B Mikal Photography

Last year my wife and I learned a lesson: don’t look for a reliable wedding photographer through Craigslist. Enter Brian of B Mikal Photography.
The short of it:
In our experience, Brian was completely unprofessional. He was super-​responsive before we signed a contract with him to shoot our wedding but then went AWOL when we were trying to schedule a measly engagement photo shoot after we gave him a deposit for his services.
The long of it:
We met with Brian in San Jose a few months before our wedding ceremony. He was charming, seemed professional enough. We weren’t having a huge wedding so we thought a semi-​professional photographer would suffice. Brian told us he was starting out his business, had several years of wedding photography experience through another company. We liked him. We liked his work on his website. We were willing to help build his own portfolio with our wedding.
Less than two months before our wedding Brian and I got in touch about scheduling an engagement photo shoot. He had suggested we have one. We had some back and forth e-​mails in our attempt to schedule this photo shoot in San Jose (which was for his convenience since my wife and I live in Oakland), then to confirm that we WERE NOT going to shoot it on a tentative date because Brian was not responding to an e-​mail and voicemail I left him a few days before this date was approaching.
The tentative date of our photo shoot passed and there was no word from Brian. By this point, my wife and I are making excuses for what might have happened. We honestly thought something bad might have happened to him. We were baffled; before we signed a contract with him, he was very responsive; if I left a voicemail or e-​mailed him he would respond by the next day at latest. All of sudden, after we signed a contract and gave him a $ 340 deposit, he was not as responsive like before. We were concerned that he swindled us. With less than two months from our wedding we found ourselves signed up with a photographer who was making us doubt if he’d even show up to our wedding.
A week passed since Brian last responded to one of my e-​mails about the photo shoot. My wife called him. He answered. The first thing she expressed was relief that he was okay; to this he simply gave an awkward chuckle. That was his response. He saw no reason to explain why he didn’t return my e-​mail and our two voicemails. He never apologized. A few days later we bit the bullet on our deposit and told him his services were no longer needed because of how unprofessional he was. Thankfully, we were able to find another photographer – a professional, reliable one – and he did an outstanding job for our wedding.