Chalky C Photography

Chalky is a very passionate and hard-​working photographer! We hired him as our pre-​wedding photographer, and we loved every single photo that he took! I thought it would be helpful to other Unilocalers if I describe the whole experience briefly. When I first look at Chalky’s photos, I was very impressed by the vivid colors, the textures, the very unique angles and compositions. We contacted him and set a meeting with him at a local coffee shop. He came very well prepared, and showed us a lot of pre-​wedding photos he took at various different places at different times of the year. He asked us where we want to take our photos and told us when is the best time for those scenes. We decided on a 6+8 hours 2 day package, one day in Cape Cod, one day in downtown Boston for foliage scene. Chalky drove us to Cape Cod the night before the photoshoot so we can get an early start the next morning. The sky was so clear and there were so many stars that night! We were all very excited! We quickly changed and went with Chalky to take a few photos under the galaxy. It was late and really cold that night, but Chalky was so wonderfully patient and very passionate. The photos turned out really stunning. The next day we did makeup and started photoshoot late in the morning. Chalky took us to a lot of places for photoshoot, the beach, the lighthouse, the country-​feel grassland. We didn’t really know a lot of ways to pose, and Chalky showed us a lot of great tips and he was very patient! We went back to the beach to catch the sunset at around 6 or 7 pm, we were right on time! We were very happy and ran around on the beach with the beautiful sunset at the background, and Chalky caught a lot of great photos of us! The second day of photoshoot was two weeks later at downtown Boston. It was a very rainy day but we still decided to take the photoshoot hoping to get some really unique and romantic rainy scenes, and we did! We had a clear bubble umbrella and a large dark blue umbrella as props and they looked really nice in the photos! We took photos near Charles river, in our school, in the Boston Public Garden, Beacon Hill, Trinity Church, the night scene in front of the church with the rain was so stunning that it almost has a royal feeling! Chalky was really patient and diligent. He could not hold umbrellas when he was taking photos, so he just stood in the rain to take photos for us. He was even literally stepping into the pond and lying on the wet ground to get a good angle of us! We got a lot of superb photos that day. My dress got really mucky but it really worth it! We finished at around 7:30 that day and went to a local restaurant for hot soup and great food. Perfect ending of a long but fruitful day! I would definitely recommend Chalky to everyone I know! I saw a couple of bad reviews and feel really bad for Chalky. There most be some miscommunications and I don’t think one bad review is anything representative of what a photographer he truly is. I can also understand that Chalky sometimes won’t be able to reply to everyone on time because he is in Vermont or other remote places that don’t have good signal for photoshoot.

Chalky made my engagement wedding photos on the snowy Boston February. It’s pretty tough for professional photographer to handle on such bad environment, however, the work turns out to be one of the best wedding photos we’ve ever taken. I am HIGHLY recommend him to whoever needs to take shots on the Boston :)

He is a very professional photographer. We worked with them twice. One is for our engagement photo, one is for our wedding day photo. We like the pics he took for us. He always know the best place and time to take pictures. We went to few different places, the different angles and techniques he used in our pics always surprise us. He is also a very nice guy. It a very good experience to have him to be our photographer.

Chalky is extremely professional and passionate. We hired him as our pre-​wedding photographer. He delivered high quality photos and we all loved them a lot. I highly recommend him to all of you.

There are dozens of Chinese photographers in the Boston area but Chalky was truly the most amazing one I ever worked with. Over years, he contributed so many photos to my media company, in different themes, styles and angles, and there all received tons of commendations. Early last month, I hired him as the photographer of my wedding photo. My wife and me travelled around Boston with Chalky in his van for three days. Every corner in Boston that worth a stop to take a photo, Chalky knew about it. Then we even went to NYC with Chalky for more photographing because we loved his photos so much. Half month later we received the final project and we shared with our family and friends, everyone loves the photos.
I am not sure why another Unilocaler had a bad experience with Chalky. However, I can personally ensure that choosing Chalky is really a wise decision to make.

This is the second part of my review that I had to leave out in my last review because it was too long ( Unilocal wouldn’t let me post). It is now 2 years past my wedding day, and even to this day, I regret hiring Chalky.
This review is for our experience working with Chalky, not including the wedding day.
I had hired him based on a recommendation from a friend. I checked out his website and saw mostly portrait shots, but they looked good. (I’ve subsequently found out that the people in these pictures are his friends. Which is fine. But be warned — he will not give you the same level of attention and detail.) I emailed back and forth with his assistant (his wife — Jillian), and booked him for an engagement session and for my wedding day. The package I booked was as follows:
Engagement Session
–6 hours and 2 locations in the Boston or Cambridge area
–all original photos on CD
–35 photos retouched
Wedding Day
–whole day with pre-​wedding photos in the afternoon
–one photographer with one assistant
–all original photos on CD
–70 photos retouched
–photoslides with background music on CD
The engagement session: The whole day was just awkward. Neither Chalky nor Jillian tried to put us at ease. Also, I had asked beforehand if they were going to show us how to pose, since we don’t really know what we would be doing, and was told yes, they would show us. But on that day, it was obvious they didn’t know what they were doing. Not only that, but at 7:30pm, he said, «So I guess we’re done here?» Our session started at 3, so no, we were not done. I asked, «Isn’t this a 6 hour session?» and he replied, «Oh, it’s cold. I didn’t know if it’d be too cold for you» I told him I’d be fine, and that’s when he told me we should wait for the sun to go down. So we spent half an hour waiting for the sun to go down.
And then when we got our photos, there were many photos of his wife on the DVD that he had taken that day. So instead of focusing on us, his clients, he was taking pictures of his wife.
Leading up to the wedding day: On the day of the wedding, we had planned to have lunch at a restaurant near fiancé’s home between our two tea ceremonies. I had emailed his wife asking for Chalky and his assistant’s meal. She emails me back one meal. The following conversation ensues:
Me: The photographer’s assistant doesn’t want any food?
Jillian: Chalky is going alone that day.
Me: We only have one photographer for our wedding day?
Jillian: There will only be one photographer. If you want two photographers, you have to pay extra. The assistant just helps the photographer to carry stuff and set light.
Me: Will Chalky have an assistant that day?
Jillian: Probably not.
Me: In your first email to me, it says that I will have a photographer and one assistant.
Jillian: Actually, he doesn’t really need an assistant on the wedding day because the assistant’s job is just to help him carry stuff and get food and sometimes translate. But if you want an assistant, I can ask him to find one.
Me: Yes, please have Chalky find an assistant. Per your email, it states that there will be an assistant for wedding package A, which I chose and put a deposit down for.
Jillian: OK. I will ask him to find an assistant and will let you know what the assistant wants for lunch.
So as you can see, not very professional. They just changed their mind about me getting an assistant without telling me. It wasn’t until I asked about it directly that they finally addressed it.
So then, Jillian emails me what the assistant wants for food. He ordered 3 meals! I had to email back to have her tell him to only choose one meal. She emailed back and removed one thing off his list. I didn’t want to deal with it anymore, so we just let him have the two meals.
As I said in my previous review, there were many red flags which I overlooked and I wish I had listened to my gut. Not only would I not recommend Chalky, I would proactively discourage anyone from using him.

I have never work with Chalky, but have attempted to contact him for my friend. He did not reply to my request of code or anything, just ignored and no response. I don’t care how «many» people likes your picture, but if you can not even have a bit of respect to your potential clients, I do not want to have anything to do with you. Reading the other review, I am so glad he didn’t reply to my message.