Summit Photography & Video

After checking out all the photographers recommended by my venue, I booked this guy for my wedding. My husband and I really liked the vivid colors and beautiful contrast in his online portfolio, and we agreed he would be a good choice for us. When we contacted him, he was very friendly and surprisingly very reasonably priced for our Monday evening wedding. He received payment for the amount discussed two months prior to the wedding and called to tell me that there was tax in addition to that. No biggie. Anyway, we made all arrangements over the phone, as we do not reside in the area. We figured we were set to go, since he had received our check and discussed meeting us at the venue in the afternoon of our wedding day.
Fast forward to the wedding day, I hadn’t heard from him so I called him at 10am. Surprisingly, I got a disconcerting message on his voicemail – that he was on emergency medical leave and that all inquiries should be directed to his assistant. I called the number he left for his assistant (about 15 times) and got no answer. Desparate, I started calling other local photographers to see if anyone was available. We got ahold of Mr. J’s Photography and he ended up being a close friend of Bill’s. He was very kind and professional [and available], but he wanted to call his friend and see what was up.
Soon after, I got a call from Bill. He was very short and condescending to me saying that I hadn’t actually booked him for my wedding. [Um, HELLO, did you LOSE our check for $ 875? I know you received it because you whined about the tax. Thank goodness we had record of the check written to him.] He said that since I hadn’t signed a contract [we never received one or heard anything about it], he assumed we didn’t want him as our photographer. Yeah, we just mail checks to everyone we’re *thinking* about hiring. He asked why we didn’t call him a week ago, and I told him that I didn’t feel I had to micromanage a professional photographer who does weddings all the time. I figured he’d call me if he had any questions or arrangements to make. That was a big mistake on my behalf, but I’d never hired a wedding photographer before and did not know the protocol. For the record, he found our check that he misplaced.
Anyway, as a favor to his friend, Mr. J offered to help photograph our wedding at no additional charge, even though we offered to pay him whatever he charges. Dealing with this whole fiasco, I was now running thirty minutes late. As my hair is being done, guess who shows up – oh yes, Bill. He comes up the three flights of stairs to verbally abuse me when I was already upset by telling me that running late was my «choice» with a very hateful tone of voice. At that point, I wanted him gone, but Mr. J assured me his friend would behave himself and that we still had plenty of time. By the end of our reception, Mr. Winters offered me a half-​assed apology.
Mr. J took most of the pictures throughout the evening and handed them over to Bill out of respect. I was told the photos would be edited and that, for example, a string hanging down from the bottom of my dress would be edited out. While my pictures were being edited, Mr. Winters put together a slideshow that we could share on facebook. I was absolutely disgusted with the selection of photos and video clips used in this slideshow. For example, one of the video clips featured yours truly spilling food on the buffet table – yeah, like that’s something I want to remember for my whole life and share with all my friends on facebook. Only my immediate family saw the slideshow and they agreed most of the pictures were not good. I honestly think he had some sort of chip on his shoulder and purposely selected the bad pictures and videos to get back at me.
I was able to pick my pictures up from Mr. Winter’s home studio a week after the wedding. This included a disc of the pictures and a disc including video from our ceremony. He kissed our asses, no doubt so I wouldn’t write this review, and said the album we paid for would be done by someone else and that I would be emailed a rough draft to approve before it was printed and mailed to me. Like Katie, seven months later and I haven’t heard a word. I don’t even want it. Out of the 500+ pictures taken at my wedding, about 10 – 15 are album quality and NONE of them were edited (I still see that loose string hanging off of the hem of my dress, unevenness in skintone, and the pimple on my husband’s face), none of them had the vibrant colors and contrast seen on his website portfolio. Instead, our pictures looked washed out and amateur.
I understand Mr. Winters had surgery for a brain tumor two weeks prior to our wedding, so he had a good reason to be on leave. HOWEVER, this did not validate his behavior towards me on what was supposed to be one of the most special days of my life. This also doesn’t excuse the half-​assed sloppy product I received. If you’re not well enough to do a good job, then let your friend do it all!

Bill Winter or Summit Photography is the quintessential wedding photographer. He’s got a great personality so is someone you want to spend your day with; takes fantastic photos in both artsy and traditional styles; and provides complete packages of time, proofs, prints, video highlights, and an album at very reasonable prices. He’s also happy to sell you, not ransom, a disc of all your images at full-​size so you can print your favorites to send out with your thank-​you notes.