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Review content:
This past summer, my only daughter was married in the finger lakes region. As a fellow photographer, I thought immediately of Jim Naklick of Creative Imaging, who I thought of as a colleague and friend. Because we knew each other, Jim insisted there was no need for contract. He said that when the event got closer, we would discuss the details, including the payment arrangement. There was no consulttion at that time to discuss any of the wedding details. In early Spring, we contacted Jim to arrange for a consultation, he assured us that is way too soon for that, and that we should wait. He told us he would sent out some forms for us to fill out, which he didn't. After several phone calls, we finally received the forms, which we filled out and returned. In later Spring, we recontacted Creative again to try to arrange for a consultation. We spoke with JIm's wife Kathy, who informed us that JIm was ""very busy"" and that they would get back to us. When recontacting Creative after not hearing from them for a week, it was quite clear that Kathy was aggravated with me. Jim did get back with us after a few days, to let us know ""how busy"" he was, and that he would recontact us with a date to meet. When Jim finally did get back to us, he gave us a date the week of the wedding, when we had already told him we would be entertaining out of town guests at that time. In the end, the face to face meeting never happened. We ended up with a phone consultation where Jim was both diffident and down right rude when we discussed the schedule details and photo requests. When we inquired about payments, Jim's response was ""what about it?"" We suggested we pay the balance at the wedding. Jim became incensed, asking us if we thought he was ""some kind of sleazy photographer"" that ""wasn't going to show up on the wedding day"". While Jim did not provide us with a contract or consultation, it was clear that he wanted all of the money upfront, and that he was offended that we had not already sent it.\r
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I would describe Jim's photographic style as fast, sloppy and at times, just odd. For instance, my daughter prepared in a beautiful room in The Springside Inn. In addition to my daughters attendants, the grooms grandparents and mother were there during the preparation. Yet, rather than staying in the room and getting candids of these individuals, Jim went outside and took about 20 images of the wedding invitation in a variety of shrubs outside (?????). Similarly, on a day without bad weather with outdoor locations on both Cayuga and Owasco Lake, there were no unobstructed full length shots of the bride or the groom. Also one would be hard pressed to know that the wedding included this lake locations as most of the bridal party photographs were taken against a brick wall and concrete bridgeway. Jim rode in the bride and grooms stretch limo througout the day. However, he never left his seat and as such, all of his images of the bride and groom in the backseat of the limo where obstructed. For the church photos, Jim used a single, harsh unmodified light - something any trained wedding photographer knows not to do. The result -Even with extensive photoshopping, these images had a shadowy, gothic look.\r
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During the reception, Jim missed the mother son dance in it's entirety. For most of the reception, Jim photographed from a corner of the room, avoiding interaction with guests. His reception photos were virtually no informal (or formal) groupings and lots of dance photos where one or both in a couple are facing away from the camera.\r
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A short time after the image disk was sent to us, I received a scathing email from Jim's wife Kathy, criticizing me for ""nagging and micromanaging"" Jim.\r
When I look at my daughter's wedding images what is most disappointing is that I know that Jim was capable of much better.
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