7 replies to this topic

[NHKinNegril]

I am just back from my wedding on April 9 at Catcha Falling Star in Negril (separate review on the resort will come later--LOVED everything about it!! Can't say enough positive things about the whole experience there!). I had hired Diana Campbell and her son as our photographer and videographer.

 

Pros:

• Leading up to the event, Diana was very responsive to my inquiries.
• Cost was great, only $900 for 6 hours with all photos on disc and a video DVD.
• Her son Duane was enthusiastic and clearly interested in making us happy. I think he has a future down the road once he gets more experience.

 

Cons:

• My ceremony started at 3:00, so I contracted them from 2:00-8:00 so they could get photos of me getting ready and stay through dinner and part of the reception. They showed up an HOUR late and mere minutes before the ceremony started. I have no pictures of me getting ready, and I was frantic that whole hour wondering if they'd arrive at all.
• Diana went straight to the refrigerator and helped herself to some bottled water. I would have been thoughtful enough to offer her some if I were not so frantic about them being so late.
• I had requested natural, casual, and candid shots as I hate poses and do not photograph well when I'm posing. Still, they kept trying to prop me and my husband in cheesy and unnatural pose after pose, and we had to request and suggest our own shots in order to get ones we hoped would turn out.
• I mistakenly offered to include them in the dinner service. They were so caught up in eating that they missed cues to speeches and toasts and kept asking us to repeat things so they could get the photos.
• On a whole disc of almost 200 photos, there is not one WOW photo. They included photos that were blurry, out of focus, and where either myself or my husband had our eyes closed. For many of the poses, they clearly only took one or two shots and if either of those were not good, they included them on the disc anyway. Any good photographers will take 5-10 pictures of each pose to hopefully get a good one. They should weed out the clearly bad ones (why give me blurry photos?) and only present high quality images. Diana just threw everything on disc.
• They took photos from bad angles (kneeling on the ground and aiming up to photograph us results in great nostril shots!) Thanks a lot!

 

Overall:

I wish we had paid twice as much for a better photographer and had photos we loved. Thank God our friends took some great photos--we'll use those for our album. I simply cannot recommend Digital Memories/Diana Campbell under any circumstance.

 

Lesson learned: you get what you pay for.

[deannamarie85]

I am  so sorry to hear about your experience with them. I am thankful that you had friends who were able to take beautiful pictures so that you can remember them. Thank you very much for your review though. they were my option for the hotel's photographer, and although she was very friendly I wasn't happy with her quality. I ended up spending twice as much on a photographer plus a vendor fee but I am hoping that in the end it will be worth it. again, thank you for your honest review.
 

Originally Posted by NHKinNegril 

I am just back from my wedding on April 9 at Catcha Falling Star in Negril (separate review on the resort will come later--LOVED everything about it!! Can't say enough positive things about the whole experience there!). I had hired Diana Campbell and her son as our photographer and videographer.

 

Pros:

• Leading up to the event, Diana was very responsive to my inquiries.
• Cost was great, only $900 for 6 hours with all photos on disc and a video DVD.
• Her son Duane was enthusiastic and clearly interested in making us happy. I think he has a future down the road once he gets more experience.

 

Cons:

• My ceremony started at 3:00, so I contracted them from 2:00-8:00 so they could get photos of me getting ready and stay through dinner and part of the reception. They showed up an HOUR late and mere minutes before the ceremony started. I have no pictures of me getting ready, and I was frantic that whole hour wondering if they'd arrive at all.
• Diana went straight to the refrigerator and helped herself to some bottled water. I would have been thoughtful enough to offer her some if I were not so frantic about them being so late.
• I had requested natural, casual, and candid shots as I hate poses and do not photograph well when I'm posing. Still, they kept trying to prop me and my husband in cheesy and unnatural pose after pose, and we had to request and suggest our own shots in order to get ones we hoped would turn out.
• I mistakenly offered to include them in the dinner service. They were so caught up in eating that they missed cues to speeches and toasts and kept asking us to repeat things so they could get the photos.
• On a whole disc of almost 200 photos, there is not one WOW photo. They included photos that were blurry, out of focus, and where either myself or my husband had our eyes closed. For many of the poses, they clearly only took one or two shots and if either of those were not good, they included them on the disc anyway. Any good photographers will take 5-10 pictures of each pose to hopefully get a good one. They should weed out the clearly bad ones (why give me blurry photos?) and only present high quality images. Diana just threw everything on disc.
• They took photos from bad angles (kneeling on the ground and aiming up to photograph us results in great nostril shots!) Thanks a lot!

 

Overall:

I wish we had paid twice as much for a better photographer and had photos we loved. Thank God our friends took some great photos--we'll use those for our album. I simply cannot recommend Digital Memories/Diana Campbell under any circumstance.

 

Lesson learned: you get what you pay for.

 

[akamikey11]

Thank you for the review....I am sorry you had a bad experience. I have heard mixed things about their service and not very impressed with their website.  

Originally Posted by deannamarie85 

I am  so sorry to hear about your experience with them. I am thankful that you had friends who were able to take beautiful pictures so that you can remember them. Thank you very much for your review though. they were my option for the hotel's photographer, and although she was very friendly I wasn't happy with her quality. I ended up spending twice as much on a photographer plus a vendor fee but I am hoping that in the end it will be worth it. again, thank you for your honest review.
 

 

 

[tamandrob]

Thanks for the review! One of the reasons I was looking into her is because she was so much cheaper but I might have to reconsider.

[mzthan6]

Thanks for the review! I'm glad your friends were able to take pictures.
 

Originally Posted by NHKinNegril 

I am just back from my wedding on April 9 at Catcha Falling Star in Negril (separate review on the resort will come later--LOVED everything about it!! Can't say enough positive things about the whole experience there!). I had hired Diana Campbell and her son as our photographer and videographer.

 

Pros:

• Leading up to the event, Diana was very responsive to my inquiries.
• Cost was great, only $900 for 6 hours with all photos on disc and a video DVD.
• Her son Duane was enthusiastic and clearly interested in making us happy. I think he has a future down the road once he gets more experience.

 

Cons:

• My ceremony started at 3:00, so I contracted them from 2:00-8:00 so they could get photos of me getting ready and stay through dinner and part of the reception. They showed up an HOUR late and mere minutes before the ceremony started. I have no pictures of me getting ready, and I was frantic that whole hour wondering if they'd arrive at all.
• Diana went straight to the refrigerator and helped herself to some bottled water. I would have been thoughtful enough to offer her some if I were not so frantic about them being so late.
• I had requested natural, casual, and candid shots as I hate poses and do not photograph well when I'm posing. Still, they kept trying to prop me and my husband in cheesy and unnatural pose after pose, and we had to request and suggest our own shots in order to get ones we hoped would turn out.
• I mistakenly offered to include them in the dinner service. They were so caught up in eating that they missed cues to speeches and toasts and kept asking us to repeat things so they could get the photos.
• On a whole disc of almost 200 photos, there is not one WOW photo. They included photos that were blurry, out of focus, and where either myself or my husband had our eyes closed. For many of the poses, they clearly only took one or two shots and if either of those were not good, they included them on the disc anyway. Any good photographers will take 5-10 pictures of each pose to hopefully get a good one. They should weed out the clearly bad ones (why give me blurry photos?) and only present high quality images. Diana just threw everything on disc.
• They took photos from bad angles (kneeling on the ground and aiming up to photograph us results in great nostril shots!) Thanks a lot!

 

Overall:

I wish we had paid twice as much for a better photographer and had photos we loved. Thank God our friends took some great photos--we'll use those for our album. I simply cannot recommend Digital Memories/Diana Campbell under any circumstance.

 

Lesson learned: you get what you pay for.

 

[JayKay]

Thanks for sharing your review! I'm sure this will help other brides make their decision!

[kat2012]

Wow, thank you for your review, I just got of the phone with her. And thought that she might be a good option. I am glad that I read what you wrote.

[laurar4444]

Thank you for your review!  I was interested in her for the her prices but maybe I will reconsider.  Waiting on several other offers as well, maybe they will be better quality.