My wedding photog went out of business. Options for prints?

Helvegr

Hi all--

Not sure if this is the best place to post this but I'll give it a try. Its a long and strange tale, so i wont bore you all with it, but the bottom line is my wife and I never got the package of photos we had purchased from our wedding photographer. The photographer appears to have gone out of business and we've not found any way to reach them.

All we have from the wedding is the proof book from which we were to pick out the images we wanted. Do I have any options to use those images to get some prints? Keep in mind that all I have is the physical book, I have no digital images. I'm assuming that any photo lab would assume I'm trying to get these images for free and not scan them in. I don't blame them, I have no real proof.

Just thought I'd ask the wedding photographer's here at dgrin. Any ideas? Do I just try to scan a couple in myself and print? or do I have another option?

Thanks!

Rocketman766

This response may not be of any help to you, but it is possible to retrieve your photos. This very thing happened to my wife and I. My father-in-law was able to get our photos after a few months of searching. It probably helped greatly that he was a lawyer and might have had a few tricks in locating people/companies that others might not know about. I really don't know how he did it or what he did to track them down, but I just wanted to let you know it is possible.

I can't ask how he found the out of business photographer since he is no longer with us....

I would think that if you went to a print shop and talked with them, and also had some type of proof that the photographer/company is no longer in business, they might work with you to supply you with prints somehow. Just a thought... Hope it works out for you in the end.

Lance.

Art Scott

Here is one Idea...your 5D MKll = a macro lens....shhot with a very small DOF so you do not pick up the weave of the paper....process to your liking.....that should get you some decent pix.........Or if the photog has not been out of business for very long send a certified registered letter asking for your digital files...offer to pay a little.....other option is to hire a skip tracer (debt collectors use them and lawyers also) to find the photog..............I would have thought the photog wouold have contacted all of his / her clients offering digital files for sale as a last hurrah unless his /her going out of businesss was due to own death....butthen the estate would normally offer negs / digital files to past clients to raise money for the estate........If I go out of business I will contact all of my portrait and wedding clients asking if they want their digital files.......as I will have absolutley no use for them any longer..............

vivalaveritas

What size are the proofs?

Sam

Helvegr,

I would spend more time trying to locate the photographer.

Was the photographer a real business or a craigslist special? If a real business he or she would have business license, be registered with the State Board Of Equalization, have insurance, bank accounts, etc. Did you pay by check? If so what bank was it deposited into?

How long did you wait before the photog disappeared? Did you file a police report? I would take the position that it was fraud as opposed to simply a poor business person closing down. Any real photographer would understand how important the images are to the client and if for some legitimate reason the photographer couldn't full fill the contact would at lease deliver the image files. Not run off in the middle of the night.

Go get the &%^$%&^%&*.

Sam