Photography

I have not posted in quite some time. This post has been published before on my facebook page, but I am posting it here as well in the hopes that it can reach even more people.

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Just after we got engaged in November of 2012 I contacted Echo Hartshorn Unick of Hartnick Photography to get pricing on wedding packages. She sent me her pricing info. A few days later she messaged me and said she was auctioning off a wedding package that I should check it out. I did. It was her Bronze package which was valued at $700 and included wedding consultation, 1/2 hour engagement shoot with 4×6 proof set, 6 hours of wedding day photography coverage, CD or thumb drive of all photos taken & copyright release, and a hard cover printed photo book. I won the auction for $175. This was paid to Echo on November 26, 2012. We had originally been thinking about getting married in September 2013 but due to a number of factors: me being pregnant and two other family weddings in that time frame we decided to postpone it. I messaged Echo in January of 2013 to let her know that the wedding would not be in September, but rather pushed back to July 2014. In January 2014 Mr. K and I set a date (July 11, 2014) so I messaged Echo to let her know. She got back to me and said that my gift certificate had expired as gift certificates are only good for 1 year, but that she would transfer the $175 already paid towards a new package. Mr. K and I were taken aback because we had not purchased a gift certificate, but rather won an auction; and we had told Echo with plenty of notice that we were moving the wedding date to July 2014. She had made no mention of an “expiration date.” So I relayed our frustration and she did not say anything besides to ask when we would be available for our consultation.

We scheduled a consultation for Feb 21st in Middleboro, but not a specific location. I tried to confirm and did not receive an answer. Feb 21st came and went. Finally, on Feb 24th we scheduled our consulation and this time the meeting went as planned. Echo added a “travel charge” of $90, which we agreed to due to the distance from her location to the ceremony and then reception venues.

Mr. K was on crutches until May so we did not get our engagement pictures done until then. We had no issues with this shoot. The on location shoot was great, we really clicked with Echo and I was happy that things seemed to be on track. There was a small slip up in getting us the CD/pictures from our shoot. I had known from when we met at our photo shoot that Echo had a personal matter to attend to and attributed the delay in when she said she would send them to when we actually received them to that. I was not upset and was very polite when I inquired about them. We were very happy when we received our pictures.

Our wedding went as planned on July 11th. Echo was there, clicking away. July 11th was one of the happiest days, aside from the birth of my son. I spoke to Echo on July 30th to inquire on the timing of receiving our pictures as an anxious newlywed. Echo responded that it is typically 6-8 weeks for editing. She also sent me a couple sneak peeks of my dad and I, which was great!

9 weeks later I received a message from Echo saying that the pictures were done and she would transfer them to a flash drive and mail them on Monday (Sept. 15th) and that she was starting to design our photo album. We did not receive the envelope until September 27th (via overnight mail). It was frustrating, but we were so excited to get our pictures that the delay fell to the background. We did not receive the photo album.

After reviewing the photos we saw that they were numbered 002-569, but that there were only 217 photos. There were a few moments that we noticed were missing completely. I messaged Echo about the missing 2/3rds of the pictures, even letting her know that I knew there wouldn’t be 600 usable pictures. I understand that there are lighting issues, blinking, people making faces, etc. that would effect the quality of a photo. I did not think that a professional photographer would only have 30% usuable quality photos; I find that unacceptable. The moments that we noticed were missing were a “candid” moment of my dad and I on a bench while others were posing for pictures in which Echo snapped about 5 shots. All of the entrance pictures from the wedding party coming into the reception venue were missing. Also, there were no pictures of the guests during cocktail hour or dinner. She did not respond. Mr. K messaged her as well. She finally responded to Mr. K and said that the entrance photos should have been on the flash drive, but that she would send them on a separate CD. This was Oct 9th.

On Nov. 11th Mr. K messaged Echo again to inquire about the missing pictures and the second CD that did not arrive. No response. Mr. K messaged again on Nov. 20th. Out of frustration Mr. K posted to Echo’s business facebook page saying we still had not received the CD or the photo book. After she deleted the post, she messaged Mr. K on Nov. 23rd saying that “this was the first she was hearing about the missing CD and that she would mail them AGAIN on Monday” (Nov. 24th).

On Sunday Nov. 30th after not receiving the CD yet, which was 6 mail days later, Mr. K messaged Echo again as to the whereabouts of our CD. (For reference) I had received two separate packages sent from South Carolina that had been mailed on Monday and received on Wednesday Nov. 26th. Mr. K requested for Echo to call him. Echo messaged back the same day and rudely said we would not receive ALL pictures taken as some of them are unusable for one reason or another, which we understood. We were asking for the USUABLE pictures that were missing from the flash drive. As far as the photo album: Echo said she had messaged me and told me she had ordered it and was waiting for it to arrive. I never received such a message. The only mention of the photo album was back at the end of September when she said she was going to design it. She blatantly lied to Mr. K. She said that she had just received the book and she would send the book and CD out on Monday (Dec 1st).

Today, Dec. 3rd, we received a package from Echo that contained our photo album and the CD. The CD contained 7 photos, 6 of the entrance and 1 of the candids from me and my dad. These images were not of top quality and that is my only conslusion as to why they weren’t sent originally. The photo album is simple; just photos and no wording. The photos/moments that were missing from our flash drive (which we received on CD today) were not in the photo book at all. I cannot honestly say I was expecting much because of the service we have received thus far. It was designed using the MyPublisher program which from personal experience take 2 weeks maximum to receive after ordering.

I am writing this post and making it public so that it can shine light on the substandard service of Hartnick Photography and the lack of communication and professionalism from the owner, Echo. Feel free to share this post with anyone who may be looking for a photographer so they do not make the mistake of using the services of Hartnick Photography. I understand that the price we paid for this service was severely lower than list price and that is a possible reason for the substandard service, but this price was offered and agreed to by Hartnick Photography. I was encouraged to enter the auction in which I won the package by the owner of Hartnick Photography. We did not make special requests; we only expected to receive quality services and a professional photographer.