Disney Photographer or not?

[stitch626_in_time]

Hi, I have read a lot of posts on here that recommend Randy Chapman for the photographer. Not many have said a lot of positives about Disney photographers. I am just curious as to why this may be. I have requested info from Randy Chapman and the photos on his site look amazing. On the other hand I have not seen very many examples of Disney photographs. If anybody has any, I would love to see them. Thanks!!

 

[hiwaygal]

Hi stitch626_in_time...

I just typed in a big long response to your message and then lost it!

Here is a link to some of my photos done by Disney:

http://s20.photobucket.com/albums/b241/lunaselene66/Disney Wedding/


We were very happy with the results and my only regret is not asking for more pictures to be taken!

Good luck with whatever you decide!

 

[WDWINJUNE!]

We were married on April 1 and went with Disney photography. Our photographer was great and took time to get all of the photographs that we wanted. When I asked about getting the beach photos taken (which are some of my favorites ) he was happy to take those for us.

The link to our disney photos is in my siggie. Let me know if you have any other questions

Laura

 

[Skylarr29]

we are using Randy Chapman next Sept. From what I hear he is the best

 

[AnimalPrincess]

I have not decided who to go with yet but it seems to me that there are two reasons that people do not go with DPS: cost, disney is more expensive than outside vendors; also people want to know who their photographer will be ahead of time and with DPS you really don't. Having said that everyone that I have seen that has used DPS has been happy so if you need them to hit your minimum don't worry your pictures will be great. Also realize that there are other good photographers out there besides Randy. I am looking into Karla Fountain who has amazing photos and Gary Fox is good as well. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Ember]

I looked at quite a few wedding done with DPS as well as the outside vendors. Photography is very important to us (we both have a background in it) and we were after a particular style. Knowing our photographer ahead of time was something we both wanted.

I found that Disney Photography was very solid but not always the most creative. Randy was also excellent and I've heard many great things about him, but it was Karla Fountain who really stood out for me. She has a unique style to her photography that both of us just loved! Plus when I started talking with her she was super nice!

 

[stitch626_in_time]

Wow, thanks for all the info. And here I was thinking I only had to decide between a couple of photographers. The photos that you all posted were beautiful making my decision all the more difficult!! If anybody has heard any negatives to certain photographers that would be great too. If you can't tell, photography is very important. Thanks again!!!

 

[MyLittlePiglet]

My husband and I got married at the Swan 3 years ago. We used a disney phtographer. My comments would be:

1. Great photographer once he knew our style as far as images and posing and stuff.

2. He was willing to go where ever we dragged him.

3. He did not plan well for the weather and time for photos. They had to reprint them several times before shipping to us.

4. Since WDW photographers release negatives (which is huge plus) one would have hoped he planned for weather (slightly rainy) and time (6:30 in May) so that we could have taken our negatives anywhere to reproduce. can't do, or well we did and them came out really really bad.

I think that is it.

 

[Cinderella2006]

I am using Randy, the main reason was he made it really easy for us being from the UK and he has been really accomodating. Contact has been excellent - i have had several phonecalls to see how plans are getting on etc - 5 star treatment and i only paid for the Intimate package (cheapest!). The cheapest upgrade package with Disney was the same price as Randy for approx 200 photos and you are assigned the copyrights for printing at home; you definately get value for money!
I think he is great!

 

[melmel]

We used Randy, and I can't say enough how wonderful he is. I loooooved everything he did that day. He is very creative, which was a huge plus for us. We thought of great places and placement for us to get all the best pics. He gave us all of our pictures on cd to get them developed as we wanted. And when mom had problems with Walmart, since they are techniquely professional pictures, he sent her a letter saying she had the rights. I really enjoyed having my pictures done by Randy. I hate having my picture taken, and always think I look bad in photos, but I think there are only 3 or 4 I'm not thrilled with out of 800 he took. I think the thing that I liked the best, and made for the best photos, was that he didn't do that horrible ok stand here, now look here, ok lower your chin 3/8s of an inch to the left no thats too far, a little back, no a little forward. ugh I can't stand that and he didn't do it once the whole time. He would place us where he thought would look good then he'd walk away and quietly take pictures, only occasionally telling my dh to kiss me. Thats it, no possing with fake smiles for hours. And some of my favorite photos from that day are ones that are totally spontanious that we didn't even know he was taking. I wouldn't have traded Randy for anything. Oh and did I mention he was cheaper then upgrading my 'free' photo package that came with my intimate.

Melissa

 

[JDR2b777]

I just got off the phone with Chris Mcalister from Southern Cross photography and he seemed so great. His prices are sooooo reasonable. You can get him for 8 hours and pay the $200 on site venue fee and it will still be less the Disney's 6 hr package and you keep a cd too of ALL your pictures. ALSO , an ENGAGEMENT session is included too, and you can have that done whenever - no extra cost. It is included. His pictures are breathtaking.

 

[Gabrielle0625]

Hi there:

We were married this past Christmas. We used Randy for our wedding and booked a honeymoon photo package with Disney Photography.

WHAT A HUGE DIFFERENCE!
Not only did we save thousands by going with Randy but we got the copyright to our CD (which disney charges an extra $1000 for) but we got four times the pictures.

Randy is so creative with poses and he makes you feel like you are the most beautiful bride he has ever worked with.

The photographer from Disney was a nice guy.......however, he showed NO CREATIVITY WITH POSES WHATSOEVER...... it was really just an average experience at best.

With Disney you will get Disney treatment and quality........but NOT quantity and value.

Randy is just awesome and you will feel like your money was well spent!

Hope that helps.

Gabrielle
Wedding Pavilion
12/16/05

 

[JandJ]

You'll get lots of different opinions on this. I think the pictures from the couples who have used Randy are great, he does really nice work and has great prices from what I've read on here.

We went with Disney (I like to point out that the pic in my sig was taken by a friend) because it was included in our Intimate and honestly I didn't want to deal with any outside vendors. I'm a scrapbooker and DH and I are avid photographers so the pictures were extremely important to us. We loved our photographer. He was so nice and very open to my ideas and if I disagreed with something he wanted to do he was completely understanding and we compromised (for example, I refused to stand in the grass). I love all of our pictures and wouldn't have changed a thing! Our photographer said he would stay with us as long as we wanted but after 2 hours (he took a ton of pictures!) I was just so done with it all. My cheeks hurt from smiling so much I don't regret our choice to go with Disney one single bit.