Nobody needs a wedding album, just stick it on a usb drive which we’ll loose in a week..

Mary was a little bit stressed, but knew that she will be able to find a photographer to take photos on her day – even if it is last minute.

“Don’t worry Mary, my friends friend takes good pictures, he only started recently, but he bought a very good camera, I could ask him, it’s even possible he’ll do it for free? Look he has some of the photos on Instagram. And his camera is so good! With a good camera, anybody can do it really..” Karen said.

“Oh, these are quite good” Mary said. “He will do it free you said? That’s excellent… If you give me his number I can call him and ask him myself”.

So Mary called Trevor, the guy with a good and expensive camera:

“Hi Trevor, this is Mary, not sure Karen told you about me, she said you take some good pictures and you recently bought a new camera?”

“Oh hi Mary, yes Karen mentioned something, yes I have a great camera takes professional pictures. I really want to get into paid work and it would be great to take photos of your wedding.”

“This is great Trevor, would you be able to meet with me and my fiancée to discuss the details? The wedding is quite soon, and with all that planning I have quite frankly totally forgotten to book a photographer (*nervous laughter*)”

“Yes, definitely, are you free tomorrow at 6pm?” Trevor asked.

“That’s perfect see you then!”

Mary was super excited. She was sure that Trevor will be the right choice, because she has seen his photos on instagram AND he came highly recommended. And, obviously anybody takes great photos with a professional camera, right?

So Mary met with Trevor to discuss the details. First Mary started to describe her perfect wedding trying to get Trevor excited so he’ll agree to take the photos for free. After all how can anybody decline to photograph such a lavish ceremony. It will be great for his portfolio and Mary will tag him in some Instagram photos she’ll post.

“And after the church, we have this beautiful marquee outside, free all night bar which is literally on the beach.. It would be great for pictures. I can’t afford to pay you, because I’m a bit low on the budget, however we are happy to pay for half of your flight, then you just need to cover the cost of your hotel? It’s only coming to around 45 EUR per night… especially if you’re looking to build your portfolio it’s an investment really… and I have such an amazing venue, it will look great on your page!”

Trevor couldn’t show the couple much of his work as he didn’t have a website or a facebook page yet, nor did he have a printed portfolio,  so he only show them few photos on his mobile phone.

Deciding these were good enough for Mary, couple agreed that Trevor will be taking their wedding photos in sunny Italy. “How amazing, a nearly free photographer – this couldn’t go any better!” Mary was jumping up and down with excitement.

Taking into consideration the price of the flight, couple got themselves a bargain. How amazing, all they spent was £159 and he was even covering his own hotel/food/transfers!!

The day of the wedding arrived and enthusiastic Trevor arrived with his one camera and kit lens. (No backup equipment, no insurance, just a single camera and a single lens).  The very good camera in question cost him £400 including 1 slow kit lens. For those who don’t know, iit lens is usually a very basic plastic lens which comes with an entry level DSLR cameras. These are great to use on holidays, but do not produce the highest quality images on a professional level. But what does Mary know? It looked like a professional camera, and Karen said everyone can take great photos with it.

Mary was too busy and nervous to notice that Trevor is struggling really and mumbling to himself something under his breath while taking the photos. If Mary paid attention she would hear what was Trevor saying to himself is “I don’t understand why these photos are coming out so blurry… not sure why it is…, this is an expensive camera, it usually takes great photos on AUTO mode…”

Trevor however continued taking photos and didn’t say anything to Mary as not to alarm her. In the church, which was quite dark, he was asked by the priest not to use flash and only stay in the designated spot. This made him a bit nervous because he knew his 18-55mm lens won’t allow him to zoom in very close.

Trevor didn’t understand why the auto mode on his camera kept suggesting he uses flash, and camera refused to take photos for the most of the time. He was getting a bit stressed as most of images were too dark, grainy and blurry. Some of times he couldn’t even press the shutter release button, it seemed the camera didn’t want to take photos for whatever reason.

Still however, the bride and groom were too nervous about the ceremony, to pay attention to the photographer who was sweating cold sweat. They didn’t have any doubt that an expensive camera will do a great job.

After the ceremony, Trevor was happy they’re outside again in the daylight and he took few good shots of the family and the couple. “Phew… at least these will be good” he thought to himself.

When the reception started, he took few more shots, grabbed a drink and put the camera on the table while he helped himself to food several times. As he was placing the plate on the table he knocked a large glass over which spilled wine all over his camera. He frantically jumped up, dragging the camera off the table onto the floor. Plastic on the side of the camera body cracked. A silence erupted throughout the venue while bride and groom stared at him in horror. Trevor picked the camera up, his heart beating like a drum, turning the camera on and announcing with a relief  “all good… still works.. just need a quick wipe..”

The reception returned back to normal, however Trevor stopped taking photos and only done a snap or two every now and then. This was mainly due to the fact that it was getting too dark and he didn’t really know what to do in such situations. He started drinking and enjoying himself and had to be frequently asked to take photos of the guests, the cake cutting and the first dance. During these occasions he looked like he was struggling with the camera settings while the posing guests had to wait a long time for the photo to be taken. The photos he took of the first dance only came out as black frames, he didn’t understand why.

Still everyone had a great time and Mary didn’t think anything of it. After the wedding they went on a honey moon and couldn’t wait to come back and see all those free professional wedding photos that Trevor took.

In the meantime, Trevor returned from his, nearly free holiday. He didn’t copy the images on the hard drive of his computer right away, because he still had two weeks time until Mary and her husband are back from the holiday. And he’s not a professional, so why should he need to edit them? After all this was a free shoot and he done the best he could.

Three days before he was meant to meet the newlyweds, he decided to copy the photos over to his PC. He opened the SD card compartment only to find it slightly wet. Nevertheless, he dried the Sd memory card out and put it into the card reader of his computer.

Error

“Hm… this is strange” Trevor thought to himself. He took out the card, cleaned the contacts and re-inserted.

Error

Slightly surprised, but not overly worried he tried the process few more times only to be shown the same Error message.

So Trevor thought he’ll take the card to a specialised store and he was sure they will be able to help him with this. After all, the card looks fine so there must be something wrong with his computer or software he’s using.

“Unfortunately we weren’t able to copy the images from the card, there seem to have been a water damage to it and it’s not readable I’m afraid…” Trevor was informed by the specialist.

His heart sunk. What is he going to do now?

 

 

Read the first part of the story here. 

Next week: A package which was too good to be true.