- Report: #835923
Complaint Review: Bryan Newfield Photography - Internet
Reported By:
TwoSmartBrides -
Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, United States of America
Submitted:
Updated:
-
Author Not Confirmed
Why?
Bryan Newfield Photography
1042 20th Avenue North South St. Paul, MN 55075 Internet, United States of America
Phone:
(651) 815-0170
Web:
bryannewfield.com
Categories:
Business Rating:
(0)
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Bryan Newfield Photography Two Brides. Two Weddings. Two Bad Experiences. Internet
Our experience with Bryan Newfield Photography was very disappointing and we would like to warn others before they shell out their money. The four of us were introduced through mutual friends who attended both of our weddings and noticed that we had the same photographer. We decided it would be best to post a review so that others can make an informed decision.
8/5 Wedding
Our problems with Mr. Newfield began at our first meeting, a year before the wedding. He was an hour late and acted incredulous when we needed to leave after 15 minutes because we had somewhere to be. Since his images seemed to be what we were going for and we were only in the country for a week (at the time we lived in Europe) we decided to go for it.
A year later, on our wedding day, he was scheduled to arrive at the venue at 10:30 am. At 11:15 my mom called him, understandably upset: we were paying him for set services and he hadn't arrived on time. At 11:30, instead of Mr. Newfield, another photographer who we were told would be working with him that day showed up. (Mr. Newfield later tried to make us feel guilty for the fact that he brought a second photographer "on his own dime" though we never requested one.)
That was the tone of the whole day. For example, as one of the groomsmen was texting his wife on his cellphone the second photographer said 'Googling Asian a$$ porn, huh?" These were the tone of their 'jokes' all day- bizarre, not funny, and generally inappropriate. Mr. Newfield complained in a 4 page email (below) that we or the wedding party never 'welcomed' them into the group--if everyone was acting a bit stand off-ish it was because of this type of behavior and the tone he set by arriving late to our first meeting and on the wedding day.
Then came time for the photo booth portion of the night. All night it consisted of Mr. Newfield demanding people pose in ways they weren't comfortable with. After several different demands my husband tried to politely demur after he was ordered to do things like a jumping air guitar pose and have water poured all over him out of a alcohol bottle. That last incident prompted him to yell at Mr. Newfield (he was not good, as you can see, at taking subtle or overt hints). My husband is an extremely laid back guy, and I don't think I've seen him yell at anybody, let alone a near stranger at our wedding. As we asked for pictures with different groups of our friends and family he continued to try to force people into absurd poses and the only
pictures we liked from the Blue Booth were the ones where we somehow convinced him to take without us acting passed out. Literally, he wanted everyone to pretend that they had passed out in front of the camera.
Over the next few days we realized that what we had paid for were the ridiculous stories about Mr. Newfield and his associate from our friends and family. Guests and our wedding party were telling us about bizarre 'jokes', remarks, and interactions that they had with him and luckily we were all able to laugh about it. We were very happy with all of the other vendors and professionals who contributed to our wedding. At another party after the wedding we were all exchanging stories, and another vendor must have informed Mr. Newfield we were unhappy.
To top it all off, we probably would have tried to let the whole thing blow over but on our honeymoon I received the email I've attached at the end of this. I was terrified he would purposefully do a bad job with our pictures if I didn't agree to not write a bad review.
In the end, the pictures were just this side of okay, when we were paying for incredible- (outside of the blue booth shots which we were too embarrassed to show anyone) but I would STRONGLY SUGGEST that if you are going to shell out for photos at your wedding you use another photographer such as One Love Photo from SoCal or Our Labor Of Love from Atlanta. The slightly higher cost of flying them in is worth the peace of mind and professionalism, since I've had friends who have used both and their portfolios speak for themselves, just google it.
***
8/6 Wedding
Besides the excellent job he did selling himself, the entire experience with Bryan Newfield Photography was awful. Here are only a few of the lowlights. In hindsight, we believe thatto Bryan Newfield Photographyour wedding was not about capturing our day or making us happy; rather, it seems that his focus was on capitalizing on our wedding. They never consulted us the day of about the 64% of the photos on the friends and family checklist they missed (in addition to missing pictures of the BRIDE!) and then had the audacity to blame it on us after they wasted time traipsing our wedding party to three different sites since they hadnt done their research about no parking at a venue and a Farmers Market.
Bryan Newfield Photographys attention to detail is poor unflattering expressions and posing, closed eyes, partially hidden faces, pulled jackets, etc. The only successfully captured the expressions of how uncomfortable people were with them. The Photo Booth was a deceptive joke they flat out refused to take the shots we verbally and repeatedly requested and instead he staged us to look drunk, passed out, and posed photos in similar scenarios of which well never use. Looking back, we simply felt unheard. Our wishes were not captured on film, from backgrounds to expressions and
personality to people, we felt as if our requests fell on deaf ears.
Then, while it took 15 weeks to receive our wedding pictures, they immediately posted the Photo Booth pics for $5 each (thats right! You pay $5,300 and they own the rights to your photos! NOT common practice,
btw.) We didnt realize our wedding was a revenue generator for Bryan Newfield Photography on top of the hefty sum we already paid them. Now, were left with photos that are mostly so bad we havent even been able bring ourselves to print them or even show our friends and family.
We were so unhappy with the unprofessional experience and the end product, we demanded most of our money back. Rather than listening to or even acknowledging our concerns, his responses were nothing more than a collection of excuses for our dissatisfactionincluding, incredulously, our failure to keep him on task to get the shots that we wantedand what appeared to be veiled threats regarding voicing our opinion and immediate legal action if we post ANY photos because he owns the rights to our wedding photos. Again we paid him $5300 and he owns our photos since we signed the model release because he claimed to want to use our photos in contests, etc. After a series of such responses and continued poor customer service, he offered 10% back with the stipulation of a gag order. We declined.
8/5 Wedding
Our problems with Mr. Newfield began at our first meeting, a year before the wedding. He was an hour late and acted incredulous when we needed to leave after 15 minutes because we had somewhere to be. Since his images seemed to be what we were going for and we were only in the country for a week (at the time we lived in Europe) we decided to go for it.
A year later, on our wedding day, he was scheduled to arrive at the venue at 10:30 am. At 11:15 my mom called him, understandably upset: we were paying him for set services and he hadn't arrived on time. At 11:30, instead of Mr. Newfield, another photographer who we were told would be working with him that day showed up. (Mr. Newfield later tried to make us feel guilty for the fact that he brought a second photographer "on his own dime" though we never requested one.)
That was the tone of the whole day. For example, as one of the groomsmen was texting his wife on his cellphone the second photographer said 'Googling Asian a$$ porn, huh?" These were the tone of their 'jokes' all day- bizarre, not funny, and generally inappropriate. Mr. Newfield complained in a 4 page email (below) that we or the wedding party never 'welcomed' them into the group--if everyone was acting a bit stand off-ish it was because of this type of behavior and the tone he set by arriving late to our first meeting and on the wedding day.
Then came time for the photo booth portion of the night. All night it consisted of Mr. Newfield demanding people pose in ways they weren't comfortable with. After several different demands my husband tried to politely demur after he was ordered to do things like a jumping air guitar pose and have water poured all over him out of a alcohol bottle. That last incident prompted him to yell at Mr. Newfield (he was not good, as you can see, at taking subtle or overt hints). My husband is an extremely laid back guy, and I don't think I've seen him yell at anybody, let alone a near stranger at our wedding. As we asked for pictures with different groups of our friends and family he continued to try to force people into absurd poses and the only
pictures we liked from the Blue Booth were the ones where we somehow convinced him to take without us acting passed out. Literally, he wanted everyone to pretend that they had passed out in front of the camera.
Over the next few days we realized that what we had paid for were the ridiculous stories about Mr. Newfield and his associate from our friends and family. Guests and our wedding party were telling us about bizarre 'jokes', remarks, and interactions that they had with him and luckily we were all able to laugh about it. We were very happy with all of the other vendors and professionals who contributed to our wedding. At another party after the wedding we were all exchanging stories, and another vendor must have informed Mr. Newfield we were unhappy.
To top it all off, we probably would have tried to let the whole thing blow over but on our honeymoon I received the email I've attached at the end of this. I was terrified he would purposefully do a bad job with our pictures if I didn't agree to not write a bad review.
In the end, the pictures were just this side of okay, when we were paying for incredible- (outside of the blue booth shots which we were too embarrassed to show anyone) but I would STRONGLY SUGGEST that if you are going to shell out for photos at your wedding you use another photographer such as One Love Photo from SoCal or Our Labor Of Love from Atlanta. The slightly higher cost of flying them in is worth the peace of mind and professionalism, since I've had friends who have used both and their portfolios speak for themselves, just google it.
***
8/6 Wedding
Besides the excellent job he did selling himself, the entire experience with Bryan Newfield Photography was awful. Here are only a few of the lowlights. In hindsight, we believe thatto Bryan Newfield Photographyour wedding was not about capturing our day or making us happy; rather, it seems that his focus was on capitalizing on our wedding. They never consulted us the day of about the 64% of the photos on the friends and family checklist they missed (in addition to missing pictures of the BRIDE!) and then had the audacity to blame it on us after they wasted time traipsing our wedding party to three different sites since they hadnt done their research about no parking at a venue and a Farmers Market.
Bryan Newfield Photographys attention to detail is poor unflattering expressions and posing, closed eyes, partially hidden faces, pulled jackets, etc. The only successfully captured the expressions of how uncomfortable people were with them. The Photo Booth was a deceptive joke they flat out refused to take the shots we verbally and repeatedly requested and instead he staged us to look drunk, passed out, and posed photos in similar scenarios of which well never use. Looking back, we simply felt unheard. Our wishes were not captured on film, from backgrounds to expressions and
personality to people, we felt as if our requests fell on deaf ears.
Then, while it took 15 weeks to receive our wedding pictures, they immediately posted the Photo Booth pics for $5 each (thats right! You pay $5,300 and they own the rights to your photos! NOT common practice,
btw.) We didnt realize our wedding was a revenue generator for Bryan Newfield Photography on top of the hefty sum we already paid them. Now, were left with photos that are mostly so bad we havent even been able bring ourselves to print them or even show our friends and family.
We were so unhappy with the unprofessional experience and the end product, we demanded most of our money back. Rather than listening to or even acknowledging our concerns, his responses were nothing more than a collection of excuses for our dissatisfactionincluding, incredulously, our failure to keep him on task to get the shots that we wantedand what appeared to be veiled threats regarding voicing our opinion and immediate legal action if we post ANY photos because he owns the rights to our wedding photos. Again we paid him $5300 and he owns our photos since we signed the model release because he claimed to want to use our photos in contests, etc. After a series of such responses and continued poor customer service, he offered 10% back with the stipulation of a gag order. We declined.
