Grey Giraffe Photography

ur best to make sure the personalities align. We are usually pretty good about it, but in this case we obviously misjudged Ally. After getting to know her, it is not surprising to us at all that she took the time to write such a dishonest and disparaging review. We reached out and gave Ally and her mom time to take down their reviews before we shared details about their characters, but they chose to ignore us. Ally is an angry person. When we shot her formals session, they showed up 30 minutes late. We were completely understanding and said it wasn’t a big deal and that we would stay a little later to make up the time. As they walked towards us there was a strange vibe coming from the bride. We tried talking to her but she was standoffish and silent. We pushed on and tried to start the shoot when Ally broke and said she needed a second. She proceeded to literally swat and verbally assault her fiancé, saying "she fu**ing hated him” for making them late. When we asked them to cuddle or kiss, the groom would try to do so, and she would respond with “ Don’t you f***ing touch me?” and would push him away. This continued for the duration of the shoot. We have NEVER seen anything like this before in all our years photographing, and yet we were expected to make them look like they were in love. It was very awkward. Even on the wedding day, she was angry. We had more than one vendor come up to as and ask, “What is Ally’s problem?” Ally is not confident in her own skin and pushed that insecurity onto us, expecting us to cure her pain. When we first met Ally for her engagement session in 2019, the first thing she said to Whitney was, “My mother says I have a tendency to make myself look chubby in photos. It has always stuck with me when I get pictures taken. Can you please make sure I look thin?” Not knowing how to react and the weight of expectation she had just placed on us, Whitney did her best to brush those comments off and to lift Ally’s confidence throughout the shoot. We are certainly proud of how those photos turned out and are glad that Ally loves them. Fast-forward to 2021 when we next saw Ally for her formal session a week before the wedding. We noticed that her appearance had changed drastically since we last saw her in 2019. Of course, for us this was not an issue. We are all about body positivity and don’t believe in altering a person’s appearance. We told her repeatedly how good she looked. However, Ally commented again about her weight and said that she had actually gone through 3 wedding dresses due to how much weight she had gained since the engagement session. She demanded that we make her look “flattering” in all the photos and made comments constantly throughout the shoot about it. She questioned our abilities and our posing suggestions and didn’t do what we asked of her. Despite this, just like the engagement session, the photos turned out beautifully. On the wedding day, when Alan asked if they wanted to do any more formal photos (something we always ask) she said, “why, did you not get good photos at the formals session?” Ally changed her wedding date. As a result, Whitney was no longer available for her wedding. We did not charge Ally a rescheduling fee to change the date, and even gave her a discount on her formals session. Dealing with the pandemic has been a challenge for all wedding vendors, and we have done our very best to accommodate all our couples needing to make changes. It was hardly a bait and switch. Alan is the co-owner of Grey Giraffe. His work has been published in magazines and the site is full of 5-star reviews for weddings he has shot. Alan and Whitney both came to the formals shoot to help make the transition smooth. Alan was not rushed at all during the wedding. Much like the formals session, when Alan gave direction for family pictures, he was ignored or told to do something different. The groom’s family pictures turned out better because they listened and trusted Alan. It should also be noted that during the formals session, Ally actually said, “I don’t care at all about the groom’s family, I only care about my family pictures.” Again, a statement we have NEVER heard before. Perhaps Ally gets it from her Mom. About a week or two after the wedding, we received a phone call from the mother of the bride wherein she accosted Whitney verbally and demanded her daughter's wedding photos early. She went on to say how Ally was “destroyed" with how awful her formals turned out and that she looked nothing like her engagements. She also said they knew “they were going to hate the wedding photos” before they ever even saw them. She later texted and apologized for being “abrasive” - but has now decided to leave her own review. We can’t control people’s personalities, moods, appearance, or temperament. We make a point on our website and in all our conversations with prospective couples to say that what we do is document authentic moments and connections. This is what we did for Ally. If she doesn’t like how she looks in her photos, perhaps that is less of a reflection of how we shoot and more a reflection of her true nature. These reviews are nothing more than them grasping at straws in a vain attempt to hurt us. We have been professional, accommodating, understanding, supportive, and kind in all our interactions with this couple, and feel sad that they put us in this position where we have to defend ourselves in this way. Finally, for people who "hate their photos" so much, they have sure downloaded them a lot. :)

ur best to make sure the personalities align. We are usually pretty good about it, but in this case we obviously misjudged Ally. After getting to know her, it is not surprising to us at all that she took the time to write such a dishonest and disparaging review. We reached out and gave Ally and her mom time to take down their reviews before we shared details about their characters, but they chose to ignore us. Ally is an angry person. When we shot her formals session, they showed up 30 minutes late. We were completely understanding and said it wasn’t a big deal and that we would stay a little later to make up the time. As they walked towards us there was a strange vibe coming from the bride. We tried talking to her but she was standoffish and silent. We pushed on and tried to start the shoot when Ally broke and said she needed a second. She proceeded to literally swat and verbally assault her fiancé, saying "she fu**ing hated him” for making them late. When we asked them to cuddle or kiss, the groom would try to do so, and she would respond with “ Don’t you f***ing touch me?” and would push him away. This continued for the duration of the shoot. We have NEVER seen anything like this before in all our years photographing, and yet we were expected to make them look like they were in love. It was very awkward. Even on the wedding day, she was angry. We had more than one vendor come up to as and ask, “What is Ally’s problem?” Ally is not confident in her own skin and pushed that insecurity onto us, expecting us to cure her pain. When we first met Ally for her engagement session in 2019, the first thing she said to Whitney was, “My mother says I have a tendency to make myself look chubby in photos. It has always stuck with me when I get pictures taken. Can you please make sure I look thin?” Not knowing how to react and the weight of expectation she had just placed on us, Whitney did her best to brush those comments off and to lift Ally’s confidence throughout the shoot. We are certainly proud of how those photos turned out and are glad that Ally loves them. Fast-forward to 2021 when we next saw Ally for her formal session a week before the wedding. We noticed that her appearance had changed drastically since we last saw her in 2019. Of course, for us this was not an issue. We are all about body positivity and don’t believe in altering a person’s appearance. We told her repeatedly how good she looked. However, Ally commented again about her weight and said that she had actually gone through 3 wedding dresses due to how much weight she had gained since the engagement session. She demanded that we make her look “flattering” in all the photos and made comments constantly throughout the shoot about it. She questioned our abilities and our posing suggestions and didn’t do what we asked of her. Despite this, just like the engagement session, the photos turned out beautifully. On the wedding day, when Alan asked if they wanted to do any more formal photos (something we always ask) she said, “why, did you not get good photos at the formals session?” Ally changed her wedding date. As a result, Whitney was no longer available for her wedding. We did not charge Ally a rescheduling fee to change the date, and even gave her a discount on her formals session. Dealing with the pandemic has been a challenge for all wedding vendors, and we have done our very best to accommodate all our couples needing to make changes. It was hardly a bait and switch. Alan is the co-owner of Grey Giraffe. His work has been published in magazines and the site is full of 5-star reviews for weddings he has shot. Alan and Whitney both came to the formals shoot to help make the transition smooth. Alan was not rushed at all during the wedding. Much like the formals session, when Alan gave direction for family pictures, he was ignored or told to do something different. The groom’s family pictures turned out better because they listened and trusted Alan. It should also be noted that during the formals session, Ally actually said, “I don’t care at all about the groom’s family, I only care about my family pictures.” Again, a statement we have NEVER heard before. Perhaps Ally gets it from her Mom. About a week or two after the wedding, we received a phone call from the mother of the bride wherein she accosted Whitney verbally and demanded her daughter's wedding photos early. She went on to say how Ally was “destroyed" with how awful her formals turned out and that she looked nothing like her engagements. She also said they knew “they were going to hate the wedding photos” before they ever even saw them. She later texted and apologized for being “abrasive” - but has now decided to leave her own review. We can’t control people’s personalities, moods, appearance, or temperament. We make a point on our website and in all our conversations with prospective couples to say that what we do is document authentic moments and connections. This is what we did for Ally. If she doesn’t like how she looks in her photos, perhaps that is less of a reflection of how we shoot and more a reflection of her true nature. These reviews are nothing more than them grasping at straws in a vain attempt to hurt us. We have been professional, accommodating, understanding, supportive, and kind in all our interactions with this couple, and feel sad that they put us in this position where we have to defend ourselves in this way. Finally, for people who "hate their photos" so much, they have sure downloaded them a lot. :)

ir representation of the facts, so we would like to respond to each point in your review. For reference, here is a blog post highlighting your wedding: http://greygiraffe.com/blog/2021/4/liz-amp-larry-wedding 1. "We incorrectly assumed that they would fill Alyssa in on what we wanted and the vision we had of what photos/shots we wanted." Response: I am not entirely sure what you mean here, but we did have a conversation with Alyssa about your wedding before making introducing her to you. She also spent ample time working with you on your vision beforehand, including talking on the phone with you and sending out a questionnaire to get to know you better. Not understanding your complaint here. 2. "Alyssa took forever to get back with us or even respond to our emails.." Response: You emailed Alyssa on 9/14 at 1:38pm requesting a meeting, she responded to you the very same day at 9:14pm and confirmed the appt. time. On 9/28, the day of the scheduled meeting, you sent her an email to confirm and she responded an hour late confirming her availability for either a voice or video chat that afternoon. In all the correspondence we have seen, Alyssa responded both quickly and professionally. 3. "..but eventually confirmed via email that she received our 'shot' list. She only got about half of our shot list and missed an extremely one-time only shot..." Response: Alyssa sent you a questionnaire before the wedding and asked if there were any specific shots you wanted. The only shot you specifically mentioned in here was a group shot of everyone. Alyssa was able to get that shot. I believe you may have also requested at another time a shot of your first kiss with all the guest reactions in it. Unfortunately, since you were in a covered gazebo, and the guests were in full sun, there was no way to get this shot. Cameras cannot expose for two completely different lighting scenarios in the same shot. She would have either had to expose for you, or you guests, but not both in the same shot. Also, the photos she did get of the first kiss are objectively beautiful and artistically captured in every way. 4. "A lot of the photos are blurry..." Response: I just looked through your gallery again, and do not see these blurry photos you are referring to. Your wedding was captured beautifully and artistically and we fully stand by the work. Additionally, I will say, a photo being blurry does not automatically make it a bad photo either. But, again, in your case, I am not seeing blurry photos in the gallery. 5. "she continuously used a garage as our background even though we were at a very beautiful mountain wedding venue." Response: Whether it is a garage or not, the photos were captured and composed wonderfully. Alyssa framed the photos based on a number of elements, among them being the lighting. The angle facing the mountain was not, in Alyssa’s professional opinion, the best lighting. As wedding photographers, our first priority when thinking about lighting is to expose for people, not the scenery. In this case, getting the mountains in the background (which were far away in the distance) was not possible. 6. "We did not move from the garage until we specifically asked to.." Response: Alyssa made a creative judgement call to do the photos where she did. The photos she got are very good and we stand by them. When you asked her to move and shoot somewhere different, she did as she was asked cheerfully. 7. "She also did not get one single shot of just us (the bride & groom) facing the camera." Response: This is categorically untrue. There are at least 5 formal photos where you are both facing and looking at the camera. 8. "The only direction we received was “Look lovingly at each other”, and “You’re naturals, keep doing that.” By looking at the photos sent to us, there is little to no variation of poses, just us looking at each other." Response: Again, if you look at the blog post, you will see that there is a good variety of images and poses, and you both look beautiful in all of them. When you inquired, we shared with you this about what our style is: “the way we approach our photography is all about responding creatively to the day to capture your authentic personalities. It is about crafting a visual narrative of your wedding day/weekend and love for each other in a real way by capturing all those little details and unseen in-between moments, in addition to all the traditional shots that mom’s love. It’s letting things happen and documenting it honestly and artistically.” And when we emailed you about needing to work with Alyssa, we described her style to you in the following way: "Alyssa is very similar to us in that her focus is on storytelling. She captures the family pictures, etc. but really specializes in documenting authentic details, moments, and emotion to create a visual narrative of your day. She has a remarkable eye for light and moments.” I don’t know how we could have been clearer. Your gallery is reflective of the way we always shoot. 9. "Not one traditional portrait pose. This is not what we had discussed with the owners..." Response: Read the response to the last item. We always try to get a few traditional posed shots, but our style is very much about capturing authentic and real moments and interactions between our couples. We are clear about that on our website, and were clear about that in our correspondence with you when you were looking into booking us. In looking through your gallery, you have a nice mix of both. 10. "ever had the opportunity to discuss with Alyssa our replacement photographer." Response: We already addressed this above. You emailed and spoke with Alyssa before the wedding on many occasions. She was responsive and professional in every way. 11. "We tried contacting Grey Giraffe Photography after we received our photos and realized they were not what we had agreed upon with Alan and Whitney, but they have completely ignored our emails." Response: You did send us a lengthy letter. And it is true that we did not respond to it. This is because (a) you did not ask us any questions nor did you ask us to respond and (b) the letter was very condescending and aggressive. We simply felt that the best option was to let you say your piece and for both parties to move on. I will respond to one comment you made in the letter where, at the end of the letter, you said the entire “point of this letter is simply to let you know how utterly devastated we are with the product and for you to perhaps have some training or at least have a talk with Alyssa about the quality of her work.” To respond, I will say that Alyssa has been shooting and documenting weddings at a very high level for more than 10 years. She has a BFA in photography, as well. She has been shooting with us for many years. Her work speaks for herself. She is highly qualified, well-respected, and does not deserve to be talked about in such derogatory terms. She documented your wedding honestly and artistically. We stand by her completely. 12. "We do not recommend them, at all." Response: Bottom line: art is subjective. Clearly, we were not a good fit for each other. However, we did our very best to be upfront about how we shoot. We were professional in every way, fulfilled every measure of the contract, and even delivered your photos to you early. A 1-star review is not a fair or honest reflection of either us or our work.