Michelle Quance Photography Poor Quality, Michelle Quance Photography Toronto, Poor Quality Wedding Photographers, Expensive Photography, Posed-looking photos Toronto, Ontario Canada

I couldn't wait to get my photos back from our wedding day. I had seen the portfolio of Michelle Quance and her other 6 female photographers when looking for a photographer. While I could not book her for the actual day, based on the portfolios I saw, I booked two of the other ladies who were available-Kelly and Summer. It took 3 months to finally receive my photos. Michelle did place them all in two black photo albums and I did receive the negatives (it was shot manual not digital). She had sold me on the idea of manual vs. digital because I could blow the photos up to 8x10 and they'd look gorgeous.

When I received the photo albums I just flipped through each page in horror. The photos looked like something that ANY of my friends could have snapped and they were FAR from professional. They were NOT the photojournalistic style she had promised. My family commented that so many photos were posed instead of captured in the moment. Summer and Kelly who shot our photos seemed professional but with the many rolls of film they had, they seemed to shoot very little of the ceremony itself. I also received all of the photos that didn't turn out and there were quite a few! I had over 450 photos and my husband and I only like about 5-yes 5!

This has been bothering us, and been a weight on our marriage for the past 3 years. We've had arguments about it, the money spent on such poor photography. I've had days where I think they can't be that bad and flip through the albums again and wind up in tears. I cannot re-create this day again! I've always been sad about not having any pretty photos to hang on our walls in our home.

To this day, I have just 2 up and they are 'alright', not spectacular by any means. The worst part is I spent $3170 and there weren't even any photos from the reception, just a few of the tables and flowers as they used so many for the 'getting ready' shots. They also took multiple photos of the same things or groups. It was as if they had to take several shots just to get one good photo, which was evident when I received our photos. Since I have the negatives, I don't have any in digital format to store on my laptop or print out. I looked into the pricing-$150 to put them on CD's! For $3170, you'd think that would be included.

If you are looking at Michelle Quance photogaphy as a possible candidate for your wedding photos, I highly recommend looking elsewhere. Her pricing is higher than other photographers and the quality is very poor. You would not know this by the appearance of both her website and portfolios. It's hard now to watch all of my friends who have gotten married and how their photos were captured so beautifully and having nothing of the sort to reflect on or display myself. Michelle did ask me if I liked the photos when they arrived, and I did say yes at the time. Since the wedding was over and there wouldn't be a way of re-doing the wedding photos I just figured there wasn't much point in telling her they were downright awful and that I had a good long cry after looking at them.

I now want to warn other brides because I wouldn't want them agonizing over terrible wedding photos after years! $3170 is a huge sum of money to invest in sub-par photography. Also, upon voicing my concerns online so that other Brides wouldnt have to endure what I have had to and so they would not waste their money, I have received a note from Michelle Quances lawyer stating how they both feel:

The position you take is most inappropriate and I am suggesting that you immediately remove all blogs from the complaints.com site forthwith or we will consider taking further action against you. With respect, Ms. Quance feels that your complaint cannot be substantiated.

I happen to have the terrible photography to back up my concerns, so my complaint is most definitely substantiated. What is inappropriate is the lack of willingness to own the responsibility of poor photography after promising beautiful photographs that would showcase both photojournalistic and natural-looking photos, vs. posed photographs which also have heads cut off in some, half of mine or my husbands body. I have many pictures that are unclear, out of focus and overall the lighting was very poor. A trained photographer knows how to work with lighting regardless of the venue or outdoor weather might provide.

If you are considering Michelle Quance Photography and are impressed by the portfolios present, I highly urge you to keep looking, their are many great photographers in Toronto (my friends have used many and have had gorgeous photos) so keep looking!