I hired Brian Mineroff from Photographic Utopia to photograph my wedding and I would not recommend him for the following reasons:
1. Unprofessional: It does not have a clear, detailed, or typed information of all the services and prices according to the customer's needs. He already had an idea of what I needed before our appointment; so, he could have come a little more prepared. His e-mails are somewhat unprofessional. As a 'professional' photographer he MUST present a professional demeanor at all times; at appointments, on the phone, e-mails etc.
2. Poor photo quality: Horrendous pictures. In some very important pictures, we appear with heads cut off. Some people look like ghosts. A lot of pictures are not centered; there a big horrible spaces on the sides, top and bottom of them. Some other pictures are blurry Busy backgrounds was another HUGE problem. Who wants pictures with all those busy ugly backgrounds!?.
3. Lack of creativity: Photographer have to be creative and innovative. Who wants to see the same old kind of pictures over and over again. There was minimum creativity.
4. Monopolization: Brian did not want anybody to take pictures at my wedding. According to him he would not want to be interrupted while he would be working on organizing and posing the wedding party for photo shooting sessions. My friends and family did not understand why they could not take pictures. They still took some with phones and some cameras they had. To my surprise, their pictures look good. Brian was probably afraid that the guests would take better pictures than he did. On the other hand, it wouldn't be convenient for him if other people also took pictures of the event since nobody would want to pay for any pictures published on pictage.com if they have taken their own. Limiting the amount of pictures taken by others (guests, relatives, etc.) was a tactic used to increase the possibility of forcing people to buy the photographer's pictures from pictage.com.
5. Irresponsible: He said the pictures would be available after two weeks. We waited five weeks and still no pictures. I e-mailed him to remind him about the pictures and he said, he would upload the pictures that night. He did. Again, he did not take the time to remove the most horrible pictures he took. He uploaded them all onto pictage.com just as they were taken. I gave access to only one friend to see the pictures on pictage.com because I was too embarrassed for the rest of my guests see those pictures. My friend was annoyed to see the quality of the pictures and did not order any pictures even when her daughter was one of the flower girls.
Furthermore, I just got my photo album this past Friday, June 28, 2013. I got married Feb. 02, 2013. After, so many e-mails sent to him, he finally delivered my album and NO CD as he had said. We paid for album and CD but we never got the CD.
6. Rip off: If Brian had said to me at my first appointment, I am going to charge you $200 less than what I usually charge but I won't promise to take good pictures, I would have gone somewhere else or I would have taken the 'deal'; It was up to me. However, he offered me a $200 discount for the job and I expected a professional and well done job.
I regret SO much having paid what I paid for the terrible job he did. He should not be calling himself a 'professional' photographer because HE IS NOT.
REMEMBER: Your wedding is a very special event; so, please take the time to ask friends and family for recommendations. They may know someone who is truly a professional. Get informed before hiring anyone. read more
