Before our wedding, I communicated every detail to Judith via email months in advance. We corresponded several times and she was friendly and polite. Everything seemed mostly okay except I was concerned about her using film instead of digital. She assured me that film is an excellent medium and I trusted her professional experience in the matter. Judith did a fine job taking the actual photos. She wasn’t too obtrusive, and she worked pretty fast. Some of the positions she asked us to stand in seemed a little awkward and strange to us, but again we trusted her professional experience. We figured that once we saw the pictures, they’d surprise us and look cool. This didn’t turn out to be the case. Every photo she took of us making awkward poses(like the type you might expect to see on a boy band album cover) looked just as awkward as it felt at the time. During the ceremony, her camera started making a loud winding noise because she ran out of her current film roll. It was a bit disruptive and annoying. We had a few special gimmicky photos we wanted taken after the ceremony, like the recent meme of the bride using the force to choke the groom and best men. Unoriginal, I know, but we have lots of Star Wars fans in our wedding party. We did multiple takes of us jumping in sync with terrified looks on our faces to get the look of floating off the ground. Of course when we saw the photos, every take was extremely blurry. Completely unusable. I took two classes in college for photography that I didn’t take especially seriously, but even I would know to use a fast shutter speed for that shot. We’ll never have an opportunity to do this shot again. She also was often not positioned in the best place to take candid photos. Her photos of my wife and my carefully practiced and choreographed first dance are taken from behind us, and there are only two or three of them from the entire 2:30 long dance. We’re praying that the videographer at least got a good angle. It may seem like I’m complaining a lot here, but honestly Judith did a really good job with all the basics. Most of our photos(that have normal poses) came out very nice, full of color depth, and mostly proper focus. The photo book she sent us is nicely put together and nice quality. The problem is, we had SEVERAL friends and family at our wedding that are photography enthusiasts. We told them that we weren’t allowing cameras, phones, or other electronics to be used during our ceremony(the reception was ok). To keep our dads from having their faces hidden behind video cameras we specifically hired people to do the camera work for us. We told them that they’d get photos and video afterward, and that they could rest at ease and enjoy the moment. Our friends and family would have done a much better job as hobbyists than Judith did as a professional. In fact, their photos from the reception actually DID come out much better than hers did. I feel bad saying it because she was very nice and easy to work with, but it’s the truth. If you want to have your wedding at Hans Fahden Vineyards(highly recommended) and she’s offered as the photographer for your package, I would try to have it changed if these things would bother you.
Robert M.
Évaluation du lieu : 5 St Helena, CA
I got the pleasure of working with Judith at our wedding at Hans Fahden winery on May 10, 2013. Judith is an amazing photographer and an incredibly nice person. Judith worked as hard as anyone can ask the day of our wedding climbing all over our venue to make sure the shots were absolutely perfect. Judith was incredibly professional and a ton of fun to work with on our special day. Judith was constantly asking my wife«is there any other shot you want» or «is there anything we haven’t done that you wanted» at each new location and with each new group of people, we got EVERYTHING we wanted and quite a few more that she suggested. Our friends and family commented that they hadn’t met another photographer who was so accommodating and fun to work with. I highly recommend using Judith to shoot your next event!
