Images By Bethany

To be fair, there were some good photographs taken of our wedding by Bethany and her second shooter Rachel. However, overall, we were not happy — a few issues included:
— before our wedding I sent Bethany a couple of emails expressly requesting certain photographs, including examples of what I was looking for. He response was that she would do what she could but she tries to capture the moment. I was surprised by this response as I have always done my best to achieve what my client wants, and will go the extra mile to meet their expectations. I didn’t feel like that was the response I was getting;
— two days after our wedding, I sent Bethany an email asking if she could please send us one photograph that we could use on Facebook. I didn’t receive a reply from her, and followed-​up the next day. Bethany sent me a link to a photograph that she had posted on her Facebook page, and told me that I could share that photo with others. The photo was, in my opinion, entirely useless. You couldn’t even tell that the couple in the photo was my husband and me. And all you could see the tops of our shoulders and heads at the bottom of the image — the rest of the photo was trees and sky;
— many of our family portraits and our wedding party photos at QE Park appeared over-​exposed, were heavily bottom-​weighted and blown out with little colour contrast;
— portraits we had expressly asked for weren’t taken — including a portrait of me and my parents, and there is no full-​length portrait of me and my husband — in fact there is only one photograph of us both showing my full dress including the train;
— Bethany didn’t take the time to make sure little things were right — people were holding their sunglasses in our portraits and my dress was often bunched up;
— one of the pictures I had asked for required taking the photo through a car window — Bethany took the photo, and delivered it — but didn’t use a polarizer when she shot it so you can’t see us through the window;
— many of the images were shot or cropped in such a way that cut off my husband’s head at strange places — as an example, we took pictures with him in a Stetson and half the Stetson is missing from almost all of the shots;
— there were images that should have been better cropped to exclude things like tri-​pods in the background.
When we raised our concerns with Bethany, we felt she immediately became defensive. She noted that she was very busy and had a lot of other clients to look after. It took her another month to fix a handful of photographs and overall, she did not seem interested in investing any more time working with us.
In the end, we feel like Bethany saw our wedding as an opportunity for her to take what she saw as photos valuable to her portfolio rather than to take photos of our special day that would be valuable to us as a couple. Many of the key photos one would expect at wedding were missing — hands, portraits, veil etc.
Again, there were some good photos taken of our wedding and we were thankful for Rachel’s contribution. Overall, however, we do not believe that the product that was delivered was commensurate with what we paid. We also don’t feel like we were clients, or that Bethany felt she had any significant obligation to us.
I should also note that in the time intervening between our engagement photos and our wedding, before we began to question our choice, we referred some friends to Bethany for their newborn photos. Although we are certain she is aware that we sent this business her way, Bethany has never mentioned to us that she appreciated the referral or thanked us.

I’ve used Bethany twice now, for my headshots and for family photographs, and for both I’ve been completely happy with the results.
I am not keen on getting my photo taken, so when I went for my headshot I was very nervous. Bethany immediately put me at ease, listened to what I was looking for. It was quick and such a relief.
For our family photos, we had some taken in her beautiful studio and then went for a walk in a nearby park. She is terrific with kids, and my son still talks about her! Bethany doesn’t just send you a link with an online gallery, but has you come down to her studio, bakes you something lovely and makes tea! Your photos play on a slideshow to a lovely piece of music she chooses for you, and it is nearly impossible not to get a little teary. She has samples there of many of the print options she can organize for you, which is great. We had a few of the bamboo box mounted prints made for Christmas and everyone loved them. One family member took one look at our photos and said to me, ‘this must have cost a fortune…‘
Truly, she is such a professional, yet put my whole family at ease during the shoot. I only wish I had known her before my wedding so we could have used her then! We’ll definitely book her again for family shots.