Alex Claney Photography

I waited several years before I wrote this review because I wanted to make sure that I had an opportunity to work with other photographers for the purpose of comparison.
I hired Alex to take my wedding pictures in winter of 2008.
He arrived with only one assistant, a teenage boy.
The wedding was inside the Ida B Noyes Hall of the University of Chicago in the middle of winter, ample opportunity to capture the majesty of the architecture. This, however, wasn’t the case. The pictures were simply awful; stiff, banal, and utterly lacking in creativity. It looked like we were posing for formal prom pictures, rather than wedding photos. In many of the bridal pictures Alex had me stand in front of a wall sconce… consequently, there is a glaring light bulb in the background.
The number of photos was limited, probably because the assistant was a teenager, and the very best photograph (the one blown up and framed on our wall), was taken by a girlfriend.
When it came time to order the prints, Alex would not relinquish the digital images. Are you kidding?!?
I have had the opportunity to work with many photographers who take delicate, natural pictures and who always ALWAYS provided me with the digital files.
All in all, barely passable. Barely.

Our photographer was an associate of Alex. Multiple times throughout the reception, he was missing/​gone somewhere. We had to seek him out to be sure we got shots of some of the more important events that I wanted recorded. He sat and talked with one of my guests for at least an hour and we ended up with basically no reception shots not centered on the bridal party (which we did specifically ask for – it was a small party and it was low key, so it’s not like it would have been that hard to shoot my friends and family members for an hour – especially if all he was doing was chatting and sitting around in our one-​room reception hall). He also brought his son as an assistant who was not appropriately dressed and wore dark sunglasses during the indoor event.
Getting in touch with Alex/​the company afterwards is usually pretty hard. They take forever to get back to you either by phone or by email with helpful answers to your questions. It took a long time to get our proofs before we could even order our album, which then took quite a few months to be finished. Whether it’s right or wrong, I felt like because I wasn’t spending tons of money, my concerns were not as important and that they were gonna get to me when they got to me.
The price is pretty typical for wedding photographers– high. We expected that going in but were still stupidly surprised by all the costs. Also, Alex told us at an expo that he usually just throws in the disc after the event, but I guess we didn’t buy enough of the really expensive individual prints for that to happen. To be fair, though, we did get the proofs in some really nice binders and a nice bag so we DO have the memories in some fashion – even if we can’t reproduce them.
All in all, a bit of a headache and a little irritating. But the album we received and the pics that WERE taken were beautifully done.

I had heard that Alex Claney took the football team pictures at the high school so I took a chance and made an appointment to get senior pictures. I’m so happy we did! He was friendly, professional and so efficient. He was even able to get my son to smile which is no easy task. He had the pictures posted online for us to view within a day or two and had my pictures back to me less than a week after I ordered them. There was no pressure and no sales tactics like I’ve experienced at other photographers. He has a great location for outdoor photos as he’s located in downtown St. Charles so we were able to just walk to some great spots. The best part is that we were able to pick many poses at a reasonable price (per sheet) without having to buy a «package». Don’t settle on using the company picked by the schools to do the yearbook pictures. I had my son go for his yearbook picture but did a separate appointment with Alex Claney Photography. Our pictures turned out great. Based on that and the fact that I saw some of his work in his studio, I would highly recommend him for any event. I plan on going back there for my other son’s senior pics.