Eric Hegwer Photography

Eric Hegwer is not reliable or trustworthy. I am NOT a groupon customer or an «entitled client» however, I do believe I am entitled to receiving the items that I paid for! My husband and I had him do our engagement pictures and then our wedding pictures last July (2011) at Mercury Hall in Austin, TX, and while he did deliver us the DVDs with the pictures, he has still not sent us the wedding album or framed 18 by 20 that we paid for in full. He has repeatedly promised them to us, saying he mailed them out, cancelled on meeting up with my father to deliver items twice, and also stood him up. He is terrible at responding to emails and is incredibly angry if you call him at his new business in real estate, however when he doesn’t respond via email or to telephone messages there is really no other way of contacting him. Eric does not follow through — everything was supposedly sent to the printers and we were told we would receive everything in May of 2012 and it is now October and we have yet to receive our wedding album and framed 18 by 20. It has been a nightmare trying to receive the items that we paid for and we are still waiting. It may come to taking him to court soon.

To clarify, the quality of Eric’s pictures were good, however, his service needs to be greatly improved.

At the end of October my fiancé and I did an engagement session with Eric. He was flexible about the location and we took the photos in Georgetown. The photo shoot went well enough. He posed us about half the time, saying I know it feels awkward but it looks great in the photos. Well when we did finally get those pictures, they looked awkward. He took tons of pictures, but only about a dozen resulted in a great photo.
After the photo shot he said he would email us a link to a website with the photos in two weeks or less and then a cd would be sent in the mail shortly after. Well at 2.5 weeks we emailed him to check in, and then we called after 3 weeks, when 4.5 weeks came around and after multiple unreturned phone calls and emails I emailed him expressing the unprofessionalism about not returning phone calls and emails. He immediately emailed me, not with an apology, but an excuse that we must not have received it and that if we had let him know early he would have reposted it sooner. I then repeated that we had called and emailed countless times about it.
In the email he also said the CD was sent out the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Today (December 3) I received the CD in the mail and it was postmarked on Dec 2!!!
His not so great photos are not worth his unprofessionalism and unresponsiveness after you employ him.

We had an amazing experience with Eric. My fiancé and I had an idea in our head about what we wanted our engagement pictures to look like. We didn’t want the cheesy, posed, and frankly boring shots. After looking through Eric’s blog we liked the feel that Star Ranch offered. We had arranged a date and time. Long story short, Eric calls back and says that he found a different place that he feels would fit «us». IT WAS PERFECT!!! Truly perfect.
Eric has a gift of seeing things through a lens that I would never have noticed. Our pictures came out beautiful. He not only made me look fabulous but he also made my fiancé and I feel very comfortable (we all know that taking pictures while kissing is a bit awkward!!) We were very fortunate to have Eric as our photographer :-)

My fiancé and I purchased a groupon for engagement photos with Eric. Repeated calls were returned — eventually. Promises were made that he would call us at a specific time to schedule our session, but Eric failed to call, or email us the information he promised. It has been several days and additional phone calls have gone unreturned.
His photography looks nice and I wished he had called and we could have used the groupon and hired him for our wedding. I’m sure he is a very nice person, but my wedding photography is too important to take a chance that the photographer might fail to show up.

Eric is friendly, fast and professional. He knows that the best thing a photographer can do is get the shot quickly and get you back to the party at the wedding. Everyone likes having him around so the smiles are never forced when he takes his pictures. I strongly recommend him.

Eric was referred to me through another photographer that was already booked for my wedding day this past March. After meeting Eric and previewing his work, we knew he was the photographer for us! Easy-​going and fun, but professional and experienced.
We purchased a package deal to include Engagement photos, Bridal Portraits, and Wedding Day photos. We were extremely pleased with all! Eric used digital and (actual) film… color and black & white shots. Lots of variety… lots of great shots! Reasonable price when compared to other photographer’s package deals. It seems like other photographers had all sorts of (sometime hidden) restrictions and usage rights issues. Not Eric. He is open & honest about what is included. No surprises. He also had great ideas for places to shoot the Engagement & Bridal Portraits.
Eric is not only a great photographer, but an expert in making the best out of any situation. The skies turned black, and it started hailing one hour before my outdoor Bridal photo session. Eric maintained a positive and encouraging attitude, and wouldn’t you know it, 5 minutes before the scheduled time, the skies cleared and all was well. Even though we didn’t need it, Eric was totally ready with a back-​up plan.
On what was supposed to be my warm, sunny, Spring (outdoor) wedding day, the temperature dropped about 35 degrees and there were wind gusts of up to 35 mph… and a massive thunderstorm the night before. Eric rolled with the punches and managed to get hundreds of great shots and really capture the day for us. I totally recommend Eric!

Eric photographed my wedding in October ’08 and I cannot say enough good things about my experience with him. He did our engagement photos, my bridal portraits, and our wedding day itself.
In portrait sessions, Eric is very easy going, casual, and spontaneous. The feel is unhurried and no-​pressure, and will put even the most anxious person at ease. I’m very camera shy and don’t particularly like being the center of attention … I felt nervous going into the portrait sessions, but within a few minutes with Eric, I felt relaxed and unselfconscious. In particular, my husband and I had a lot of fun doing our engagement photos at Laguna Gloria, which turned out looking very natural (nothing contrived or overly formal) and really captured our happiness just in our expressions (without any of those cheesy-​dreamy poses).
At your wedding, his personal style is accessible, flexible, easygoing, and unobtrusive. He will capture all the intimate moments without you even realizing he is there. Quiet and unflappable, his calming presence was so reassuring to me on my wedding day. I think this is so important. Of all your wedding vendors, the photographer is the one person who will be with you and your family and bridal party ALL DAY, so having that be a positive and calming presence can really enhance the feel of your wedding. I don’t know how he does it, but it seems like he manages to tap into the very character and personality of a person and capture it in a photo. He can bring out the most natural, pure smiles in his portraits (he even managed to make my grumpy grandmother crack a smile for a portrait, which is a testament to his likability, because complaining is her favorite pastime).
Eric also has great taste and can give helpful references for other wedding professionals (he connected me to my very wonderful makeup artist). You can also work with him on customized products from his photography — for example, he made us a custom fabric-​covered guest book at a very reasonable price with our engagement photos printed throughout, so our guest book is also a mini photo album. As for the quality of his work, just look at his website because the photographs speak for themselves.

Eric photographed our wedding this past winter and we loved him. His demeanor is laid back and relaxed which is just what I needed on that crazy day. Our relatives who were unable to be at the wedding said that they felt like they didn’t miss a thing just by looking at Eric’s pictures. We would definitely recommend him!

Eric is awesome– He did my friends’ engagement pictures and they turned out amazing!
Full disclosure: I may help with with a future web project.

My husband and I met Eric at the Austin Bridal Extravaganza when he was still living in San Francisco, but starting to book Austin weddings because he was moving here. Were we ever lucky to meet him!
While we had some other really great people that helped us with our wedding, Eric was our secret favorite. His easy-​going, funny personality matched what we wanted in a photographer, and his style, photo-​journalistic with an eye for emotion was what we wanted in our photos. We got beautiful, artistic photos that weren’t a bunch of forced formal shots. His prices are competitve and worth it. Working with Eric was such a pleasure. I highly recommend him.