Newlyweds’ anguish

I just wana get the word out fast to prevent anyone to go through the same pain as us as he is still posting on Clubsnap advertising his services. 

I am going to attempt to summarize what has to have been my most frustrating 2 months in a short blog post. I don't think this is going to be short. Kindly pardon my poor english.


Will be updating this space with more pictures and proofs in the next few days.

Looking back on the last 2 months, I remember tears and frustration, anger, and dismay. From the first time I looked through the 4000+ raw pictures, my blood pressure was increasing with each passing photo. I was appalled...there were nearly 4000 photos and not one was even close to the product he advertised. Blur, Out of focus, Over exposed, Under exposed, shadows in the faces of the formals, formals with eyes closed / not looking at the camera...poor composition, poor lighting, 80% were half bodies tightly cropped pictures etc... In a word, it was LOUSY photography. There is no other way to put it.

A little background on how we decided to get Caleb Cheong aka C.C as our Actual Day Photographer (AD PG):

We started planning our wedding almost 2 years ahead. From the "big things" like banquet venue, Pre-wedding photoshoot bridal studio, AD bridal studio, AD PG/VG, proposal ring, wedding bands etc down to "small things" like Makeup Artist (MUA), hairdo, nails etc we did our research and really planned well.

CC was a friend my hubby knew when he joined clubsnap outings few years back but they lost contact for quite some time as CC went to study photography in USA after that. 

CC started msn-ing my hubby in year 2010 when we were still searching for our Pre-wedding photographer. CC was trying to persuade us to go to USA for him to take our Pre-wedding photoshoot there. But due to budget reason and also we are quite skeptical about him, we declined. But he was still trying hard to persuade us to change our mind.

In August 2011, CC started FB messaging my hubby again after we came back from our Taiwan Pre-wedding photoshoot. He knew we were looking for a AD PG, thus he keep on pushing his services to us. But we were not keen at all, firstly its the cost, his cheapest package is $3,000 which is way out of our budget for AD PG. If we can afford 3k, we may as well get some of the better established ones in SG. My hubby rejected him straight.

Then in Nov 2011, he told my hubby he might be coming back to SG (due to USA bad economy and hard to find a job there) and in time to be our AD PG. Again, my hubby rejected his offer as we are considering to get the AD PG from our bridal studio which we signed up for their AD package, with additional top up of only $700.

He finally came back in end Feb 2012. We 1st met him in early March, he showed us his portfolio we were quite happy with what we saw. But still i was quite skeptical as we will be his 1st chinese couple he's gonna shoot in SG, i'm worried he doesn't know about our chinese traditions and will missed some important moments. But he rest assured us, before he left for his studies in USA few years back he had been a 2nd shooter for his cousin wedding in SG. I told him i need to go back and consider again.

In the end we decided to give him a chance, after reviewing his works and thinking this person got 10 years of experience in photography, got a degree from Brooks Institute in photography nothing should go wrong. Another deciding factor was he's willing to match his price with the bridal studio, even lower at $600! Most importantly was we really felt he was sincere and serious in wanting to start his photography biz in Sg.

From March to our AD in May, CC was always in contact with us. He was always messaging me through facebook almost everyday, asking about how's our wedding progress etc and also constantly showing me his previous works, asking me if i like this kind of style and he assured me he can produce the same kind of standard for me.


He even came down with us to see our banquet venue, so as to know the lightnings conditions. We were quite impressed with his services and knowledge in photography as he was always explaining how he can manually control the flash etc. We met up a few times, communicated so well and detailed. I, being the bridezilla, showed him examples of the photography styles and photographers i like, i told him to look at how others take chinese AD wedding, what are the important shots etc... but seriously i think he never looked at those links i send him, he's too arrogant to learn from others like what he had told me before, he only learn from those he thinks worth learning from. But still, i was quite assured and trusted him that with his skills and knowledge, things will be fine.

Of all of the tiny details on our wedding day to worry over, actually photography was one of the least of my concerns. We trusted him so much that he will do a good job as this will be his 1st SG portfolio, and he will cherish this chance.

Finally The Big Day 12 May 2012!

I started my makeup at 6am, he told me he will try to arrive as early as possible as he will be taking the 1st train! Ok understand, he wanted to save $ from taking cab. So he reached around 6.45am, i had already completed my makeup and doing my hairdo. So he already missed my makeup process, luckily i told my nephew to use his digital camera to take some pictures before that.

When he arrived, he told me that he did not sleep the night before! I got a shock! I just hope that he can pull through the day! 

So he started taking pictures, and i remember very clearly i reminded him many times not to take so closed up pictures as he was standing so near to us! 


This was how close he was always standing! Hello, you are using either a D800/D3, need to stand so close meh?

*Pic removed

Then we went out for our outdoor PS at Bontanic garden. 1st location was a bench, he told me to sit on my hubby's lap, then we asked him where should we look etc he just say look anywhere not him... 

2nd location was when we were passing a flight of stairs, he wanted to take a picture of me, i am very sure i told him i want a full picture of my gown with the long train. But when we saw what he took when we received the pictures... we almost fainted, no pictures of my long train! I spent so long looking for the perfect gown, but from morning till night, no proper full image of it was captured by CC.

3rd location was at an open field, he wanted to shoot me and my bridemaids. So he asked his assistant to hold the diffuser, but apparently his assistant did not know how to hold it and my hubby, the groom gotta teach and hold it for him!

*Pic removed

Last location was at the signature big tree, this time round its a group photo of us with our brothers and sisters. We were all waiting for him to change his gears under the hot sun, he took such a long time that the groom just took my cousin D7000 to shoot us before CC was ready.

*Pic removed

And did i mention, he was so slow in every shots that we were all starting to lose our smiles and patience! He's really so slow that the enthusiasm and mood in all of us were lost.

I just wana cut the story shorter, these are the moments he missed for the morning session:

1) Makeup process (I can forgive)

2) Car opening. No picture showing who was the one opening the car door for the groom!

3) Tea Ceremony, he focus mainly on the hands, tea cups, ang baos... there's no pictures showing who are we serving the tea to! Gosh! Even my aunt wanted to ask him, why take ang bao only never take her face!

4) No proper picture of our wedding bands at all!
5) Picture of groom removing the veil for the bride when we came back to the bride's house after our outdoor PS.
6) Took picture of my jiemei wearing my shoe for me but without our faces and worse its blur!

Beside missing important shots, those that he took are all so tightly cropped, half body closed up picture, if not its blur or out of focus... we don't even have an idea what some of our friends and relatives are wearing that morning. 

We had our ROM on the same day, sad to say all those photos during the ROM are BLUR, out of focus! One word GONE.

My hubby feedback to him before the evening session, asking him not to take so closed up pictures. And we believed that when he was doing the morning highlights he should had realised his own mistakes. How can he make the same mistakes at night??

During the cocktail session before the banquet, we were there welcoming the guests and wanting to take photos with the guests. Everytime we wanted to take a photo, we gotta "shout out" for him as we did not know where had he gone to. And again, we reminded him so many times do not take so closed up photos but he replied me no worries, his lens were wide enough.

We had a 1st dance in with our brothers and sisters. We rehearsed for this dance so many times and the photos turned out so closed up that nobody can tell what are they doing! 

His mistakes for the night:

1) 1st dance all closed up if not out of focus shots

2) Our 2nd March in. (ALL the photos were BLUR)

3) There were 2 photographers for the table shoots, him and his assistant. The guests did not know which one to look at as they did not give clear instructions (etc look here 1,2,3). End up some were not even looking at the correct camera.
4) As usual, taking his own sweet time in taking pictures that some of the guests were losing their patience too and girls being vain, my gfs also asked him not to take so closed up, who wana show their flaws?

He passed me all the soft copies that very night. We were so happy to know that he had taken so many pictures... not stingy on his shutter... but little did we expected all the photos to turn out a horror...

After we settle our things, we finally have time to look through the photos on Sunday 13/5. We can't believe our eyes, there were so many similar shots, same subject at same angle, so closed up pictures, blur, out of focus, over/under exposed pictures etc... We went on a roller coaster ride...from such a happy joyous mood...immediately fell into a deep dark pit...

We immediately message him, asking him how come the photos turned out like that? I send him at least 8-10 messages from 6.30pm before i receive a reply from him at 8.30 am the next day. Both me and my hubby did not sleep that night at all. 

The next few days i continue sending him messages, no reply from him at all. Till 18/5 i received a reply from him saying he got my sms and finished his processing. I told him to come down to our place to review the photos on 19/5. We spent the whole afternoon going through and telling him how we want those photos to be edited. He said he understood what we want and will go back to continue editing. He admitted it was his own fault and he did not know what went wrong with himself. He had let us down. He's so grateful that we did not exposed him as he was gonna take part in a Channel 5 photography competition soon. So we gave him a chance to salvage those photos and hope he can do his best to make us feel better. We really treated him as our friend and protected his reputation even when many friends are asking who is our PG, we did not mention his name at all till now.

Below is an email i send him but never gotten any reply from him...

He shared his edited photos with us in dropbox. Again we got a shock when we saw those so call edited photos. We were really disappointed again and again! I don't think anyone can accept such edited pictures. I posted that photo on my FB and everyone agreed with us. This kind of photo can never be accepted! Then i tagged him in the photo, i think he got scared and blocked me off his facebook! If you think you had done a good job in post processing the photo, why are you scare of your friends seeing the photos you took? He still got the cheek to tell me, he thought i will like the dreamy blur effect...

We are really sick and tired of this whole thing, it's been 2 months and things are still left there hanging... So many messages and email send to tell him how i felt, he saw us breaking down and cried infront of him but till today he still yet to say "Sorry" to us. 

He had passed me 2 dvds of his "final" post processed pictures but those pictures are worse than the previous edit. This goes to show that he did not put in any efforts in choosing the right pictures (etc got open eyes one he chose the closed eyes one) and the skin tones, lightnings etc were all wrong! He just used the same settings and applied it to all the pictures in the same group. 

We really gave him so much chances and encouragements to tell him slowly edit, do not rush, do a good job but the end results are so disappointing.

We had a talk last Sat (7/7), we wanted to put an end to this matter as we felt, no point dragging as he really cannot deliver what he promised. We asked him, if he wanted to solve this problem among ourselves or legally, he asked us to settle it among ourselves. He said if we wana expose him online we can always go ahead and mention his name. 

Since previously he promised that if he can't do a good job in post processing, we will get a Pro to do it and he will pay for it. He agreed readily. And also he agreed to compensate a reasonable amount to us (he initiated himself), but he will need to go back, consider the amount and let us know again his decision by Friday 13/7.

I received his call today 11/7, he told me he will not make any compensation and he already did what he should so if we wana sue him we can go ahead. He sounded so "ya-ya" on the phone! This was really my last straw! How can he leave his work unfinished and expect us to come out with our own $$$ to get another person to clean his "backside", thats totally irresponsible! Gave us some shabby works and expect us to accept it? It's your own fault that you failed in capturing proper pictures and you should do your best in trying to salvage the pictures, thats the least you can do. 

I just wana share my experience with everyone, we don't wish to see the same tragic happening on anyone else. He is just a scammer, his attitude before and after the wedding is 360 deg different. We can only blame ourselves for being so stupid to trust him so much. I know some people will say that you pay peanuts thus this is the kind of quality you get but hello, he is charging others at $200/hr and consider himself a Pro. Please don't call yourself a PRO, you are far far from it, not only failed technically as well as morally you failed too. 

He is not remorseful and he seems like he already gotten over this while we are still trying very hard to recover from this pain. Actually initially, we told ourselves to forgive him, he did not did this on purpose and we sympathize him (due to his past accident). But he went missing on us! B4 our wedding, he pestered us almost everyday even though we were so busy with our wedding preparations we still entertain to him! now... we need to chase aft him to get our pics, follow up wf him else he wouldn't even contact us. He even blocked me on FB! He had over estimated himself and underestimated the job. He should not take us as his guinea pigs in SG, the responsibility are far too great for him to handle and the consequences are not possible to mend if anything went wrong. If he had shown some sincerity & efforts in trying to salvage the photos we would not be so angry, the main point is after admitting his mistakes he still don't do his best to mend anything! This is major disappointment. We felt betrayed by someone who we genuinely treated him as a friend we trusted so much. 

If you can't take nice pictures at least do a better job in post processing, how come our pictures are such a far cry from those on his website? Are those really taken by you? You yourself also admitted that you wouldn't use our pictures as your portfolio. This goes to show how terrible are those photos.

By the way, these are the equipments he was using,

D3, D800, (His assistant using D300) 

Nikon AF-S 17-35F2.8

Nikon AF-S 24 F1.4

Nikon AF-S 24-70 F2.8

Nikon AF-D 85 F1.4

Nikon AF-D 50 F1.4

Nikon AF-S 70-200vr2 F2.8

Flash

Nikon SB800

Nikon SB900

pocket wizard

Now we finally understand what it really mean by its the man behind the camera... Even a newbie or anyone using a hp can do a better job than him.

This pain is really too much to bear and the regret to chose a right PG is gonna live with us for a long time. He ruined our once in a lifetime wedding which everyone waited for 9 years! No $$$ can bring back those moments to us again... Wedding photos are supposed to bring us happy memories when we are looking at them, but ours....its only heartpain each time we see those pictures...


Till date we are still waiting for him to say a word of apology to us at least...