Rae Barnes Photography

My husband and I worked with Rae Barnes over a few years, through our engagement, wedding and the waiting period for prints & the album. We first booked her back in 2008, right after our engagement, based on the gorgeous photos we saw on her site & some correspondence via phone and email. I will say that I had never seen more beautiful wedding photography on a consistent basis. Hers is a truly beautiful art and I am so thankful we booked her to capture our engagement & wedding day in September of 2009.
Post-​wedding, the business side of Rae Barnes Photography was unsettling. I appreciate the busy holiday season and was prepared for that, but I ended up receiving an order with printing errors that was meant to be a Christmas present. She was very apologetic and sent several complimentary prints to make up for it, which was nice of her, but the present lost its wow factor on Christmas morning, for sure.
When it came time to order the album, we thought we’d receive some guidance on how the whole process works. Nothing ever came. When I finally contacted her about it, she responded matter-​of-​factly, as if I should have know the whole process somehow already! Overall, I felt like I had to ask way too many questions about every little detail — when just a little bit of a heads up about the general workings of getting an album ordered would have been really nice.
Once the album process did get underway, it took FOREVER to hear anything back. Come to find out, she had a total hard drive failure and lost a lot of work (luckily not our images), but never actually communicated that to us until we asked when we might see a draft. Apparently she had let blog readers and her twitter followers know — but didn’t think to email her paying clients who were patiently waiting for a first look at their album. Pretty unprofessional and presumptuous to just think that I knew via one of those methods.
Fast forward a couple MORE months and a few more «busy times» for her, we finally had our album. It was (and remains) very beautiful and we are thankful for it. I will say, however, it came in a box from some other photographer or studio with her logo taped over it. Really? After I get done paying $ 2k+ you can’t brand your own album boxes?
Finally, we ordered thank you cards through Rae (now, looking back, I wonder why we bothered) and received them only to find her GIANT logo across 25% of the back of the card. She’s very gratuitous with pasting her logo on everything she possibly can, just be aware of that. We were almost embarrassed to send them around like that, especially for not really loving the whole experience with her services.
Anyway, if you can put up with the only semi-​professional business side, you will still likely be very happy with the images you get. Again, those are top notch. It’s just too bad she couldn’t manage her business in a better way.

I have had the pleasure of knowing Rae for many years now and her photography never ceases to amaze me. In a nutshell, Rae is just about the most talented photographer I have ever met (besides my husband of course!) I cannot imagine anyone being disappointed by her work, as the images she captures are simply breathtaking. Some of the photos in her blog posts of families and children are so beautiful they have downright made me cry! (Ok, so maybe I was pregnant then, but still…)
Rae truly is an artist of immeasurable talent, passion and skill… and a wonderful person to boot!

We had the privilege of finding Rae for our wedding in Lake Placid, NY. She did our engagement and wedding photography and we could not have made a better choice! She was so nice from day one and we have loved every single photograph from both sessions! Her style is very original and everything she does is top quality. She is very thorough in her work and just a pleasure to be around!

Rae photographed our wedding almost 4 years ago and we haven’t stopped raving about her since. So when we had a baby, there was no doubt that we wanted her to do our baby pics (and toddler pics and…) We drove four hours to meet up with her and had the drive been further, we’d have done that too. If you are lucky enough to live near her and want pictures that are not only keepsakes but artwork, look no further, you’ve found the best!