Reviews of Shadow Masters & Sound Photo (Photo Studio)

Chanel Taylor

They say something always goes wrong at your wedding... (and now that I finally have my photos nearly 9 months later. I can warn others about my experience.) Well, for us that was this Husband and Wife team of photographers. At least that is who they lead you to believe will be taking the pictures (I got suckered into a special at the Salem Bridal Show). That is not the case though, the Husband showed up with some other lady to be h is assistant on my wedding day with no notice. One of my biggest issues with them was, attitude! They were not receptive to any of my suggestions, and would even roll their eyes when I would ask for certain poses or ask my bridesmaids if there were any poses they thought of. Originally they tried to bring me back into the reception to take pictures against a certain wall and we hadn't even been announced back in yet. It was not only awkward but ruined our entrance. The first thing I think of when I think about my wedding is how stressed these people made me, and that should not be what I remember. But, it doesn't stop there... It continues well past the wedding day. Roughly a month and a half later the pictures become available for viewing online. I now have to click through approximately 600 photos and select which 60 I want for my album and 200 for my CD. Which I though would be easy because there were so many pictures that I would look and think, "what the heck are they thinking?" But when you combine a not so user friendly website, with many duplicate photos, it becomes extremely difficult to narrow down your selections. I spent hours going through them thinking, oh wait. isn't this the same as the picture I selected a few pictures back... Finally, I send off my handwritten (yes, handwritten) selections to them thinking I am glad that is over with. But it's not... about 8 weeks later I get a proof for my album design, it looks similar to the type of collage that kids do in middle school on the front of their binders. So I have to write them a letter..(yes, letter) and sign it saying please do not overlap the photos, and ask when I will get the disk of images. (they hold it hostage until they send you the album). Then back to waiting... we go through two more proofs, the second one was still all cattywampus. and the third was good enough (frankly I was sick of waiting, and we are expecting now so I would like to get our wedding pictures before we have our baby...) I must say the book they chose this time (you don't get a say in what the album looks like) Is much better than the one we received as a guest book for our wedding with our engagement photos (the guest book was an awful bright red and didn't match a single thing in our wedding). So, I am able to breathe a little bit finally, until I get half way through and they have one picture that is half on one page, half on the other... I understand I picked the design but I was never told that it proof page was divided between two pages and that making this choice would cause a picture to be cut in half! But, I have my CD now and I can finally write this review. I hope that I am able to save at least one bride from the unnecessary stresses they have caused me.

James Russell

SHADOW MASTERS FROM PORTLAND OREGON. OUR WEDDING WAS ON 10/17/1998 AND MY WIFE AND I ARE SO ABSOLUTELY PROUD TO HAVE HAD TRUDY AND RICK OF SHADOW MASTERS DO THE PHOTOGRAPHY AT OUR WEDDING.THEY DID AN ABSOLUTELY AMAZING JOB!! AND IT WASNT BUT A FEW MONTHS AGO THAT WE GOT BACK IN CONTACT WITH THEM BECAUSE WHEN WE MOVED FROM OUR 1ST HOME WE ACCIDENTALLY LEFT OUR WEDDING PICTURES AT OUR OLD HOME SO I THOUGHT THEY WERE GONE FOREVER NOT QUITE!! I CALLED THEM UP AND THEY STILL HAVE ALL OF THE PROOFS AND WE WERE ABLE TO BUY ALL OF THEM. THANKS TO SHADOW MASTERS WE WERE ABLE TO RELIVE OUR VERY SPECIAL DAY!!!! AND WE ARE GETTING THE DISK SENT TO US AND ARE ABLE TO RELIVE OUR SPECIAL DAY AND THEY ARE EVEN GOING TO PUT TOGETHER A MINI ALBUM OF OUR MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS OF OUR WEDDING. I CANT THINK OF ANY OTHER PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESSES THAT YOU COULD CALL UP AFTER 20 YEARS AND ASK THEM FOR PICTURES AND THEY HAVE THEM. I COULD GO ON FOREVER ABOUT SHADOW MASTERS PHOTOGRAPHY AND SOUND. BUT IF YOU WANT A COUPLE WHO CAN DO JUST AN AMAZING JOB AT YOUR WEDDING ON YOUR SPECIAL DAY PLEASE CALL SHADOW MASTERS PHOTOGRAPHY AND SOUND OF PORTLAND OREGON THANK YOU AGAIN TRUDY AND RICK FOR MAKING OUR SPECIAL DAY AN ABSOLUTE JOY!!!

Melanie Muraviov

Pure Magic! Rick and Trudy are truly a part of what my our wedding day magical - they really love what they do and are so personable! When we first met them at the Salem Bridal show I was taken in immediately with them and how much they customize unique items in their photography packages! They incorporate so much personalization in what they do that it makes the experience so worth while. After meeting together to book them they had this ADORABLE like box of goodies as a 'thank you' for booking them! They truly do things in such an impressive and charismatic way! We did the Diamond package with them where it includes an engagement session which was fantastic - and I cried when I saw the guest book that included the photos from that session on my wedding day! The day of was breathtaking - and somehow they captured candid moments that I don't even remeber! The turn around time on getting the edited photos back was jaw-dropping! A few weeks after my wedding I got an email from Trudy saying they were ready to view on their website and I just could not believe it - plus they took so many amazing photos! When meeting them to book for our wedding Rick asked me 5 words - to describe the wedding - Elegant, Formal, Romantic, Royal Ball. And he and Trudy both embraced that that so perfectly! They captured the happiest day of our life so splendidly - I am just so immensly grateful and proud to have gotten to have them for our wedding day. I got married a month and one day ago on October 6th, 2018 and am insanely happy with choosing the best photographers I could ever hope to have met for this!