Chris Nelson, photog based in NI - reviews?

aunt pol

Hi,
I was just wondering if anyone has any personal experience of working with/ hiring/commissioning this photographer, good or bad. Contemporary photojournalistic style, based in Antrim.
Thanks

Borderfox

I would take its for a wedding? stuff looks good on the website

Julidoherty

I was actually looking up this photographer last night too
His stuff looks great, really natural....and his comments on the photographs are great.... Seems like he's enthusiastic about his job
I have no experience of working with him... I too would like to hear from anyone with personal experience... Looking for a Wedding Photographer at the moment....

aunt pol

@Julidoherty I'll PM you as soon as I get back to laptop.

We hired him for out wedding and are currently having some communication issues so I am interested to hear from anyone who has dealt with him.

CabanSail

OP - It may be better to ask in a Wedding Forum rather than here. Most who look here are Photographers themselves and tend not to be consumers. It is not a name I recognise as a poster here, or someone that has come to our attention for any reason, favourably or otherwise.

aunt pol

Thanks for that, yep that makes sense alright!

pipsnips

aunt pol...have you heard back? we also booked this chap and he wont answer our calls. WE have paid up front quite a bit of money and cant get in contact with him.........

aunt pol

Hi pipsnips, sorry slow reply. We did indeed, got our pics finally just after Christmas. We got married the 7th of may last year so it certainly wasn't prompt service. The pics are great though, so I for one am delighted to be done and out the other side. I found he sometimes responded to messages on his website, very slow to email, never got him on phone. When is/was your wedding/event?

mtcampbell

Our wedding was the end of August 2010 - I still haven't received proof book or DVD with the photos. Before our wedding Chris Nelson couldn't do enough and was always reachable by telephone...especially when wanting paid. Totally different story after. Every time I tried to call it went to voicemail, he would occasionally text back - stating that he had sent proof book etc and that he would get it re-sent by recorded delivery. Almost 2 years later it still hasn't arrived. I am not a complainer, we wanted a relaxed wedding and really didn't want to deal with all the stress usually associated with getting married. By and large we managed it, with one notable exception - Chris Nelson Photography! Despite him not delivering on the package we agreed and which was paid for, at no point has he phoned me. Really, after the wedding he would only communicate through text and then just stopped . All I wanted was the copy of our wedding photographs and proof book as agreed - I can't imagine it would have taken that long to do. Eventually (March 2012) he made it possible for us to download the images from the website. This was only after a friend called him saying they were getting married and I had recommended him etc. When he thought he was going to get a booking my friend mentioned that I hadn't received my pictures and so he was concerned about booking him. As a result Chris immediately made the pictures available to download, he also said he would send the DVD copy to my work address - again, still waiting. The fact that Chris Nelson Photographer thinks that I would recommend him to anyone suggests that he might be a deluded. In conclusion, Chris Nelson Photography - decent photographs, terrible after service, and really not worth the stress. Under no circumstances would I recommend Chris Nelson Photography.

Splinters

Wow thats pretty shocking. I would suggest posting this in the wedding section though. As mentioned most users of this forum are photographers themselves and not necessarily consumers. It sounds as if your dealings with him should be heard though, and the wedding forum would be a much more appropriate place where his future potential clients may avoid the same troubles you've had from reading your story.

Alternatively, you may want to drop him a mail before posting to explain that since you're waiting almost 2 years (Im still shocked by that) for your wedding photos you feel you're justified in posting your experiences on the boards.ie wedding board. As you probably know yourself this board is fairly influential and a post like that that would likely loose him some future business. It might be the kick in the backside he needs to finally deliver on what you had agreed.

Out of curiosity did you have a time frame mentioned in your contract with him? If so hes in breach of contract and theres plenty of legal options open to you. Im sure your primary concern is getting what you paid for but in todays photography market where theres so much competition its very unfortunate to hear of somebody taking in business and treating their customers in that manner.

MrsSunshine

Hi, we too are experiencing the same problems with Chris Nelson - no communication and no photographs after being paid a lot of money!

Our wedding was late last year - we also found him very helpful before our wedding day. As Northern Ireland is a small place through wedding chat at work I heard about another girl who had waited a long time for photos and thank you cards with zero communication from her photographer, however at that time I did not realise we had both booked Chris Nelson. On our last meeting with him I voiced my concerns about this brides experience and he reassured us that he would send us examples while we were on honeymoon. It is ironic that I was telling him about himself and we didn't even know! Needless to say he did not send us anything. After countless emails and voicemails we finally got our thank-you cards. As far as I'm aware the other bride's photos went on his website for preview 3 weeks before her 1st wedding anniversary. People joke about bridezilla's but I loved every moment leading up to our wedding it is our experience of Chris Nelson that is turning me into an after wedding bridezilla! Of course the contract has no mention of time frames - I think at the time we had become so accustomed to everything needing to be paid before the wedding we just assumed the photographs would be ok too. I would really like to know how to find out where we stand and what we can do. Northern Ireland is a very small place and I am amazed he is risking his reputation in this way. He has our money and our photos - we are obviously very concerned. If this is the wrong place to post this I am very sorry but I havn't used this kind of thing before - I just saw other people's experiences with Chris Nelson and had to share ours.

Splinters

MrsSunshine wrote: »

Of course the contract has no mention of time frames

MrsSunshine wrote: »

I would really like to know how to find out where we stand and what we can do.

Im afraid to say you might have answered your own question there. Hes not in breach of contract if there was no time frame mentioned so legally you dont have too many options (that Im aware of anyway). Hell Im doing a series of FREE headshot and portrait photos at the moment for a few actors and actresses and Im still getting them all to sign contracts and setting out all the conditions.

As mentioned above, definately post this on the weddings forum as it will likely have much more influence there then here. Here is a link to it...

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=670

Also try calling from a different number or having a friend, family member call for you. He might be avoiding your calls but Id safely bet hes still taking calls from new clients. It might sound a bit extreme but even have somebody set up a meeting with him and confront him. Obviously remain calm and dont let it escalate into an argument or worse but he should be confronted over this. In no way is it normal or acceptable to make a couple wait a year, or anything like it, for their wedding photos. Especially given the prices he charges.

Hope you get this resolved as soon as possible.

MrsSunshine

Dear Splinters,

Thank you very much for your reply. It has certainly given us ideas to follow. Another person in the same predicament has been in contact with me through this board so that has been helpful too. Will try to post on the wedding board now too.

Thanks again, it's a great help to hear the ideas and opinions of others on this matter.

Splinters

The wedding board would definately be the a good starting point. This forum is typically for photograpgraphers so not necessarily people who would be availing of his services. The wedding forum gets new posts on a daily basis looking for wedding photographers and people enquiring about one tog or another. Its very widely used so posting your experiences may help somebody else avoid the same unfortunate situation.

Out of curiosity I did search for posts relating to him on the wedding forum and found quite a few with much the same story. How is this guy still in business??

I seen he tried to respond to one of the criticisms and offer an explanation but his post was deleted. Any business representing themselves must go through a process on boards to be verified etc, which is perfectly understandable. It appears he was told about this and informed he would be welcome to post again and explain himself when he set his account up properly. It doesnt appear as if he ever did, which shows how interested he is in offering up an explanation.

pipsnips

I have tried this guy so many times. We are nearly two years, 3k less off and nothing to show for it. I am so upset by this ordeal. I have been onto northern ireland companys reg website. Solictor is the next person. It was explained to me that we would receive our images two weeks after our wedding and have emails stating the same. He literally has taken our 3k.....im so angry that he can destroy something so special.

pullandbang

pipsnips wrote: »

We are nearly two years, 3k less off and nothing to show for it.

I'm really sorry for the trouble you are going through, but why on earth did you part with your cash before getting your photos? Surely you would only pay a deposit with the balance on completion and delivery of the album?

Maybe I'm wrong but I would have thought that was normal practice for photographers (or any business)?

MrsSunshine

pullandbang wrote: »

I'm really sorry for the trouble you are going through, but why on earth did you part with your cash before getting your photos? Surely you would only pay a deposit with the balance on completion and delivery of the album?

Maybe I'm wrong but I would have thought that was normal practice for photographers (or any business)?

We too had Chris Nelson as our photographer and he wanted all the money up front before the wedding. I think at the time we were so used to everything having to be paid before the wedding day that we just assumed it was normal. Perhaps too trusting on our part? Unfortunately we have learnt the hard way and we are not the only ones. As far as we know he is still doing weddings and people are still ending up in the same predicament

kjt

pullandbang wrote: »

I'm really sorry for the trouble you are going through, but why on earth did you part with your cash before getting your photos? Surely you would only pay a deposit with the balance on completion and delivery of the album?

Maybe I'm wrong but I would have thought that was normal practice for photographers (or any business)?

Every wedding photographer I know takes anything from 10-50% deposit with the remaining being paid the week leading up to or on the day. I don't know any that take payment after the day

Zabka

pullandbang wrote: »

I'm really sorry for the trouble you are going through, but why on earth did you part with your cash before getting your photos? Surely you would only pay a deposit with the balance on completion and delivery of the album?

Maybe I'm wrong but I would have thought that was normal practice for photographers (or any business)?

This is easy to say and of course I'd never hire a photog again with full payment beforehand cause this has been a disaster.
But I also have not found any that would work and accept payment after while searching for photogs. Balls in vice.

I just hope all couples looking for a photog read this post and so not hire Chris Nelson.

pipsnips

anyone got this chaps postal address. can you pm me

Reoil

Here is publicly available whois data from his website:

<SNIP>

Zabka

Reoil wrote: »

Here is publicly available whois data from his website:

<SNIP>

Interesting. The address from my invoice is:
Chris Nelson Photography
<SNIP>

They are only about 3 miles away from each other. If someone knows which one is correct, let me know, thanks!

AnimalRights

I like name and shame threads.

Zabka

AnimalRights wrote: »

I like name and shame threads.

I'm glad you got your giggles. This F*** truly deserves it though. Actually he deserves much worse.

Mr E

If anyone googles him (Chris Nelson Photography Review), this thread comes out on top. The power of the internet....

Zabka

Mr E wrote: »

If anyone googles him (Chris Nelson Photography Review), this thread comes out on top. The power of the internet....

I know! That's how I found it. Too bad there were 0 reveiws of him when we booked him and even around our wedding. They popped up just a little bit later. :mad:

AnimalRights

Zabka wrote: »

I'm glad you got your giggles. This F*** truly deserves it though. Actually he deserves much worse.

I am certainly not giggling at your mishaps, I am on these boards a fair while and I like to see 'people like him' exposed to save others from all the hassle and misery.

DaireQuinlan

AnimalRights wrote: »

I like name and shame threads.

yeah there's nothing like an internet witch hunt comprised almost entirely of unsubstantiated allegations by low post-count or first time posters to brighten up a monday morning.

Splinters

AnimalRights wrote: »

I like name and shame threads.

They can be a bit dodgy if its just one persons experiences. Ive read a few where its one person giving their account of a situation but its very hard to know if its justified without hearing both sides of a story.

Im sure even the best of the best (in any field) will have off days and some people can be a bit quick to do the the whole name and shame thing which can potentialy be quite damaging. I suppose every situation is different.

However in cases like this where there are numerous people (Ive seen close to a dozen people on both this and the wedding forum) all giving very similar stories, experiences of this guy then it seems very much justified. He seems to be still taking on new business too which is the most unfortunate thing.

Reoil

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

yeah there's nothing like an internet witch hunt comprised almost entirely of unsubstantiated allegations by low post-count or first time posters to brighten up a monday morning.

Yeah because people have nothing better to do than make up stuff about a guy they've never met. :rolleyes:

MrsSunshine

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

yeah there's nothing like an internet witch hunt comprised almost entirely of unsubstantiated allegations by low post-count or first time posters to brighten up a monday morning.

These are not unsubstantiated allegations, come round to our house and show us our wedding photographs. Good luck with finding any!!! :rolleyes:

CabanSail

Can see nothing wrong with sharing facts and warning others.

Please refrain from publishing addresses etc. even if they are freely available already. Sending a PM is OK.

Discussion is fine but keep to the experiences and keep away from vilifying anyone.

Reoil

Here, he's perfectly welcome to come on here and defend himself, ...if people could get in contact with him to tell him.

Splinters

He had tried to defend himself on the wedding forum, however his post was deleted. Any poster on boards.ie representing a business must go through a very simply process in order to verify their account. His post was deleted but he was informed of this process and told he was welcome to post a reply once he followed the rules....which he didnt seem to bother with.

Considering the fact that hes still taking on new business and every few weeks there seems to be a new person with the same complaint about him I really dont see how there could be any explanation other then him just being a cowboy. However it would be interesting to hear his justification of keeping couples waiting over a year (in some cases over 2 years) for their wedding photos when he had already been paid for them.

DaireQuinlan

Reoil wrote: »

Here, he's perfectly welcome to come on here and defend himself, ...if people could get in contact with him to tell him.

I believe he actually posted on one of the threads on the wedding forum, but because he didn't have a verified boards account the post was removed.

MrsSunshine

If he wanted to post on here and explain things fair enough.
It might actually be better to communicate with his clients and explain to us why things are taking so long.
If there is some genuine reason that's fine but to ignore calls and emails from people who have paid thousands of pounds for a service just isn't fair...

Splinters

Very true, he owes his clients an explanation a lot more then the folks on boards.ie.

However I just assumed with the way he conducts business and the fact he's still taking on new business that he would make more of an effort to clear things up on the many posts about him on here. As already mentioned, if you google his name and "reviews" all these topics pop up straight away.

Very safe to say there must be a few people who've not used him as a result....which is only fair.

Zabka

Splinters wrote: »

Very true, he owes his clients an explanation a lot more then the folks on boards.ie.

However I just assumed with the way he conducts business and the fact he's still taking on new business that he would make more of an effort to clear things up on the many posts about him on here. As already mentioned, if you google his name and "reviews" all these topics pop up straight away.

Very safe to say there must be a few people who've not used him as a result....which is only fair.

@Splinters Have you actually seen that post? It must have been before I joined. I would love to know what he had to say.

My last e-mail exchange with him he said that "you (meaning me) don't want to hear any more." Which is laughable as I am dying to hear all of it and also wrote him that this is not true and that I would LOVE to hear it. Of course big surprise not a peep since. This guy sure is special.

Splinters

Heya, no afraid not. I just seen the post by the moderator to say his post had been deleted and that he had been told the few simple steps he needed to do to verify his account, which he didnt appear to have done.

I must admit Id be very curious to see what way hes trying to explain it. At best he might be able offer some form of explanation to one, two (at a stretch) couples for the delay but when it seems to be the pattern for so many people the only explanation is that hes a cowboy.

For the record Im probably chiming in on this more then I should, seeing as Im not a customer of his and havent been effected by him. I am however a photographer looking at moving into wedding photography in the coming months and find this very frustrating that somebody like this is offering such a shoddy service, causing so much distress yet STILL seemingly taking on new business. As a photographer who tries to bend over backwards to accomodate his customers I really do find this shocking carry on. I just think the more fuss caused about this online (so long as it continues to remain within the realms of discussing facts) then at least it may help other couples avoid similar troubles.

Zabka

YEY I FINALLY GOT THEM! Only 5 days shy of our 1st wedding anniversary.

But whaa whaa whaa goes Chris Nelson:

"This was a difficult edit for me having read all the things you have 'anonymously' said about me on boards.ie but I didn't let that diminish the care and attention that I have put into the editing of your final collection of images."

Which is a lie. Some of them are nice but most of the photos were just "meh." For a few of them it looks like he just converted them from RAW to JPEG and called it a day. He also gave us 50 less than the minimum promised but that's what you get when you hire Chris Nelson. I'm not hiding them if you're interested I'll gladly let you see the gallery, becasue I can be sure that Chris isn't going to be showing this one to perspective clients.

If you are still waiting, get a lawyer ASAP, I had to, and if you are looking to hire, still DON'T.

PS: I will post my full review in a day or 2.

Splinters

Are they online? Id be interested to see the quality of an image set hes taken a year to deliver.

His message seems to suggest hes keeping an eye on the criticism here on boards, but did he offer any reason why its taken so long to get the images to you. From what I can see every bit of criticism of him on this and other forums has been justified. Id just be curious to hear how he justifies or explains it.

Zabka

Splinters wrote: »

Are they online? Id be interested to see the quality of an image set hes taken a year to deliver.

His message seems to suggest hes keeping an eye on the criticism here on boards, but did he offer any reason why its taken so long to get the images to you. From what I can see every bit of criticism of him on this and other forums has been justified. Id just be curious to hear how he justifies or explains it.

Simply put - he doesn't.

Zabka

My review of Chris Nelson, which I feel I owe to people as a customer:
We decided to hire Chris Nelson to shoot our wedding on September 3rd 2011, since we saw numerous galleries of his work and loved them. All our e-mails, prior to booking, were answered promptly and professionally. We even met with Chris on two separate occasions before our wedding once on location and once at his place. The communication did suffer after we had paid Chris, and we did feel as if there was something off about this, but we had already paid so we went ahead with him (biggest regret ever). We met with him on location 2 days before the wedding to which he was an hour late. At this point, I was terrified that he’d miss half the wedding.
During this meeting we asked how long it would take to get our photos and Chris told us, “two weeks.” The rest of the meeting went fine, and he seemed genuinely interested in taking all the photos we wanted.
During the day itself, Chris Nelson, was on time and seemed to be actively taking photos and stayed for the promised duration.
The main trouble came after our wedding. We were patient and didn’t really expect the photos after 2 weeks, but when the three month period came around we sent an e-mail in early January inquiring about them. We received a reply that he was working though weddings he had shoot before, but our’s and I quote was “rapidly approaching,” and that they would be done by the end of the month (January).
We never did get our pictures in January and also the communication stopped and my subsequent e-mails went unanswered. We have also called him too many times to count, but reaching Chris Nelson by phone is harder than sending a man to mars. If you don’t believe us go ahead and call. I can guarantee that you’ll only reach his voice mail.
Again in April he promised delivery so when May rolled around without seeing any pictures we sent another e-mail which returned an automated reply that Chris is currently filming in Africa. This naturally angered us, since under the pretense of having “too many weddings to edit” he has time to go to Africa. After he returned he said he would give us the photos “very shortly.”
By the end of June we sent a formal letter of complaint to him though certified mail. Receiving no reply we lodged a complaint with the European Consumer Center.
At this point we became curious to know what this Chris Nelson character is all about and a quick Google search brought me to a film forum where he advertised himself as a filmmaker and promoted his other website where presumably the film he recorded in Africa can be found. (For the sake of not wanting to advertise it I’ll not post it here but you can reach it though his profile: http://philipbloom.net/forum/members/chris-nelson.489/) This was the equivalent of throwing sawdust into a flame. This meant that instead of doing his job which he was paid for he goes to pursue his interests and hobbies and not only that, but also thinks it is acceptable to use this as an excuse as to why our pictures were not delivered. As you can see, the customer service he brings is top notch.
Furthermore, his twitter often mentions him meeting people for drinks and lines like “I’m free all day Tuesday…” My thoughts: Really you’re free all day Tuesday, I know A LOT of things you can do on Tuesday, you piece of useless brown goo. This obviously, is enraging when you know that someone takes your money but then does not care at all to deliver your good and furthermore rubs it in your face pretty much flaunting that they have better things to do. This twitter account is: @Storyhows, he also has @chrisnelsonpto, which flaunts his free time less.
Though the reason is not known as to why Chris Nelson does not deliver photos, my hunch is that he simply does not care. He has better things to do with his time than to deliver your wedding photos. Before he gets your money, he tries hard and that’s when he works, after he has made bank, you’re screwed. He couldn’t care less about you or your pictures.
Receiving no reply still, we began spamming him every day with e-mails in August. During this time, through the help of forums I got in contact with someone who received their photos before me but yet was married after me. This exposes yet another lie. We finally heard from him again with another promise to deliver by the end of August. Having zero trust in this promise, we hired a lawyer to help us get our wedding photos. Well what do you know, Chris Nelson is intimidated by lawyers. He dropboxed our photos even a day before the lawyer’s deadline. Honestly, we were not impressed; they lacked both lack quality and quantity. The vast majority of the photos were not edited nor did 249 picture come close to the 300-350 we were promised.
We expected this as when you hire Chris Nelson you are in a catch 22. See, the only way to get any photos out of him whatsoever is by pure harassment – constant non-stop harassment. If you annoy him enough he’ll deliver you something. If you do not he will never deliver anything. We tried very hard to be kind and civil with Chris Nelson at first for about 9 months, but got nowhere. We truly believed that he was taking his time editing people’s photos and was going to come to ours eventually. When we finally learned that this is not the case, we realized it was either we take action and get something or just sit around waiting forever. We are still supposed to get a proof book which we have paid for. I don’t think it’ll ever come. Probably after going through this most people just say screw it, let’s be done with him.
In conclusion, Chirs Nelson is a compulsive liar who could care less about customer satisfaction or making your day memorable. He lies about anything and everything and is essentially a con artist and crook and his “business” of ruining wedding photographs should be shut down. This whole situation has been a complete nightmare. Don’t let Chris Nelson be your wedding regret.

pipsnips

Hi Guys,

We still have not recieved anything and he just wont reply to me. We are coming up to 2 years now and I am just baffled at this. I dont understand and I dont know what to do. We are so so so sad about this. We have been so patient but I cant believe someone would play around with such special memories.

((((((((((((

AnCatDubh

So one of two things you have left to do;

A) arrive at their door and don't leave until you get what you have a legal right to

And

go through legal recourse

You *shouldnt* have to do either but one thing for sure is that posting to this forum (or others) is very unlikely to resolve the matter for you.

consumerhelp

Hi Mrs Sunshine, Splinters, Zabka, pipsnips and anyone else with similar probs please contact me to see if i can assist- thanks

Kenny Logins

consumerhelp wrote: »

Hi Mrs Sunshine, Splinters, Zabka, pipsnips and anyone else with similar probs please contact me to see if i can assist- thanks

Who are you?

Zaph

consumerhelp, I appreciate that you're trying to help and from your sign-up e-mail address I do believe you are genuine, but before posting any further could you please contact reps@boards.ie so that the guys in the office can verify your credentials. Thanks.

pipsnips

Anyone got any updates??????