I hired Lisa to photograph my wedding this past October. I recently received my final gallery and was extremely disappointed with the results. In addition to missing VIP photos, many of the formal photos were out of focus, overexposed or just ...plain bad. IMO, Lisa is an amateur wedding photographer who has little skill creating & editing photos.
While attempting to work through the issues, Lisa became extremely defensive & unprofessional. She took no responsibility for her mishaps but rather placed ridiculous blame on me. Major issues include not delivering formal pictures (taken on a lawn overlooking Wychmere harbor) of the B&G, B&G with bride’s parents and B&G with groom’s parents. These VIP photos are Wedding Photography 101. Her excuses include that she only had me and my husband pose on the lawn to “test her lighting” and she is not responsible for the others since I didn’t provide a photo list. We had only 9 family members total and almost 2 hours for formal pictures – plenty of time to get these perfect. I gave a list of all family members & assumed a professional photographer would know which combos would be expected photos by any bride. What irritates me is that my family and I all remember posing for the pictures; she just claims she didn’t have them. So instead of owning up to the fact that there was likely some sort of technical glitch, she placed the blame on me for not specifically asking for these shots either before or during my wedding day. Why would I ask for something I thought was already done? The formal pictures I did receive were overexposed. Most notably, the sky is white and washed out. I provided Lisa with a picture taken from a cell phone that clearly shows a blue sky with some white clouds. Lisa argues that it was actually overcast, thus arguing with actual photographic proof! She takes no ownership that she overexposed the photo and didn’t have the skill, time or desire to do some basic photo editing. I have since provided a few of my pictures to a photo editor for their opinion which was that Lisa simply “used a filter on the entire image to smooth things. It’s an incredibly unprofessional/beginner approach to retouching images.”
Given the fact that VIP photos were missing and the finished photos were in no way representative of the photos on her website, I requested a 50% refund to which she refused indicating that she is not at all responsible given that:
1) Other people were taking photos. IMO, a true professional would deal with this and do their job. She never expressed an issue with the 2 family members discreetly taking some pictures. Had she exercised her right to ask them to stop, I would have enforced it.
2) I did not provide a photo list. She said to keep it “short and basic” so I listed all 9 family members and their roles. Had she asked for specifics, I would have obliged but she didn't. Incidentally, 2 of the 3 photos I did specifically ask for on the list were never captured.
3) I never met with her face-to-face prior to the wedding. I live in Texas and explained I wouldn’t be on the Cape until the wedding. Only after the fact was it an issue.
I firmly do not recommend Lisa. I was harshly deceived and misled by the photos on her website and fooled by her 5 star reviews. IMO, she lacks the passion, confidence, skill and knowledge to be in charge of capturing a bride and groom’s once in a lifetime event. She took no responsibility which speaks volumes about her character as well.