I met Jim at a bridal show with my Maid of Honor and his personality was hard to resist... a few weeks later my fiance and I met with him to review his work and discuss his packages. He is a professional and it's obvious by the awesome images in his portfolio that he has a good eye and knows a good shot when he sees one. After meeting with several photographers we eventually chose Jim, but we preferred another album we saw from a different photographer. All we had to do was provide Jim the name of the company and he took it upon himself to contact the company and contract with them for our album... that was what sold us - going above and beyond for his customer. We chose the highest package in his offerings and we don't regret it. Our engagement pictures came out beautifully and while many were candid, several were posed by Jim and although some felt a little silly and awkward, when we saw the images we were floored by how fantastic they looked. Also, he worked with us to find a location that would fit with the theme of our wedding and outfits we were considering... it was great to feel that he was a collaborative partner, not just a vendor. Also, Jim is FAST... our edited engagement pictures were available within three days and our wedding pictures were available within two weeks. If we had a question or concern about anything, he was responsive and helpful. In this industry, such quick and excellent service is difficult to find. At the wedding, he kept us cheerful and laughing and our guests are still talking about how great his personality is. Even those who were shy about taking pictures, just opened up to him and he was able to capture great images. We are still waiting for our album, but we don't have any reason to think it will be anything but outstanding. You will not regret choosing Jim as your photographer, you will not only receive fantastically captured images for your special day, you'll receive superb customer service... enjoy every minute with Jim. read more

A few months into our relationship, my husband and I met Jim at a Salisbury home and garden show. I was impressed by Jim's personality and the quality of his work. I kept the promotional material he handed to us, and when my husband and I got engaged, I gave him a call. We arranged a meeting at his studio to discuss what we were looking for, prices, etc. Jim's studio is a workshop behind his home in Salisbury. Jim spent at least an hour and a half with us, talking about our engagement, how we were planning on setting up the ceremony and reception, the different packages he offers, the different photo albums we could choose from, etc. We got to see examples of his award-winning work, the types of bound albums available, and album designs. My husband and I invested in the "Gold Collection", and eventually bought all the digital files from the wedding (trust me, you'll want them!). All told, this was about $3000, which was a significant chunk of our wedding budget and more than we had initially wanted to spend. We were very happy to spend it, however, and I will tell you why: First of all, you really have to understand what you are paying for here. Most of that money is for Jim's time and expertise. The guy must have spent around 15 hours with us. Here's a run down of everything: The Gold package includes an engagement portrait session, which takes about two hours at the location of your choice. I recommend choosing an outdoor setting, but Jim's studio is available if you're looking for something more traditional. He'll take about 100 or so images for you, and put them on the internet so you and your family can see and purchase them. Initially, my husband and I were not all that interested in the engagement shoot, but let me tell you, we were extremely and unexpectedly pleased and excited about these pictures, and so were our parents! Not only that, the photo shoot itself was a very fun time; Jim has quite the personality and will bring out the best expressions and poses in you! You can buy the digital files for $250 or purchase individual images off of the internet site. In my opinion, purchasing the photos from the internet site was rather pricey, but we did end up buying several anyway for Christmas presents. The printing and photo paper are better than taking the digital files to the local drug store or *gulp* Walmart. Real photo shops are hard to come by these days... The Gold package also, naturally, includes Jim photographing your entire wedding day. He will drive to and shoot at an unlimited number of locations. As an added bonus, Jim also tries to come to every rehearsal dinner, if possible. He did come to our's, and we received some nice sunset poses of ourselves, our wedding party, and our family out of this. Jim also came to my hairdresser's place and captured all the "gettin' beautful" moments, as well as a bunch of nice portraits of my maid of honor and I. Wedding day images included preparation shots, dressing, "the reveal" (my husband and I chose to "reveal" ourselves to each other prior to the ceremony), the ceremony, formal poses of family and friends, and candid photos during the reception. I think between the rehearsal and wedding day, we had over 400 beautiful images to choose from. Jim will ask for a VIP list, so that he makes sure he gets images of everyone you want. For example, Jim took many images of my grandmother, as per my request. My entire family will cherish these forever! Again, all the photos go onto a website for family and friends to view. You will be very happy with your images, especially if you are creative and work with Jim. My parents were totally crazy over the images and ordered plenty. They must have emailed me every day to comment about one or another. Finally, the Gold package includes a professionally bound and formatted wedding album. You really need to see examples of these to understand what you are getting. We chose 60 images (very hard to do!) and "The Mind's Eye Designs" (www.themindseyedesigns.com) formatted them into a beautiful album for us. The album is bound in leather with gold-edged pages. It's archival quality and won't wear out. The album comes boxed and wrapped in a velvet or velour protective cover. As I said before, Jim is great to work with. He's pleasant, funny, and unobtrusive. During our ceremony, we hardly knew he was there, and yet we had all these marvelous photos afterward to capture these priceless moments. One note: Be sure to keep your bank records and emails to Jim. Jim will tell you himself he's not the best book-keeper. Make sure you keep track of your payments! Advice to brides from an experienced bride (I've done this twice): Invest in your photography. You will watch your wedding video maybe once yearly. If your photos are done right, you will want to enjoy them daily. I do, and so does another bride who worked with Jim! read more

As always, you have done a beautiful job!! Brandon's seniors portraits were gorgeous and it was difficult to choose which ones we wanted because they were all so good. We recommend you to anyone looking to have timeless photographs taken. Thank you for making our memories priceless!! read more

In the beginning of our first appointment while going over what we wanted as far as engagement photos and our wedding being captured by Jim we had all good faith... And with his sense of humor. Took forever to get our engagement photos and its almost as if he held them from us and wanted to overcharge for even one 8x10 or any print we wanted... when I would of been much happier with a Disk! After the engagement headache we opted to change our package and make our own photo albums for the actual wedding itself (saving us $800) and we also requested a CD of all images that way we could print freely and not have to mope and stare at them with the watermark. He was reasonable to let us make some changes to our original contract...which Im so glad we made the decision to do so. Here comes wedding day.. I wish I could of gone back and had a different photographer. The only good that came out of my wedding photos were that the guests were captured... "Guests". Quote on quote we are supposed to be captured most right?! No pretty photos of my gorgeous dress.... No beautiful or creative fun portraits of me and my husband and the most sad part... None of my 10yr old son and I. After the ceremony it was hot and we were outside taking family portraits and one of my bridesmaids made a comment to wait for one of the grandmothers and he said "Well if she ain't here soon she ain't getting in". He also snapped at one of my friends while she was fixing my dress, she wasn't deliberately trying to block his shot or anything. Never again. If I could go back I would but all I can say is thanks for taking self portraits of every guest and very little of the bride and groom. If you want business portraits or graduation pictures... Highly recommend but not for The most important day of your life! read more

My Husband and I were referred to Jim Ritch by a friend of ours who had recently gotten married. We had looked at her engagement photos and that they were really professionally done and creative. So we met with Jim and really clicked with him. He has a great sunny outlook and is really pleasant to work with. Having the pictures posted online is a great advantage for us as our families are all over the place. Jim did our engagement photos and our wedding photos, and his assistance was just a sweet as she could be and she got some really fantastic pictures at the rehersal dinner and of us getting ready. I had heard many horror stories from other brides about how long it took them to get their pictures. Jim had our pictures online by the time we got back from our honeymoon which was a great treat for us to come home and then get to relive our wedding. Jim has good prices and he is really good about working with you on exactly what you would like. Thanks Jim! read more