Blue Glass Photography (St. Thomas)

[e223s]

Has anyone used Blue Glass for their wedding photos on St. Thomas? If so, how did you like them? what photograph do you recommend? Does anyone have any photos from their wedding I can view? Thanks!

[esbie11]

I used them for my wedding in April. I liked the photographer (it was a woman, but I can't remember her name). She was a little bossy (I can't think of a better word for it) but I didn't mind because I think you need a photog to be a little direct with people. It is hard to get alot of people to get where they need to be and do what they need to do, so I would rather have the photog get on people's butts than have to do it myself:) That being said, I was not overly satisfied with the pics themselves. I realize that some of my complaints my not be her fault, but none the less, here they are:

1. We hired her for 2 hours, and we ended up with 212 pictures. Now, I dont know if she sent us every single picture she took that day, or if she narrowed them down to the best ones and only sent those. I don't feel that 212 pics if all that many, especially if those are all of the ones she took. We have about 10 pictures of the wedding ceremony itself. The ceremony was 15 minutes long. So, that means she took about 1 picture every minute (on average, of course). We know a professional photog who was unable to make it to our wedding, but he said when he shoots he typically takes about 1000 pics/hour, because he is constantly snapping them. I would rather have to look through 2000 pics to find the ones I love than only have 200 to pick from.

2. After the ceremony we took most of our pics on the beach. Fortunately for us, it was a very sunny day:D However, in every single picture, everyone is squinting. I mean squinting like their eyes look like they are closed. I can understand that with a group pic of 20 people there is bound to be a few people who are blinking, squinting, not smiling, etc. But when everyone is squinting, it just makes for a bad picture. We have NO pictures where no one was squinting. This is disappointing. I know the photog has no control over the location on the sun, but perhaps we should have taken some pics somewhere else where the sun wouldnt have been such a big issue. We got married at Bluebeards, so there is plenty of shade there.

3. I take partial responsibility for this one, but I have NO pictures of me with my mom and me, DH and my mom. I take some responsibility because I didn't specifically ask. However it was my wedding day, it was overwhelming, there was so much going on, I feel as though it is partially her responsibility to say "ok now let's get a pic with you and your mom" and "let's get a pic with you, your new husband, and your mom." I am heartbroken to look through my pics and have the only pics of my mom are when she is with the entire group of guests:(

 

So, as you can see I was disappointed. It certainly wasn't disasterous in any way, but for the $1000 we paid, I wanted more both quantity and quality wise.

I can email you some pics if you'd like. The pics are big so I'd probably have to send them 1-2 at a time, but I have no problem doing that (I won't send all of them, just a sampling)

Let me knwo if you have any other questions:)

[sbutrick]

I'm planning on using Blueglass photo for our wedding in 01/2010. I went through a whole list and I found them to be the best. I can't speak for anyone else. But any good photograpgy and any birdal mag will tell you to have a list of the *MUST HAVE* photos that you will want forever. Plus they should tell you what to look forward too.;)

 

I plan on having one of my bridesmaid watching out for our best interests of photos. Enough sun or no sun also making sure my list is complete.

 

As for my wedding party we will speak up. In the end you have hired them. Because you can not get a re-do. :o

 

Also, thank you for esbie11 for the heads up about blueglass!:D

[Jeff'sBride]

During a summer family reunion the photographer we hired was also bossy - but one thing that has really stuck with me was when we were all squinting because of the sun; she told us to close our eyes and she counted to three and we were to open our eyes WIDE. She snapped the picture at that moment and I was surprised they turned out. You feel pretty goofy, but makes for a better picture.

 

Maybe you could suggest this to your photographer --

 

:)

[e223s]

I used them for my wedding in April. I liked the photographer (it was a woman, but I can't remember her name). She was a little bossy (I can't think of a better word for it) but I didn't mind because I think you need a photog to be a little direct with people. It is hard to get alot of people to get where they need to be and do what they need to do, so I would rather have the photog get on people's butts than have to do it myself:) That being said, I was not overly satisfied with the pics themselves. I realize that some of my complaints my not be her fault, but none the less, here they are:

1. We hired her for 2 hours, and we ended up with 212 pictures. Now, I dont know if she sent us every single picture she took that day, or if she narrowed them down to the best ones and only sent those. I don't feel that 212 pics if all that many, especially if those are all of the ones she took. We have about 10 pictures of the wedding ceremony itself. The ceremony was 15 minutes long. So, that means she took about 1 picture every minute (on average, of course). We know a professional photog who was unable to make it to our wedding, but he said when he shoots he typically takes about 1000 pics/hour, because he is constantly snapping them. I would rather have to look through 2000 pics to find the ones I love than only have 200 to pick from.

2. After the ceremony we took most of our pics on the beach. Fortunately for us, it was a very sunny day:D However, in every single picture, everyone is squinting. I mean squinting like their eyes look like they are closed. I can understand that with a group pic of 20 people there is bound to be a few people who are blinking, squinting, not smiling, etc. But when everyone is squinting, it just makes for a bad picture. We have NO pictures where no one was squinting. This is disappointing. I know the photog has no control over the location on the sun, but perhaps we should have taken some pics somewhere else where the sun wouldnt have been such a big issue. We got married at Bluebeards, so there is plenty of shade there.

3. I take partial responsibility for this one, but I have NO pictures of me with my mom and me, DH and my mom. I take some responsibility because I didn't specifically ask. However it was my wedding day, it was overwhelming, there was so much going on, I feel as though it is partially her responsibility to say "ok now let's get a pic with you and your mom" and "let's get a pic with you, your new husband, and your mom." I am heartbroken to look through my pics and have the only pics of my mom are when she is with the entire group of guests:(

 

So, as you can see I was disappointed. It certainly wasn't disasterous in any way, but for the $1000 we paid, I wanted more both quantity and quality wise.

I can email you some pics if you'd like. The pics are big so I'd probably have to send them 1-2 at a time, but I have no problem doing that (I won't send all of them, just a sampling)

Let me knwo if you have any other questions:)

 

hey esbie i would love to see a few of your photos if you're willing to share. you can e-mail them to e223s@hotmail.com thank you so much! your review was very helpful. did you also order prints from them? the packing my WC sent me was

1st Hour - $500 – averages 72-110 photos

Includes digital ownership, DVD/CD-ROM and a personal website

Additional Hour: $200

so i'm worried there may be hidden costs if yours cost $300 more than that.

[tink2862]

Hey Sarah could you send me some of the photos? Leslie and I haven't really talked photographer yet, but I know that she really likes to use blueglass photography. Of course I don't really know what my other options are?!

 

email is tink2862 at yahoo

I'm sorry to hear your unhappy with the photos :/

[luvjftffc]

I'm using Kelly O photography for my wedding in December. Her web site is http://www.kellyophotos.com

[envirolawyer]

Our wedding coordinator highly recommended Blueglass for our October wedding in St. Thomas. For various reasons we are going with Bob Schlesinger of Tropical Focus instead. He's informative, experienced, gives quick responses and offers a great deal. I have not regretted the decision and will let everyone know how it goes!

[esbie11]

To those who have asked me to email some pics-I will be happy to do so however I am out of town until the middle of next week. I will send them to you when I get back home and have access to them on my computer :)

[esbie11]

hey esbie i would love to see a few of your photos if you're willing to share. you can e-mail them to e223s@hotmail.com thank you so much! your review was very helpful. did you also order prints from them? the packing my WC sent me was

1st Hour - $500 – averages 72-110 photos

Includes digital ownership, DVD/CD-ROM and a personal website

Additional Hour: $200

 

so i'm worried there may be hidden costs if yours cost $300 more than that.

 

I did not order prints from them. I ordered my prints through mpix. I have used them before and like their work, and it is much cheaper than what a photog charges for prints. I did get ownership and a DVD/CD ROM, but I have no idea what the personal website is. If I have one, I don't know about it:o I don't know why I was charged $500/hour. Perhaps the price has simply changed from the time I booked 2 years ago, but if that is the case you'd think I would have gotten the lower price since my wedding was only 2 months ago. I would like to know the answer to that too:D

[Katosmama]

I used EJ (Eric Johnson) from Paradise Pictures (paradisepictures.vi I think). I really liked him, I liked the style of photos that he takes. He wasn't "bossy", but he did have his usual set of photos that he takes. I think I got about 100 photos, but we only booked him for an hour. We were really happy with the photos that we got, they looked fantastic. He also did the trick of closing your eyes and then opening them just as he took the photo. He also liked to wait for the sun to come out from behind a cloud to take the photo so the colours would pop more.

[all_travel_and_soccer]

I just Googled Blue Glass Photography to find a place to write a review and was disappointed that this was the first to pop up. This is also the only negative review I've been able to find which doesn't work well for them, to have their only negative review be the first review to pop up on a search engine, so I feel a need to post my positive review here in response.

I hired Blue Glass last month to capture some candid style engagement photos of me and my finance on the beach on St. Thomas and the photos turned out lovely. The photographer (Soolan) was so helpful and even got my soon-to-be husband to smile naturally in most of the photos. What a feat, considering that he hates being photographed. We are currently considering flying her back home for the wedding this summer if our budget allows and if she does not mind skipping town (paradise) for a few days. I highly recommend Blue Glass to anyone looking for professional work and staff.

[Marksgirl]

We used Eric Johnson and he was awesome. I can not say enough good things about us. I was a beautiful day but the sun would go behind dark clouds from time to time so he would wait for the sun to come back out. He said the sun was what gave the water the beautiful color and he was right. We only hired him for the hour but he was there longer because it was important for him to give us beautiful photographs. It even rained for about 10 minutes. He told us to get in the safari bus for shelter and he would wait for the rain to stop. Eric really takes pride in what he does and it shows through his photography and his personality!