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kathy2

Professional photographer with a Studio.

Accidentally deleted most of my Wedding photos except few before cermony. (about 10 shots) So he is offering a full refund and a framed protrait from the few he has left.

He has also got a few that a friend of mine took and put them in a photo book, its okay but cermony is very fuzzy and group out of focus and so on.

Its not terrible but its pretty bad.

I am upset and want to ring his neck he was supposed to be a professional, Would I be wasting my time sueing him??:rolleyes:

smelltheglove

Hi Kathy, I am sorry to hear this has happened to you. He most likely has a clause in the contract that covers for this sort of situation. I have one myself although my main reason for it is the chance of a memory card / camera/ camera bag being stolen.

There is nothing much more he can do after giving you a refund, I have heard of situations before where photographers also use guest shots to make an album so I am sure if you rpovide him with as many guest shots as possible he will do his best to come up with something good.

CabanSail

I would hold off on the sueing just for the moment.

Firstly let me say that, unfortunately these things happen & mistakes are made. This does not make things any easier for you though. If the files are really lost (I am assuming they have tried all the recovery techniques etc.) then nothing will bring back those images. That is a real shame, but a reality that you will have to accept.

If he is Professional then he should carry a Professional Indemnity Insurance policy which should cover him & yourself. This may involve some sort of financial compensation or the cost of a reshoot. You will have to discuss this with them & find out the options available. I would be getting some legal advice as to where you stand & get the lawyer to inquire about the options for redress.

I know you must be very upset by these circumsatnces but this is also a nightmare for the Photographer.

Can I ask, how many Photographers were actaully at the wedding? How many cameras did they have each?

Slidinginfinity

Before you start legal proceedings, I can not believe that this photographer does not have some sort of data recovery program. If he hasn't tried to recover the photos yet you might suggest he try Phoenix Stellar Photo Recovery. I have had amazing results with this program even recovered photos from a formatted memory card.

The photographer should absorb the cost of this program, under 45 euro, as part of his initial price. He will then have the program for future errors.

AnCatDubh

Suing is always going to be an option in a case like this but as Smelltheglove states - 'disasters' may be covered in the contract and its likely that the legal profession will get a little richer out of it all. Darn them

I also appreciate how much you must be upset by the whole thing.

You got me thinking about my own wedding album (i've posted about on the forum before) which is pretty bad - thank God I didn't take it myself - infact just one step better than not having any album, so i'm probably just a little better off than you. There is only one image (yes one!) that myself and my wife would be proud of and that one has become our portrait on the wall. The album doesn't see the light of day too often (it has been years at this stage) - having said that I would love to have had a good album. We regularly go back over holiday and other special images which are great. Alas, the supplied album doesn't make for great viewing. We did however (without knowing how bad the professional's attempts would be) get a portrait session done whilst on honeymoon and this and the one other good one is probably our most cherished of the time.

My suggestion is to bring it forward for you is to consider the following;

A repeat session. Trash the dress sessions are popular - not suggesting that you would need to trash your dress but your wedding was recent so you won't have any issue's about getting back into the dress. Make another special day out of it. Get the husband back into his suit and get a formal portrait session out of the professional. You could extend it to the bridesmaids and grooms men too assuming they are relatively local. You could do a studio portrait session or could do something really magic by going on location. Ironically (and if done right) with this you could be the envy of every new bride you'll come in contact with. You can make a real event from it and it could be a whole lot of fun ( particularly if you hit every hotel on the way home and claim your wedding was booked with them now that evening )

My guess is that the professional would be so glad that you have a suggested way out of the debacle that he would willingly provide this for you at zero cost including a printing/framing package - and would probably pay (or be covered on his insurance) for the the trimmings (make up, hair, etc..).

Look, it won't/nothing will replace stunning shots taken on the day but having said that in my scenario the shots taken on the day aren't that good anyway so the small number we have of the time are the visual memories for us.

Sorry for your trouble on it and I hope the above helps.

bullpost

If recovery is not possible I wonder if he'd consider a limited reshoot. You and spouse and best man with parents etc. - Might not be practical but in time you might be glad you did it as these things take on greater value as you get older.
Whoops - didn't see the previous post in time !

TelePaul

kathy2 wrote: »

Professional photographer

and

kathy2 wrote: »

Accidentally deleted

don't go in the same sentence. I'm most certainly an amateur but I'd have a craic at recovering images...so long as they weren't shot over.

Doctor Tunes

I've used Sandisk Rescuepro to recover files from a memory card formatted twice. Works great.

Howitzer

..also interested to know if he tried to recover images - and also hasn't gone ahead and re-used the cards for another job - that would seem negligent if it was the case. (would mean he overwrote the images beyond recovery)

CabanSail

It would be interesting to know how the deletion happened.

Surely it would not have been trusted to one card in one body.

Then when the files have been uploaded, surely there would have been a back-up made before the cards were reused.

eas

CabanSail wrote: »

It would be interesting to know how the deletion happened.

Surely it would not have been trusted to one card in one body.

Then when the files have been uploaded, surely there would have been a back-up made before the cards were reused.

I agree - it would be very bad luck to delete a memory card(s) before having time to back them up. Perhaps they where deleted somehow while in the process of backing up the files. It's hard to guess how something like this happens.

Anyhow, OP a terrible situation for you and your hubby (and somewhat for the photographer). I'm not sure if legal action is what's called for, but I hope the photographer is offering you everything in his power to make it up to you.

City-Exile

I've recovered images too.
It's human nature to make mistakes, but a pro should have a contingency.

Cabaal

City-Exile wrote: »

I've recovered images too.
It's human nature to make mistakes, but a pro should have a contingency.

Agreed,
Given his/her lively hood is based on his photos he should have a raid setup to backup work incase of harddrive failure (which imho doesn't happen that much really)

Over the years I've had drive issues and in the past three years I've had two of the same make of drive fail (don't use that brand anymore), I recovered 99.9% of data from these drives thankfully

smelltheglove

off topic, cabaal could you tell us the brand so we steer clear, I am so paranoid of this happening. Also I requested my dvd guy recently to send me another copy of the dvd, only 16months ago, (dont usually know that just counted) and I only recieved the dvd about 11 mths ago and he no longer has a copy.

As far as I know as a professional photogs etc should keep files for at least a year.

kathy2

The wedding was a year and a half ago.

He claims a girl on work experience last summer deleted them and he did not realise untill I looked for album 5 or 6 months later and he did try every thing to recover them.

By the way still have proof sheets but they are not blowing up to any kind of size you could use.

Thanks for all repies given me some insight

CabanSail

This places a different light on the situation. I am still very surprised that they did not have a secure back up of all their work in at least one other place. This does not strike me as being professional. Most hobbiest make sure they back up their images.

The work experience girl story, to me, sounds in the same league as "the dog ate my homework" as far as excuses go.

I would still make inquiries about their cover for Professional Indemnity, though I wonder if any policy has cover for gross negligence.

Do you have much from the original album/prints that could be rescanned?

Paulw

After that length of time, I doubt you would have any legal recourse against the photographer, unless there is something in the original contract that states a duration of time he will keep your images for.

I know most would only keep images for a year. Again, if they were accidentilly deleted, and it wasn't noticed for a long period, there may be nothing at all that can be done, unless they had some external backup of the images.

Unfortunately, in your case, there may be nothing you can do. That's a real shame.

Borderfox

Such a pity you didnt get a copy of the hi-res images, I always have two seperate copies of Weddings shots on the day spread of around 10 different cards and backed up on an Epson p3000, shots are then backed up on archive quality DVD's and three different hard- drives.

I had received a call from a Bride who didnt receive any pictures from the photographer and only got a set of proof sheets (About 3 inch by 2 inch) bear in mind this was three years after the wedding. I scanned in all the shots and cleaned them up and put them together in a slideshow with their favourite music and they were delighted. All that was done to the shots was to scan them and levels.

Its up on my blog under restoration (Nicola & Mick)

http://keithjackphotography.blogspot.com/

Doctor Tunes

kathy2 wrote: »

He claims a girl on work experience last summer deleted them and he did not realise untill I looked for album 5 or 6 months later and he did try every thing to recover them.

And he doesn't backup all his work? Sounds like an idiot.

Cameraman

Apart from the advice the others have given, I would get some family portraits taken (free, of course). In the long run, they will really be the some of the most important ones form the day - and possibly the most realistic to recreate.

(Off-topic - a RAID system, on it's own, is not a sufficient backup solution, in case anyone was thinking of getting one).