Author Made Photo & Video

Review of photographer
2.5 stars or 3 stars

I’m here to give a review of my expierences with Author Made photography and videography. We hired Author Made to do our beach wedding at Madeira Beach, FL on May 30th, 2026.

I live in Nebraska, so we were carefully selecting a photographer for our beach wedding based on portfolio, reviews and personality. We were happy to select Author Made for our special day.

Living in Nebraska, as you can imagine having clear communication before our destination wedding was extremely important to us. My mom and I met with Michael over zoom for the first time and I felt like we clicked and was excited to use their services, based on the promises of quality, quantity and options. One of the biggest reasons we decided to book with them was that we would be having a family reception back home on June 20th, less than a month after the wedding, and we were really hoping to have our photos back by that date to share them. Michael told us he could make that work if we did not do the sneak peak of photos. We were ecstatic.

Off the bat, communication was not very clear. Michael would address emails as if my mother and I were getting married, not mentioning the name of my husband. I politely corrected him in emails, not bothered initially as I understood he had only talked with my mother and I so far and not my husband. Michael would repeatedly forget to CC my mother in emails I specifically asked him to regarding billing as well.

As time went on closer to the wedding, my mother and I expressed our interest and the importance of drone footage of the wedding, this being one of the reasons we went with their services. Michael explained with it being a beach wedding in May, the weather may not allow for a drone, and we asked to please check the day of and let us know if it would not work out.

In our final zoom meeting prior to the wedding, Michael stated he was distracted due to his child being sick with the flu and was not very present in the call. We understood but wished he would have been more professional in that moment. Michael also explained to us that there would be 3 employees working out wedding, as there would be a new employee as a shadow. My mother and I explained that we were paying per person for the beach chairs and for the dinner boat seats and food we were taking after the ceremony. Michael explained this was basically non negotiable and could only be removed if absolutely necessary. We ended up paying for 3 people extra so the new employee could shadow.

On the day of the wedding, everything went relatively smoothly. The employees who took our photos were very nice and helped us keep on track with getting every photograph we wanted. They were able to capture my husband and I getting ready and everything at the ceremony. However, the drone was not used. The day of was cloudy and slightly windy, so we assumed it would not work, but we were never told that. My mother asked one of the employees about this specifically, and the videographer had explicitly stated that Michael never even told him about a drone and they never checked for the conditions for one. Also, while we got a lot of poses, the photographers did not take an enough pictures of each group, there for there are many pictures where my family members are looking away or eyes are closed, people not smiling. On top of this, the photographers did not ask people to remove their sunglasses, so now all of our family photos are missing the full faces of our family members. Many of them were so disappointed when they saw the photos and realized they hadn’t taken them off. Obviously, this isn’t all the fault of Author Made but it is an expectation for photographers that they look at the scene and help direct people to the best photo.

My family and I then walked to the dinner boat location which took us about 20 minutes and waited for the boat to be available for about 30 minutes. When we loaded onto the boat, the photography team was not with us. No one knew where they had gone and my parents had to call them and explain the boat was about to leave, they ran to the boat and barely made it on time. It was not communicated with us where they had gone for almost an hour of our paid time.

After the wedding, we were able to get our photos back before the reception as promised and that was extremely appreciated. There are almost 500 photos and I was very pleased. Of small note, the color editing on some of them made me feel washed out and there is a small black dot on the center bottom of probably 50 photos in the same spot like a water spot on the camera, there are background people not edited out. I didn’t bother complaining about this because I was just pleased we have the memories and so many photos, and got them so timely.

In the email containing our gallery it stated “please see attached video {insert link}” however there was no link. I messaged Michael about this and he explained they were only able to rush the photos, not the wedding video. I was disappointed initially, because I had communicated we wanted to share the photos and videos at our reception, but understood and asked Michael when we could receive the video. Michael did not respond for 10 days and I followed up asking for a timeline with the video and Michael stated the latest I’d receive it was July 24th, as that was 6-8 weeks from the event.

July 24th came around and I had received no video. Michael emailed me on that day and stated he was running behind due to having to watch his son on and off for the last month. This felt very unprofessional to me as a reason to give a client, as providing childcare to your own child is not something to put onto your client. I stated I understood that things happened and asked for a new timeline. 2 days passed by and I had to follow up with Michael again, asking for a new time line. Michael responded the next day and stated that he had drafted a reply but forgot to hit send, stated he’d be sending the videos would be delivered shortly.

We received the video and me and my husband watched it immediately and were not impressed. My husband had a mic on himself and for the first several minutes of our ceremony video for all of the party, the audio is him and his best man cussing. Of course, this is not Author Made’s fault and it was not 100% disliked as the audio was genuine and funny to my husband. However, it being over all of the procession, including the flower girl walking down the aisle felt distasteful. Besides that, the footage is very shaky and sometimes choppy. There are times the camera isn’t pointing at us at all. It is very shaky and the audio goes out every time they took a photo. There is a stand up camera that is used for most of the rest of the ceremony video that is very good quality and standing still, however there is a part where it switches back from the camera that is still to the shaky one multiple times very quickly, making it hard to watch. Otherwise, we were happy to have the full ceremony video captured. The highlight video was very good and we enjoyed that one quite a bit. However, the highlight video was the only video we had of the reception. The highlight video only contained a few seconds of each dance, a few words of two of the speeches. We had no real footage of our boat reception.

My mother messaged Michael about our concerns lacking the reception video and the quality of the ceremony video, as well as the rest of the concerns stated here such as the lack of drone.

Michael responded to us that our contract did not include a full reception video, but due to our other concerns, he would provide us one free of charge. This was extremely appreciated by my husband me and my mother. However, we were never explained our contract did not include a reception video, and we paid for all three members of the crew to join us on the boat for seating and food, as well as 3 extra hours of services, which is why we expected a reception video. Regardless, we are happy Michael provided one to us in order to improve our expierences. Michael also offered to retouch our photos, which we declined due the issue being that the people were wearing sunglasses or turning away, and that was not able to be fixed. Instead, I requested Michael fix the audio on our ceremony video which he was able to do by putting music over all of the audio. I am just glad it was fixed, however wished maybe some of the genuine words of my husband could have been worked in smoothly, I got what I asked for and will not complain regarding it. Regarding the drone, Michael stated he and his employees had determined the weather that day was unable to use the drone and apologized for not communicating this. However, the videographer specifically told my mom that he had never been informed of a drone at all. Clearly these conflicting statements point to a lack of truthful answer on one part.

Overall, we were dissatisfied but we were very appreciative that Michael took the time and care to address our concerns and attempt to improve our experience. However, much of it felt too little too late for us. After paying nearly $4000 as well as tips for each employee, we had expected a higher quality services, better communication and an overall better experience. I cannot get my wedding day back or replace the memories or pictures, but I do appreciate what Michael and the team did to try and make up for the things we were concerned for. I am happy to have my full video of ceremony and reception as well as all of our photos. I hope this review helps someone make a decision.

To sum up/tldr:

Pros:
-Large quantity of pictures
-Many good pictures
-Took the time to make sure we got all the family photos and poses we requested
-rushed the photos for us in under a month to be able to show them for our reception
-took care for our concerns and worked to improve our expirence
-provided a reception video outside of our contract to relieve some of our concerns
-Friendly staff members

Cons:
-poor communication both with timeliness and with specific details (example: titling email post my wedding “congratulations Aubriana and (my mother) on your new life together”)
-lack of timeliness on delivery of video initially
-lack of communication about aspects important to us (drone footage)
-Shaky footage,unprofessional editing in both video and photos
-Did not remind people to remove their sunglasses or take enough photos to make sure everyone is looking
-Almost an hour of our paid time missing the employees and them nearly missing the boat
-Unprofessional communication

Author Made was an absolute godsend from our very first consultation all the way through our wedding day. We were initially drawn in by their beautiful work, but what truly sold us was the story behind the brand, the incredible attention to detail, and the genuine care they put into making sure our day was nothing short of perfect.

Michael helped us think through and fill in the gaps of those “behind-the-scenes” details no one realizes they’ll need to consider on a wedding day. On the day itself, he showed up with an amazing attitude, calm energy, and was completely on top of capturing every meaningful moment that made our day so special. He even managed to figure out my dress bustle when no one else could!

All in all, I would wholeheartedly recommend Author Made to anyone looking for a photographer who will not only beautifully capture your vision, but also enhance your day and have a blast doing it.

We are beyond grateful that we found Michael of Author Made!

When researching photographers, two things really stood out to us about Author Made. The documentary style of Michael\’s photography is exactly what we wanted and we were thrilled to find a photographer who specializes in micro- and intimate weddings.

We opted for the 4 hour photography with added videography package. Michael was our photographer and Rob was our videographer the day of the wedding. We wanted most of our photos to be more on the candid side, but for posed photos and video shots, Michael and Rob made us feel so comfortable and gave us plenty of direction when needed.

We received our photos and video a couple of days ago, and everything represented the feelings of that day so perfectly. Every moment that was so special to us was captured in the most beautiful way and we were so excited to get to relive those moments through Micheal and Rob\’s work.

From the beginning of the process to the end, we knew we were in more than capable hands. Thank you so much, Michael and Rob, for your part in capturing our story and our memories on our wedding day.

Michael and his videographer Rob were fantastic! Michael did a great job communicating with me every step of the way, was timely and prepared, and very amicable and friendly with everyone at our wedding. We were also very impressed with the skills Michael has in seamlessly coordinating large group photos and directing wedding party photos so that everyone looks natural and amazing. His pictures are spectacular and breathtaking! And he got them to us in less than a month! We are so happy that we entrusted our wedding day pictures to him and can’t wait to print out some of the pictures to hang in our new home.