Photographer lost our wedding photos

Hefferzzzz

Hefferzzzz

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Neil
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Posting this for a friend who is in need of advice and thought you guys might be able to offer up some advice....I have removed bride and grooms names..

As most of you know, I got married in June. Everything went perfect and everyone had a really good time.

We paid for a "professional" photographer to take snaps throughout the day, starting with the wife getting ready in the morning and finishing at about 3-4pm. We even paid extra for him to do a "photobooth" which went down really well. However, 4 months have now passed and despite me and B emailing him, we've not heard anything. At this point, we both said that we wouldnt recommend him to anyone.

The mother in law called him on Wednesday last week to chase some extra photos that she'd ordered and was told - "Oh, I was just emailing B&G now with an update, you'll have the photos by the weekend". We were happy with this, even though it's taken forever. Later that day, B got an emailing telling her that he'd LOST ALL OF THE PHOTOS!!!!!!

As you can imagine, I was a little angry so I called him up and asked what had happened. The hard drive he used was "broken" and all the photos had gone. When I asked if he'd back them up, he said no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How the hell can he not back up the photos! This is his full time job!!!!!

Obviously I'm getting a full refund (after arguing with him) but that's not going to replace the photos of our wedding. B is devastated and I'm furious so what can I do????? Take him to court? Put him in the papers???

What do you guys think?
 
Taking him to court may get you/them some compensation, but it won't get the photos back if his hard drive is fried, likewise going to the papers. The sad fact is nothing much short of professional recovery will get the pics back. It might be worth letting the photographer know about proper recovery (lots of people don't realise this can be done) he may be in a position to get the pics back and job finished.
I never understand why people don't back stuff up properly, but I know personally at least 2 wedding photographers who only ever have one copy of the wedding, scary!
 
I have to say.. I smell a rat...he has them for FOUR MONTHS then the very weekend he finally says you can have them.. his hard drive packs up.. not only that..he has no backups.. not only that he doesnt know about recovery... Sorry but that sounds like a croc to me..

Chances are he has all the pics and they are all crap :(
 
It's difficult without knowing all the facts, but it's exceedingly uncommon for a hard drive to break beyond the point data can be restored. Are you sure he's full time? because any decent sized business would have the resources to deal with this properly. Backups, a budget to pay for data recovery, insurance to pay for a re-shoot.

Your friends could sue if he has insurance, they may be able to get enough money for a re-shoot. However, even in the worst cases that we've seen in the press I can't remember anyone being awarded those kinds of damages (not saying it can't happen).

I think rather than a starting point of 'what can be done?', they should start with 'what is it that we want?', that will drive the situation forward in the direction that suits their needs rather than just making a big noise.

The cynical wedding photographer though: There should be enough pictures taken by all the guests (I can't move at a wedding without tripping over another camera wielding guest), they could collect those pictures for an album and do something nice with the money they get from the photographer.
 
Definitely sounds like a croc of ***** to me! If he was insured, most insurers cover this scenario and pay for the recovery of the images on the faulty drive. It seems that he's just realised that the images are rubbish and he doesn't want to show them. 4 Months though, if I had to wait that long it would be more than a case of calling him to see what's wrong?
 
I'd be tempted to go and pay him an unannounced visit. Be polite and friendly but insist on being shown the fried hard drive. If he can genuinely show you the drive is corrupt then look in to ways he can get the data recovered. If h can't show you a corrupt drive then the chances are he has a crap set of photos sitting on a drive somewhere that you can see and try and make the best of.
 
Thanks for the advice people....this is the latest...

After a long argument, he is getting all his money back plus the photos that the tog does have on a CD.

He said that he'd known for 3 months!!! But chose not to tell them, so he just ignored emails instead.
 
Type1 said:
Thanks for the advice people....this is the latest...

After a long argument, he is getting all his money back plus the photos that the tog does have on a CD.

He said that he'd known for 3 months!!! But chose not to tell them, so he just ignored emails instead.
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If he'd lost his only copies on a dead HDD, how are there 'some' surviving?

Can't help but feel this is complete bo ll ox :cautious:
 
The tog involved ought not be doing wedding photos : I'd be inclined to make sure the matter gets enough publicity to ensure that no-one hires that guy again. Not only does it sound like he's a poor photographer but he has a tendency for porkies too.
 
I now have the togs details and the thing I cannot get my head around is that the guy looks like he very succesful at what he does.....he has a decent studio and seems very slick with lots of different portfolio work on his website :thinking:
 
If your asked to name and shame then I probably wouldn't do that... It does all smell to me and most others on here.. But we are not there.. we probably havent got 100% of the facts so you could do the guy an injustice... theres always that 1%

I believe we are getting this info third hand as it is yes?

But 99% its dodgy :)
 
Type1 said:
I now have the togs details and the thing I cannot get my head around is that the guy looks like he very succesful at what he does.....he has a decent studio and seems very slick with lots of different portfolio work on his website :thinking:
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There are so many variables to explain this:

From 'his websites full of lifted photo's' to 'he had a bad day and messed up with some data cleansing', But whichever, the story (as we hear it) is full of holes.:cautious:
 
KIPAX said:
If your asked to name and shame then I probably wouldn't do that... It does all smell to me and most others on here.. But we are not there.. we probably havent got 100% of the facts so you could do the guy an injustice... theres always that 1%

I believe we are getting this info third hand as it is yes?

But 99% its dodgy :)
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Yep. Thats why I have not and will not put his details up here.

Like I said, the images he has in his galleries are good, he has a nice studio and he seems to have a lot of happy customers on facebook etc.


He has apparently said that he's managed to recover less than half but the biggest he can print them is 2x2.....
 
Type1 said:
Yeah. Not too sure on that, not come across that problem before :shrug:
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They're the thumbnails.

I'm still pretty sure if the photographer got his head out of his arse he'd be able to recover the pics.
 
Phil V said:
I'm still pretty sure if the photographer got his head out of his arse he'd be able to recover the pics.
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I would pretty much agree with that..
 
Something iffy. He is offering money back, but that's not the whole story. Why would anyone hide for 3 months.
 
bigrob said:
Something iffy. He is offering money back, but that's not the whole story. Why would anyone hide for 3 months.
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Not being able to cope. There's a surprising number of 'successful' people who struggle to cope when trouble strikes and things get out of their control.

I do hope there is a satisfying and equitable solution to all this.
 
If your hard drive breaks and there is data on it, data recovery is an option, id ask and see if he has the hard drive still and make him go through a data recovery company to see if possible to recover anything. cost is usually 400quid upwards but if theres a chance. Though a bit unusual for any professional to not have a backup anywhere at all tho I guess some are naive. However it seems unlikely they'd wait so long to tell you they lost all the photos as it only makes it more difficult. something else prob going on
 
bigrob said:
Something iffy. He is offering money back, but that's not the whole story. Why would anyone hide for 3 months.
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Money back?

A reputable photographer would have professional indemnity insurance to cover restaging the critical shots, and a cautious client would have a copy of the certificate at the point of booking.

Money back doesn't cover the half of it.. ..
 
wedding insurance or his pro-insurance will cover the costs of a reshoot...a decent photographer, some critical family, some nice bubbly and suit hire could get you a few nice photos in your (friends) finery.
HDD recovery is 100 quid or 1000 quid depending upon if it needs to be dismantled in a clean-room and remounted.
It sounds as if your friend has received the sample thumbnails from the website gallery or something which would be only 600x400px sometimes. or smaller.
This is quite strange. I know some well reputed studio photographers (award winning) in my neck of the woods that I wouldn't hire for weddings.
Perhaps a matter of taste but that was the opinion of the whole family having seen the results.
 
insurance may cover the cost of a reshoot - this is why we have business costs insurance, however to date no one in the uk has been awarded that, and courts tend to see liability being limited to the return of money paid - it may be worth trying but it equally may not be successful.

as phil said chances are good that these pics are recoverable - though it depends what's up with the hard drive - a pro recovery company can read the data off the platters even if the read heads on the drive are borked - but that costs serious money (about 400 quid when a friend had it done 2 years back)

the other thing the OP should look at is canvassing all the guests to see what shots they have - theres usually several uncle bobs/auntie robertas who may have nearly everything anyway.
 
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Over the years we've have perhaps 30+ HD's go pop and need to be recovered by a specialist (laptop stuff where the user has avoided backups!) - price is typically around the £400 mark give or take and normally very successful - we usually get most if not all of the data we need back. This isn't from a photography business mind, but I can't see why, if HD failure is really the cause, it would not be £400 well spent.

If the images were that important, I'd even be tempted to pay myself in the first instance and seek to recover costs later, but that really depends on the significance of the images.
 
So basically, we've got an entire thread full of the same answer, and it's got wedding in the title. We should lock it now.
 
Weddings :runaway:

I say we take off and nuke the new site from orbit... its the only way to be sure :LOL:
 
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Assuming he isn't actually lying and has lost them...

Seriously?! I cannot comprehend how anyone could not have backups when shooting an important event such as a wedding. I have heart palpitations if I don't have at least three copies of everything in at least two different physical locations, and I only second shoot weddings or do them as a favour for friends etc, let alone professionally!
 
For him to know about having the hard drive corrupt for 3 months, if that is the case he could have done something about it and recovered the images as its not a impossible task, special with 3 month period, Really does sound like a cover up for something else that has gone wrong if you ask me...
 
Type1 said:
He has apparently said that he's managed to recover less than half but the biggest he can print them is 2x2.....
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Ok, there could be an issue with the FAT table on the hard disk. I have seen it before when images have been saved, then the system over-writes them with other data.
This can happen over a long period of time, and browsing a folder wouldn't necessarilly show the problem (as the thumbnails could be elsewhere).
To make matters worse, if the backup is then made/re-checked, the images that were good in the backup could be over-written with the corrupt data. Non-platter based recovery of this data would not yield results, at which point you are looking at 1-10 thousand per disk usually. However, I would expect suitable insurance to cover this, assuming that it wasn't a personal computer (i.e. non-company owned), as company insurance isn't valid on personal items.

What should happen is that the 'tog should be educated to keep an original copy of all images (negatives) as taken from the memory card immediately.
 
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It looks like the recovery options are not fully explored. i.e. the HDD, the memory cards etc.. either way its a poor show, especially as right at the beginning of the process most PRO DSLR's shoot to 2 cards now
 
Hard drives don't typically just "break." There'll be warning signs before this happens. Many times a hard drive will become corrupted and will appear broken since you can't even log into windows with it or slave it. In these situations the data is easily retrievable with data recovery software.
 
Hard drives break all the time. Success of recovery depends on mode of failure and how much you want them back. Isn't this the thread where they could supply thumbnails? Sounds very fishy...
 
landwomble said:
Hard drives break all the time. Success of recovery depends on mode of failure and how much you want them back. Isn't this the thread where they could supply thumbnails? Sounds very fishy...
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Anyone professional wouldn't NEED professional data recovery, as they'd have adequate back up, and I don't mean just having a copy on a second hard drive either.. I mean proper back up. Professional data recovery is hugely expensive and only a complete fool would actually rely on it as a strategy. Plus.. sometimes data can not be recovered from a failed drive, depending on what caused the issue. As womble said above.. drives break all the time... with monotonous regularity sometimes. Anyone who relies on a single hard drive when it contains customer's images or data doesn't deserve to be in business. If you don't have at least two tiers of redundancy in your back up, you're just not taking this seriously.
 
I shot my sisters wedding and I copied each memory card to my laptop, then out to 2 external HDD whilst syncing my laptop with Dropbox (which in turn syncs with my RAID6, dual backup NAS at home)

Maybe I'm paranoid, maybe it's because I'm an IT geek for my day job but storage is cheap - recovering data isn't.
 
I'm not a pro photographer by any standard but ive shot 3 weddings now, I use new memory cards and back them up to a portable drive (both cheap as chips at the moment) each time and put them away in the safe when Ive uploaded them, There is no excuse specially 4 months on the photographer is full of S**t in my opinion.
 
Krichton said:
Hard drives don't typically just "break." There'll be warning signs before this happens. Many times a hard drive will become corrupted and will appear broken since you can't even log into windows with it or slave it. In these situations the data is easily retrievable with data recovery software.
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I've had a couple that exhibited no warning signs at all. That said, I do have a drive in my media rig that has been proffering the "windows detects a hard drive is about to die" message for about 18 months now and it's still going strong. I'm keeping it in there just to see what happens now!
 
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