The owner of this business, although friendly enough on the day of the event, has proven to be dishonest, spiteful, and has violated both the terms and the spirit of our contract.
We hired him to photograph our November 2022 wedding in Honolulu, Hawaii. Bottom line up front: ALL photos were filtered, despite specifically requesting that they not be; the majority of photographer's efforts went to the groom and groomsmen, with zero equivalent photos of the bride (with zero photos of the bride with each bridesmaid, yet multiple photos of the groom with each groomsman, for example); instead of adding coverage, the second shooter acted more like an assistant, and the two men and their equipment are in quite a few of each other's photos (both examples uploaded with this review show how). There is a grand total of ONE photo of the bridal party lined up (bride and groom with bridesmaids and groomsmen) from the entire day, and the Bride specifically had to ask Mike Pham to take this one photo during the reception (but the groom's eyes are closed). The second shooter also posted three videos of our wedding on Instagram the next day, tagging only Mike Pham, the venue and the wedding coordinator. When we asked for a copy of those videos, Mike Pham refused, stating that they "don't do previews." Even when we finally got our final photos back, we never received any from the videos that were posted, let alone the videos themselves.
Although he first offered us the option to purchase our "raw" photos for $800, after we shared why we feel dissatisfied with the pictures and asked for a discount (we believed $400 would be fair, in light of the many issues), he has decided not to sell us the photos *at all* -- regardless of the price. We have offered to pay the full $800 multiple times, but his refusal is "firm." We are extremely lucky that our guests took such amazing photos with their iphones to fill in the gaps, and I've spent dozens of hours on photoshop attempting to fix things like the groom's eyes being closed in our only wedding party photo. Despite the effort it takes to write reviews, however, I cannot in good conscience let this go without at least attempting to warn others.
In refusing to sell us the "raw" photos at all, Mike Pham insists that every issue is our fault (blaming the bride for arriving "not dressed," for example, when he was specifically hired to take a "getting ready" photo of the bride when she first arrived at the venue; note that when the bride's limo arrived, he was nowhere to be found and remained absent for so long that we had to put the dress on without him), and blaming the rain, which actually photographed beautifully and didn't seem to affect his ability to extensively photograph the groom's party before the ceremony. When presented with evidence of the heavy filters, he has denied using any. See, however, the two examples offered below (which he was also shown). Note the extreme difference in colors of the flowers, and also of my mother's dress (also note the tripod in the foreground of the processional picture Mike Pham took, and the second shooter is in the foreground of the other ceremony picture uploaded below).
We have offered not to leave bad reviews for his business if Mike would only just acknowledge the issues and promise not to make the same mistakes again. We genuinely liked the guy and do not want to hurt his business. But he has informed us that this is extortion. We disagree and are within our rights to warn others.
Long story short:
DO *NOT* HIRE THIS GUY TO PHOTOGRAPH YOUR WEDDING. read more