I have been looking at other photographer’s review and found this online. Apparently, the San Francisco wedding photographers in question are not answering their customer’s correspondents. Late delivering albums and other products is definitely not a good sign of customer service. One reason why I keep my wedding photography in San Francisco – San Jose – Oakland – Monterey area to 30 wedding a year so that I can deliver a quality service. Unfortunately, there are so many photographers out there practically giving away their services that everybody budget conscious brides and grooms are booking with them.

If you are a bride or a groom looking for a photographer, the initially communication should give you a clue. The wedding photographers should respond within 24 hrs to 36 hours of your email or less than 24hours for a phone call. If they have not called or emailed you for more than the specified time, then most likely it will be worse once you sign the contract since they got you on the hook already. To be honest, most photographers are honest and they love what they do. Unfortunately, no everyone is honest so you just have to be watchful.

Furthermore, tell your San Jose wedding photographer – portrait photographer how you want to communicate with them. I personally like email since I get emails through my cell phone and can answer them immediately if needed. However, email to some people is very impersonal, so if you prefer phone conversation, you should let me know.

My current review online is just two so far. However, if you should become my client, I’d be very happy if you write a review about my business.

The following review is not about my business but of some other San Francisco wedding photographer.

HERE IS A REVIEW by Christina L. about her San Francisco wedding photographers:

“I really want to give P****a five stars — they were wonderful to work with on our engagement shoot and wedding day. Great funny guys, really interested in doing good work. And the pictures were absolutely gorgeous. Everyone that we showed them to was blow away. If this review was limited to the photo sessions and pre-wedding service it would be five stars, no questions.

However, their follow up has proven to be non-existent, if not deceptive. Our initial preview images were delivered more than three months after the wedding, and only with much prompting. Their excuse was that they had overbooked themselves. That’s fine, but it would of been nice of them to tell us.

Now we are about to celebrate our first anniversary, and we still do not have an album of our wedding photos. Our last few emails have gone unanswered. I get the feeling that they have moved on to their new customers (undoubtedly paying more than we did now that they have been around a little while) and could care less about their past clients.

This has been a huge let down for us, because we really loved them at first. But no wedding photographer is worth the trouble if they cannot deliver an album a year after the wedding.

Bottom line: good wedding photographers, but customer follow up is at your own risk. Like many wedding photographers, they are interested only in taking photos, not on the rest of the wedding package they promised.

EDITED FEB. 2009: Since posting this review, I have been contacted by two other y****s who have had similar experiences. These customers have received NO photos of their wedding at all (we at least have digital files) and P****a will not return their calls. Since posting this review, my calls and emails have also been ignored. Use this vendor at your own risk”.
It is true that you really are taking a risk. So, wise up and find that wedding photographer that you really deserve and will provide you with what you want.

wedding photographers san francisco

I am trying to find ways to blog more so that it will be useful to you, when you search for a Bay Area wedding photographer.  So, in the next couple of months, I will be using actual reviews of bride about their wedding photographers.  All business name of the Bay Area / San Jose wedding photographers will be deleted.

Again, this is NOT a bride’s review of my business.

I often hear and meet couples wanting everything for a low price.  I know enough that the lowest price does not equal to QUALITY.  However, the low priced San Jose wedding photographers will give you QUANTITY to compensate for their poorer quality products / photography.  Sure, people want to get quantity for the money they pay for but you run the risk of getting bad quality photos.  It really doesn’t matter if you are getting so much product but then the photo is so poor that it isn’t much to brag about.  Or, if the photo’s are okay then you still have to deal with a low quality products that the wedding album cover comes apart after a couple of years.  Benipayo Photography and Studio offers you affordable price with quality service and products.   Whatever the reason, YOU are spending over 30,000 thousand dollars into your wedding, you need to spend a some money (I’m not saying to break the bank) to get a good wedding photographer with quality service and products to remember your wedding and to share with your kids & grandkids that special wedding day.

What I offer my clienteles are quality products and services.  Most of my clients do not have to worry about extra expenses after their wedding since most are paid upfront.  All of the digital negatives are in full resolution and ready to be printed.  Meaning they area cropped, digitally processed to correct the white balance, color, contrast, etc before they are handed to you.  My albums are from a reputable U.S. company that have been around since 1940′s.  The albums are hand made with high quality leather or premium fabric, and comes with fine art cover.  You also get a lifetime cover warranty with my album company.   Unfortunately, most album now-a-days, they are machine made or the wedding photographer just buy the slip-in pocket albums to give you.  I offer quality service/products to provide you the best service and products.

So don’t think that anybody can be a photographer.  Sure, everyone can have a fancy camera but do they know how to use it? Your Uncle Bob? A cheap wedding photographer?  Your risk, your choice, your money, your blurry memory. Photographs are the only thing that you’ll have memories of your only wedding. You only get married ONCE! Don’t gamble your memories to get more quantity over quality!

What made me write this is a review from a bride regarding her low cost San Jose wedding photographer. I happen to know this San Jose Wedding photographer and will not mention his name since it is not my style to bad mouth anybody.   It is a real shame that this happens but it happens more than you think.  Don’t think cheap, think affordable.  Don’t think quantity think QUALITY.

This is the review from the former regretful bride about the un-named San Jose Wedding Photographer.  Unfortunately, it is too late for her.

“Beware – ??????  Photography, primarily operated by ???   ???? is TERRIBLE.   Terrible, terrible, terrible!  First, they didn’t even bother to take several critical shots.  Like of me, my husband and ANY of his family – not his mom, not his dad, none of us with his kids or any of his extended family.  No close-ups of our rings, no candid shots of us saying vows or kissing or dancing.  In fact, several times throughout the night I noticed him just standing there in the corner not doing darn thing.  He even excused himself and left before the reception was over.

In my opinion, on your wedding day, it is not your job to think of anything other than enjoying the moment.  He is supposed to be the professional.  He is supposed to be all-knowing about what shots make a complete, well-rounded wedding album that should capture and preserve your special day forever – and he’ll tell you that he is.  Imagine my disgust when I got my proofs back to discover that besides not seeing a single “touching” or “precious moment” type photo, that half of my family wasn’t even photographed at all!

Not to mention the photos were totally crappy!

After selecting photos to be printed, not a single one came back cropped, centered, filtered, soft-filtered or brushed in anyway shape or form.  I took better photos in my high school photography class!  Then to add insult to injury, I actually had to pay extra to have my crappy pictures mounted in a photo album.  I could have handed my dad a camera, told him to snap a few shots every now & then and saved myself $2000.

Our wedding album has become a running joke among our family and friends.  It’s pretty pathetic.

These are your wedding pictures people. You’ll be looking at them for YEEEEAAAAARS to come. Invest in a real photographer.  Not someone who brags about sending his kids or wife out to photograph people’s weddings in his place because he thinks, and I quote:   “Anyone can do it.”

And he talks too much.  He is shockingly self-centered and crude.  Meetings that should have taken 30-45 minutes drug out for 1 1/2 – 2 hours because he simply cannot shut up about himself, his kids or keep himself from telling off-color jokes.  I didn’t like him from the get-go but thought we could save a few dollars by hiring him.

Lesson learned – you get what you pay for.  Do not make the same mistake.”

So, you did save thousands of dollars on your wedding photographer but what is left for you to see if your photos are not pleasing to see.  You spend thousands of dollars on your wedding, spend some on a good wedding photographer to help you remember  your best day in your life!  You deserve it.