snarky tone in my last reply. :-/
 
ZOONAMI said:
Anecdotally my experience with wedding photography is that it is huge waste of money. It was literally the most expensive part of my wedding by a mile, but the now ex-wife insisted. It's literally just hundreds of fucking photos on a CD too. Could have just given out a couple of DSLRs to be used by guests and would have had the same (probably better as you'd get more candid shots). And then yeah if you end up splitting up you're never even going to look at the photos ever again. Sucks that this ended up ruining her business, but if they really already did spend thousands I can sympathize with balking at another $150 for some prints. If they at least had the media they could print them out themselves, but I'm guessing this photographer did not give them even the digital files on a thumb drive or CD.
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It kinda sounds like you hired an amateur with a DSLR as opposed to a skilled photographer (and most good wedding photographers can do candid shots if that's what you're looking for)
 
Stumpokapow said:
It kinda sounds like you hired an amateur with a DSLR as opposed to a skilled photographer (and most good wedding photographers can do candid shots if that's what you're looking for)
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Well, I guess sort of, was a solo photographer but she has a studio etc, several cameras and lenses, umbrellas, flashes, tripods etc. I can't fathom spending more than what we did for something even more elaborate though. That's just me. I'm not huge on photos of people in general though so maybe I'm weird.
 
ZOONAMI said:
Anecdotally my experience with wedding photography is that it is huge waste of money. It was literally the most expensive part of my wedding by a mile, but the now ex-wife insisted. It's literally just hundreds of fucking photos on a CD too. Could have just given out a couple of DSLRs to be used by guests and would have had the same (probably better as you'd get more candid shots). And then yeah if you end up splitting up you're never even going to look at the photos ever again. Sucks that this ended up ruining her business, but if they really already did spend thousands I can sympathize with balking at another $150 for some prints. If they at least had the media they could print them out themselves, but I'm guessing this photographer did not give them even the digital files on a thumb drive or CD.
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Come the fuck on. I hope this isn't serious.

ZOONAMI said:
Well, I guess sort of, was a solo photographer but she has a studio etc, several cameras and lenses, umbrellas, flashes, tripods etc. I can't fathom spending more than what we did for something even more elaborate though. That's just me. I'm not huge on photos of people in general though so maybe I'm weird.
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Let's see her portfolio.
 
giga said:
Come the fuck on. I hope this isn't serious.


Let's see her portfolio.
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I guess I'm not completely serious, but me and my brother are amateur photographers with some a6000s and an assortment of lenses, and with the help of friends who are also decent amateurs and with some direction I think we actually could have gotten virtually the exact same photos for free. You do have to then inconvenience your family and guests a bit, but I'd say thats worth several thousand dollars. To some people it isn't, which is fine, I'm sure they are happy with having the photographer.
 
ZOONAMI said:
I guess I'm not completely serious, but me and my brother are amateur photographers with some a6000s and an assortment of lenses, and with the help of friends who are also decent amateurs and with some direction I think we actually could have gotten virtually the exact same photos for free. You do have to then inconvenience your family and guests a bit, but I'd say thats worth several thousand dollars. To some people it isn't, which is fine, I'm sure they are happy with having the photographer.
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What photos? You've yet to show what kind of photos we're talking about. Wedding photography quality is highly variable and it just seems to me you guys overpaid an amateur.
 
Stumpokapow said:
It kinda sounds like you hired an amateur with a DSLR as opposed to a skilled photographer (and most good wedding photographers can do candid shots if that's what you're looking for)
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Yup.

A wedding photographer is essentially a wedding planner in some respects... they know all the details, when stuff is happening and all that. And if shit it ain't happening, or if there is no wedding planner to guide the wedding then the photog is forced to step in and gets the ball rolling so the ceremony can take place and we can take the pictures.

Also a decent wedding photographer will actually have a second shooter to do everything the main shooter can't like candids, creative shots, etc.

I mean you can definitely have your guests try to shoot your wedding or whatever but good luck trying to control the chaos that takes place.
 
gXGDVkS.jpg


I am ready to shoot ZOONAMI's next wedding!
 
ZOONAMI said:
Well, I guess sort of, was a solo photographer but she has a studio etc, several cameras and lenses, umbrellas, flashes, tripods etc. I can't fathom spending more than what we did for something even more elaborate though. That's just me. I'm not huge on photos of people in general though so maybe I'm weird.
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If it was the most expensive part of your wedding and it was one photographer you probably just got ripped off.
 
Woah she was making 800k a year?! Crazy how much damage two sour customers can do... 1 Million isn't nearly enough.
 
ZOONAMI said:
I guess I'm not completely serious, but me and my brother are amateur photographers with some a6000s and an assortment of lenses, and with the help of friends who are also decent amateurs and with some direction I think we actually could have gotten virtually the exact same photos for free. You do have to then inconvenience your family and guests a bit, but I'd say thats worth several thousand dollars. To some people it isn't, which is fine, I'm sure they are happy with having the photographer.
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Camera phones are pretty nice now. Just ask all relatives to take nice pics.
 
jongkookie said:
Yup.
A wedding photographer is essentially a wedding planner in some respects... they know all the details, when stuff is happening and all that. And if shit it ain't happening, or if there is no wedding planner to guide the wedding then the photog is forced to step in and gets the ball rolling so the ceremony can take place and we can take the pictures.
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what kind of needy wedding photographers do you know? yikes

ZOONAMI said:
I guess I'm not completely serious, but me and my brother are amateur photographers with some a6000s and an assortment of lenses, and with the help of friends who are also decent amateurs and with some direction I think we actually could have gotten virtually the exact same photos for free. You do have to then inconvenience your family and guests a bit, but I'd say thats worth several thousand dollars. To some people it isn't, which is fine, I'm sure they are happy with having the photographer.
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landscape are not the same as wedding photographers... Or any other kind of photographers.. Good wedding photographers take amazing pictures.
 
ZOONAMI said:
So it's just about an album cover? And not the actual photos? Then yeah the bride and groom are being complete picks here. Did the fabricate the whole thing with empty frames then? Honestly the OP isn't really that detailed, and I did give it a quick read, but my bad for not being more thorough.
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They never received the hard copy album nor the high res photos due to the outstanding balance.
 
Am I crazy or does the article implicate the local NBC affiliate for knowingly running a story without all the facts because it made a better headline?

They should have to pay, too.
 
ZOONAMI said:
Anecdotally my experience with wedding photography is that it is huge waste of money. It was literally the most expensive part of my wedding by a mile, but the now ex-wife insisted. It's literally just hundreds of fucking photos on a CD too. Could have just given out a couple of DSLRs to be used by guests and would have had the same (probably better as you'd get more candid shots). And then yeah if you end up splitting up you're never even going to look at the photos ever again. Sucks that this ended up ruining her business, but if they really already did spend thousands I can sympathize with balking at another $150 for some prints. If they at least had the media they could print them out themselves, but I'm guessing this photographer did not give them even the digital files on a thumb drive or CD.
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You act like they wrote a shitty yelp review, complained to the BBB & then got sued for a million.

Read the entire complaint:
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3911308/DC-15-03069.pdf

They called and lied to every news agency out there. Started an online campaign to defame the business & made up allegations that never happened to make it go viral. The couple, under oath, admitted to making false statements & that they knew those statements were false when they made it. They "contacted a number of Polito's clients, prospective clients, wedding coordinators and wedding planners with the intent to interfere with APP's business." They then spent months spreading and promoting those news stories with their false allegations.
 
Galang said:
Woah she was making 800k a year?! Crazy how much damage two sour customers can do... 1 Million isn't nearly enough.
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She is running a business, she isn't just a freelance photographer. The couple's photos weren't even taken by her but two of her employees because the couple didn't want to pay extra for her. The couple then lied about how she didn't even take their photos... as if they didn't agree to not pay extra for her to take the photos... in a signed contract.
 
MrTexor said:
what kind of needy wedding photographers do you know? yikes
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As I've been saying, a wedding photographer isn't just there to take pictures. You're getting a shitty photographer if that's all they do.

We meet with the bride and groom hours before the wedding and if issues arise, we're there to help solve the problem or at the very least help calm down the room and reassure them that everything will be fine(even though it might not be). More often than not, neither the bride nor groom will want to approach a family member or the wedding party if something shitty happens because they think it'll be a burden so they come to us and ask for help instead.

It's basic customer service if you ask me. They're paying us to do a job so the least we can do is to make sure we're doing the best and everything we can.

Funny enough, as much as I'm preaching this... I got out of the game for these reasons(as well as getting a proper full time gig but that's another story). As a dude, it was kinda hard for me to relate with their issues and the only thing I can really do was offer a shoulder or be a wall for them to release the stress they've got coz let's face it, weddings are fucking stressful.
 
I'd be going after the news station next....and for a hell of a lot more than 1 million. Take these incompetent fools to the cleaners.
 
Fuck that couple, I doubt she'll ever see a cent from them either. The news station that aired that slanderous filth should have to pay out her future earnings.
 
firehawk12 said:
How likely is she going to see this money?
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Hubby works for the federal reserve, the wife is a blogger with a rich dad. Judgment is against both of them. Bankruptcy is the easy way out if you have nothing, but if you have assets & work in a field that views bankruptcy negatively, you are fucked.
 
faisal233 said:
Hubby works for the federal reserve, the wife is a blogger with a rich dad. Judgment is against both of them. Bankruptcy is the easy way out if you have nothing, but if you have assets & work in a field that views bankruptcy negatively, you are fucked.
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This is good news, at least. Too bad the judgement wasn't higher, in light of this.
 
I was reading the r/photography post about this a couple days ago. Strange thing was multiple people said they were former clients of this photographer and also all got hung up on this same $150 dollar cover photo thing that none of them had spoken about verbally or noticed was in the contract. Seems like an odd practice or oversight. The couple deserves what they got though.
 
milkham said:
I was reading the r/photography post about this a couple days ago. Strange thing was multiple people said they were former clients of this photographer and also all got hung up on this same $150 dollar cover photo thing that none of them had spoken about verbally or noticed was in the contract. Seems like an odd practice or oversight. The couple deserves what they got though.
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People really need to read the fucking contracts they sign. Not knowing it is in there is no excuse.
 
ZOONAMI said:
I guess I'm not completely serious, but me and my brother are amateur photographers with some a6000s and an assortment of lenses, and with the help of friends who are also decent amateurs and with some direction I think we actually could have gotten virtually the exact same photos for free. You do have to then inconvenience your family and guests a bit, but I'd say thats worth several thousand dollars. To some people it isn't, which is fine, I'm sure they are happy with having the photographer.
Click to expand...

As a photographer of 7 years and owner of several models of cameras and lenses, and current owner of the A6000, I assure you there is no way you can get the same quality photographs as a wedding photographer that charges $5-10,000 per wedding. Yes wedding photography is a bit expensive, but you do have to realize its a lot of work before, during and after the wedding. Editing hundreds of photos takes weeks/months.

The most disgraceful review of them all occurred on Yelp: someone stated, "She gave me AIDS. Photos were okay. 2 stars." The worst and most humiliating part was that the bride's
husband "liked" the comment. On a different social media site, the groom also called me a cheater and a scammer, and someone who "steals" money from her clients.
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the couple used their blog to get their followers to badmouth the photographer's business. that is 1000% fucked up. There is literally a special place in hell just for them.
 
Dumb. Yes a wedding is stressful and you're rushing while signing contract after contract, but how can you not take the time to read it? The contract is where it's clearly laid out what you are paying for - in the absence of reading the contract, you can't actually know if the services are a good value relative to a competitor.

Glad to see the photographer is back on her feet again after the couple's defamation campaign.
 
xxracerxx said:
People really need to read the fucking contracts they sign. Not knowing it is in there is no excuse.
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Yeah, that's just good advice in general. My brother just had to whip out his apartment lease to get a new place, and knowing that document forward and backward got him through the argument.
 
Renekton said:
Looks like a character from Oblivion married a character from Dishonored.
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I was thinking he looked like the Oblivion version of Alton Brown

Hope the photographer gets the money. They basically wrecked her business out of spite and deserve to have the hammer come down hard on them.
 
Interesting, when I checked yesterday the bride's blog wasn't loading and all of the social media accounts were set to private. They're all back up now.
 
TheOMan said:
Yeah, I googled it and I didn't realize this was a thing that was popular? I'm still trying to figure out what they would do? Film training material I guess?
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Pretty much anything that needs to be recorded that isn't worth sending through an expensive production company. The videographer at my last job would do training videos, short recruiting pieces for social media, spotlight videos on specific divisions of the company for the company's intranet site, townhall streaming for all of our satellite offices and anything else we could throw at him.
 
TheOMan said:
What is a corporate videographer?
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Basically a videographer who works exclusively for corporate clients. Filming commercials, testimonials, internal videos (safety, announcement, Video message from the CEO, ect) and traveling to trade shows to make highlight reals.

Basically a really fun job that pays a ton and gives me lots of freedom.
 
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