Talented Craigslist Wedding Photographer!

canonboy

Hi everyone! I'm a long-time lurker. First time poster.

I stumbled across this Craigslist ad on another forum, and thought this could be very helpful for budget-conscious couples: http://saltlakecity.craigslist.org/crs/1525534132.html

met

Kevin Kramer

wow.. just.. wow..

funny though.

matrix311

interesting. Maybe we should all repost that in our local craiglist locations.

Photometric

Someone has a very angry sense of humor...

Moogle Pepper

Ha! I saw that from one of my twitter friends! What cruel and dark humor! Oh the irony!

Crystal-Pixel

Awesome

Richard

Scott_Quier

That is just too funny! I read it out loud for my son and he cracked up as well!

I seem to recall reading something like that sometime before but I'm not sure. Maybe it's that I did read it on POTN? I don't know.

The sad thing is I'm sure that there is going to be at least on person in the Salt Lake area who will respond with serious intent of getting a cheap wedding photography.

mmmatt

Yeah, I've seen this type of thing before. Gotta wonder if any of that even hits home for the bride reading it. There are some sad ,sad truths in there.

Matt

Tango

I think I will respond to this ad.... Maybe ask if I can be a second shooter for the up and coming business. I have a camera phone... though Im not sure how many shots it will hold, but I believe over a hundred!!

I like classy and elegant too!!!

lilmomma

you know what is just as sad? I was one of those brides :cry yup, $400 for 2 shooters. I was the first wedding, and said I didn't mind being a guinea pig. Ugh, if I could only go back in time. this was about a year ago, before i got into photography. I hired them not having a clue what the difference would be in a cheap photographer vs a quality one, but before the wedding I started dabbling and learning a bit, and by the time i got my pictures back I knew enough to know that I made a huge mistake. I thought, I could do better than that and i'd only been learning for a few months! I think that experience just inspired me to learn all I can and practice just for the pure fact to prove to myself I could. I have no intentions on being a solo wedding photographer or doing it for a business but who knows what the future holds...right now I second for another photog. I love doing it and enjoy not being a primary. But I think this post brings up an important point..people that don't know squat about photography literally think that the big fancy cameras are like magic cameras. And those are the ones that get taken advantage of by the owners of the magic cameras, who also believe this to be true. looking at my pictures makes me sick to my stomach, there are probably like 10 decent ones, and by decent I mean worth keeping. No formals, no fun pictures of me and my husband...just orange grainy crap, all shot in jpg. I was given the originals and the edited ones (which included about 25 edited, and um, that's not edited). AND to top it off, at the reception before the dances they were getting ready to leave because they were almost out of memory.

Oh and i hear the photographer had done about 3 weddings after mine, and now has a website. Pricing starts at $999. I guess I didn't get as screwed as somebody else is going to be.

ian408

This has gone around a couple of times and is probably someone's idea of a joke--at least this particular one. I'm sure there are many people who do start out just like this--which is pretty sad.

VayCayMom

AaronNelson wrote:

I think I will respond to this ad.... Maybe ask if I can be a second shooter for the up and coming business. I have a camera phone... though Im not sure how many shots it will hold, but I believe over a hundred!!

I like classy and elegant too!!!

lmaoooo

mmmatt

definitely a joke. There has been threads about this before and I have seen it locally a well.

Matt

Matthew Saville

lilmomma wrote:

you know what is just as sad? I was one of those brides :cry yup, $400 for 2 shooters. I was the first wedding, and said I didn't mind being a guinea pig. Ugh, if I could only go back in time. this was about a year ago, before i got into photography. I hired them not having a clue what the difference would be in a cheap photographer vs a quality one, but before the wedding I started dabbling and learning a bit, and by the time i got my pictures back I knew enough to know that I made a huge mistake. I thought, I could do better than that and i'd only been learning for a few months! I think that experience just inspired me to learn all I can and practice just for the pure fact to prove to myself I could. I have no intentions on being a solo wedding photographer or doing it for a business but who knows what the future holds...right now I second for another photog. I love doing it and enjoy not being a primary. But I think this post brings up an important point..people that don't know squat about photography literally think that the big fancy cameras are like magic cameras. And those are the ones that get taken advantage of by the owners of the magic cameras, who also believe this to be true. looking at my pictures makes me sick to my stomach, there are probably like 10 decent ones, and by decent I mean worth keeping. No formals, no fun pictures of me and my husband...just orange grainy crap, all shot in jpg. I was given the originals and the edited ones (which included about 25 edited, and um, that's not edited). AND to top it off, at the reception before the dances they were getting ready to leave because they were almost out of memory.

Oh and i hear the photographer had done about 3 weddings after mine, and now has a website. Pricing starts at $999. I guess I didn't get as screwed as somebody else is going to be.

Sometimes I consider offering a service to let-down brides, to give my best shot at polishing their turd photos and seeing if anything can shine through and be artistic. I hate to admit it, but I've shot some pretty ghetto weddings in my day, and my wife has seen the "before and after" of the photos, saying "WOW they'd be so screwed if they hadn't hired you and you processed the images the way you did!"

It would be like a loan modification process- you show me a sampling of the photos taken by el-crap-o photographer, and I decide whether or not we can do business. Then maybe $1 per image, if I think there's gold underneath the mud.

What do you think, Melissa?

=Matt=

cr8ingwaves

Matt,
That would be a wonderful service to offer.

Blurmore

People who post these things have WAY...WAY...WAY...too much time on their hands...

SRSLY if you feel like you are losing business to craigslist postings, you may want to change "professions". We on the Baltimore craigslist have this "artist avenger" type who chastises and hounds people who post in creative for opportunities that offer little or no money. My feeling is STFU. If you don't want to do it...don't respond, take care of your business, spread your roots, and don't worry about everyone else.

Kevin Kramer

Blurmore wrote:

People who post these things have WAY...WAY...WAY...too much time on their hands...

SRSLY if you feel like you are losing business to craigslist postings, you may want to change "professions". We on the Baltimore craigslist have this "artist avenger" type who chastises and hounds people who post in creative for opportunities that offer little or no money. My feeling is STFU. If you don't want to do it...don't respond, take care of your business, spread your roots, and don't worry about everyone else.

We have one of those up here in the Philadelphia Craigslist area too. I just checked right now and there's one for a photographer needed with no pay.. and i can 100% guarantee you that it's not going to be up there later on because it will be flagged as spam, and the bitter person is going to post a reply to it..

A few of them sound fun enough to do though..

lilmomma

Matthew Saville wrote:

Sometimes I consider offering a service to let-down brides, to give my best shot at polishing their turd photos and seeing if anything can shine through and be artistic. I hate to admit it, but I've shot some pretty ghetto weddings in my day, and my wife has seen the "before and after" of the photos, saying "WOW they'd be so screwed if they hadn't hired you and you processed the images the way you did!"

It would be like a loan modification process- you show me a sampling of the photos taken by el-crap-o photographer, and I decide whether or not we can do business. Then maybe $1 per image, if I think there's gold underneath the mud.

What do you think, Melissa?

=Matt=

that is a very generous offer, I will upload all the originals to a gallery and PM you. I played a lot with them, but after going through them all this time maybe it takes some fresh eyes. Thank you Matt!

e mari ad terram

Matthew Saville wrote:

Sometimes I consider offering a service to let-down brides, to give my best shot at polishing their turd photos and seeing if anything can shine through and be artistic. I hate to admit it, but I've shot some pretty ghetto weddings in my day, and my wife has seen the "before and after" of the photos, saying "WOW they'd be so screwed if they hadn't hired you and you processed the images the way you did!"

It would be like a loan modification process- you show me a sampling of the photos taken by el-crap-o photographer, and I decide whether or not we can do business. Then maybe $1 per image, if I think there's gold underneath the mud.

What do you think, Melissa?

=Matt=

I think you may really have something here... I had a friend who asked me to be in the wedding, and unfortunately not shoot the wedding. It was evident from the start that the photo's were not going to be good, just by what I saw of the shooter. I couldn't say anything then, cause it would have just caused chaos (maybe I should have). All I could do was hope that I could "polish those turds" when the files came back to them. It was tough work and a LOT of post process, but we did get some to turn around. Not many, but some, and they were so grateful. I still feel bad. I am not a wedding photog, someday maybe, but on my worst day, I would have done better.

I am sure you could definitely find a lot of willing couples to take you on, what do they have to lose? You would only be improving the situation.

Tango

e mari ad terram wrote:

I think you may really have something here... I had a friend who asked me to be in the wedding, and unfortunately not shoot the wedding. It was evident from the start that the photo's were not going to be good, just by what I saw of the shooter. I couldn't say anything then, cause it would have just caused chaos (maybe I should have). All I could do was hope that I could "polish those turds" when the files came back to them. It was tough work and a LOT of post process, but we did get some to turn around. Not many, but some, and they were so grateful. I still feel bad. I am not a wedding photog, someday maybe, but on my worst day, I would have done better.

I am sure you could definitely find a lot of willing couples to take you on, what do they have to lose? You would only be improving the situation.

reminds me of a Staples TV commercial where the little ol' barber has a big chain move in across the street charging $6 dollars per hair cut, so little ol'barber goes to staples and has a sign made, reading: "we fix $6 cuts"

squiddy

awesome!!