5 out of 5.0
Quality of Service:
5.0 out of 5.0
Professionalism:
5.0 out of 5.0
Flexibility:
5.0 out of 5.0
Responsiveness:
5.0 out of 5.0
Value for Cost:
5.0 out of 5.0
Bia is an extraordinary photographer on numerous levels. I would not only recommend her to everyone whose wedding is going to contain an ounce of emotion and spontaneity but I would also add: you only have one shot at your wedding photos - the decision is really important. You will not regret picking Bia, and here is why:
Her photographs manage to capture not just how people look, but also their emotions, their reactions and expressions (e.g. while listening to toasts), those small and unscripted intimate moments that would go forgotten if not immortalized on film, and hilarious moments like the bride's sister imitating her kissing the groom over his other shoulder. As a result of this, I (the bride) can go back and relive the entire wedding - both things I saw, e.g. my own reaction seeing my mother's gorgeous dress while getting ready, my brother somehow high-fiving me at the end of the ceremony - and things I didn't see, like my mom's ear-to-ear grin walking with my brother down the aisle, or my parents watching the best man talk about my new husband - by looking through Bia's pictures. In other words, Bia seemed to be everywhere and yet I had no idea. Further, I gave her very little instruction about who to look for and focus on, and clearly she didn't need it.
Second, Bia did a brilliant job of conveying the overall atmosphere and mood of the event, which to me means blending the formal and expected with the less formal and unplanned. She took the expected family photographs in several places and with in all sorts of light, and then once she found something she loved, would experiment with it - using different cameras, b/w, different poses etc. But somehow she also did the same thing with the more spur-of-the-moment images, capturing fleeting expressions or grins with the same skill you see in the posed photographs. Thus, at the end, I have a spectacular combination of posed and more candid. Further, while everyone's taste is different, no one wants hokey stupid posed photographs and there was not a one in my 1300 pictures. Rather, Bia made posing, which few love doing, fun.
Third, as for the photographs themselves, they are simply gorgeous. I have so many beautiful ones to choose from picking the album is proving impossible. I think my husband is handsome as hell but I will not begin to pretend I usually look awesome in all photographs, but somehow, too many of them are beautiful. And some of the photos are really artistic, e.g. looking at the ceremony from the back of the church through a wrought-iron gate, or me and my father standing (very small) under the church's enormous organ, in black and white before we walked down the aisle - just fantastic shots.
And in addition to all of the above - the skill, the understanding of atmosphere and the ability to translate it onto film in both posed and spontaneous shots, the knowledge of how to get people to relax and look their best even though they're doing posed photographs - Bia was pure pleasure to work with. For one thing, someone who isn't warmhearted and fun could not take the quality of pictures she does; you can tell by the photos that she loves people. But she was also unassuming, ever-present without being obtrusive, dead honest that I should put more eyeliner on when I was getting ready or that my hair would look better in a series if I did something with a piece of it (etc), creative without being odd, and funny.
Lastly, in terms of logistics, she was extremely responsive and completely reliable. She also provided all sorts of advice about how long a certain number of family shots would take, whether we should do x,y and z before or after the ceremony, and even, as I mentioned above, how much eyeliner I should have on in order to look human but also look fabulous in the pictures.
I picked her because she had photographed a good friend's wedding years ago and I loved the fun yet formal quality of the photos. We considered the best photographers from Philadelphia, and I went with Bia because I had seen her work and I remembered how much fun my friend had had working with her - and how happy she had been with the pics. I had a sense that I would relate to her and this would make the pictures that much better. My friend got pictures that were very her, and I got pics that were very me, and EXACTLY what I wanted. In short, Bia nailed it. I would recommend her to everyone.