New York

Finger Lakes region photographers

Hi ladies. I was hoping to get some insight on photographers from the Finger Lakes region. I looked through the recommendations post and will be scoping out the suggestions. 

The frustrating problem we're dealing with right now is the pricing. My fiance and I met working at summer camp way back when and a girl we used to work with is now a professional photographer working out of both Syracuse and Rochester. We had already met with her, dicussed our wants and needs and settled a price. We chose to hold off on placing a deposite with her until after Wedding World at the Geneva Ramada this weekend, just in case. But her prices that we settled on were absolutely unbeatble. But she just informed us that she's taking some kind of photo advertising job at Disney World and is moving to Florida. We had already pretty much budgeted her price into our wedding budget. In case you're curious, we were getting five hours coverage, two disks of photot (high res and low res), rights to our photos, and 15 edited/finalized prints for only $800. Now if we want to use her we'd have to pay her travel expenses, which is just ridiculous. I wouldn't pay to fly her up and put up for the weekend. We're hoping to find another photographer for around $1500 or less, which is seemingly impossible. It's just frustrating because we had budgeted with her prices in mind and now we have to make the changes. And it seems most photographers don't post their prices on their websites. So I was just wondering who you ladies used and what you got for the money you spent..? 

Also, I never did introduce myself! My name is Courtney and I'm originally from Baldwinsville. My fiance Rob is originally from Liverpool and we met forever ago at Camp Talooli. We've been together a little over three and half years and moved to Geneva last fall. We're getting married in Geneva, on the lake, because most of his family lives in Tennessee and Mississippi and my family is in New Jersey. This is a good way for us to get everyone to come see our cute town and the house we just bought. Even though we aren't getting married until June of 2013, we're trying to get vendors booked early so we can have time to save for all the final payments and have solid number for what we will owe well in advance. Also, June is crazy popular, so we want first dibs on good vendors!

This board is probably the best tool I've managed to find as far as planning resources go, so thank you all! 
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Re: Finger Lakes region photographers

  • raes19raes19 member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    edited February 2012
    Hi and welcome to a fellow Genevan! I work at the Geneva Area Chamber of Commerce, and recently added a list of wedding contacts to our website (kind of wish I had something like this available when I was doing my own wedding). Here is the wedding page of our website: http://genevany.com/content/view/getting-married.html and on the right side of the page is a link to the contacts. There are two Geneva-based photographers on the list. I personally would recommend Neil Sjoblom, as he has done a ton of weddings at Geneva venues. I don't really know what his wedding pricings are, but he is a great guy and really talented. His website doesn't showcase many weddings, but I know he is very experienced.
    Photobucket BabyFruit Ticker
  • I found it incredibly hard to find a good photographer for under $2500-$3000. I'm not sure if my standards are too high or what, but in order to find a great person for that price you have to be lucky and get someone still on the rise. Unfortunately the on-the-rise photogs usually raise their prices for the following season. A good reason to book early, which is good thinking on your part! If you really like this girl in Florida, it would probably still only cost around $1500 total to include her travel expenses.

    For the price I mentioned, I'm getting 8 hours of coverage, a cd of all images, and 2 enlargements from Leo Timoshuck in Syracuse. I used weddingwire.com, wellwedny, and stylemepretty.com's little black book to search.
    Wedding Countdown Ticker
  • I'm getting married at Ventosa, and my photographer is coming up from Horseheads (my home town).  His name is Rick Bacmanski, and all his prices are on his webpage.  He does offer a "recession" discount lol, there's one package in the $1000 range.  I'm thrilled to work with him, can't wait.
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  • We were married last summer on Keuka Lake and we loved our photographer Sonia Maria  (<-- link).  For around $750 including tax we got 5 hours of photography, a CD of all of our pictures and rights to reproduce.  She was really great to work with, friendly and professional, and I really liked her style.  She's based out of Rochester but grew up in the Finger Lakes region and is familar with the area.
    Wedding Countdown Ticker
  • We used Gardner Photography. If I remember correctly, his prices start at $1,000 - $1,500. We bought middle package it was the best value for what we wanted. I couldnt ask for brtter pictures! His website is Gardnerphotography.net
  • I got married about 6 months ago at Belhurst in Geneva. We used Dan from photoemphasis www.photoemphasis.net For around $1700 we got about 8 hours of shooting, a cd with print release, online gallery, and 5 prints. I think he adjusted his packages for 2012 and also includes parents CDs. I thought he was great to work with and we were pleased with the photos. :-)
    Wedding Countdown Ticker
  • I met with Dan, as well, and he was one of the top photographers we were considering. His prices were definitely reasonable and he was one of the most knowledgeable people we met with. Good luck on your search!
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