Not only have I been a victim of someone editing out my watermark and not paying for the package but I’ve been seeing people ask for Santa photos for cheaper than $20?
Why is this normal ? I don’t understand how someone can want a professional photographer with exspensive equipment and high quality skill to take time out their schedule to not only shoot the photos but edit and proof them. If that’s not worth at least $50 then why not just get creative with that iPhone you dropped $1k on ?
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The internet.
Entitled people. I like shooting cars, space and occasionally wildlife. I got suckered by friends into doing newborn shoots and weddings for exposure and while the shots were great and I was proud of it, it wasn’t shared nearly to the extent I thought they would have, if at all so I stopped that.
I did go to a car show recently and took photos of the classics I liked, edited the photos on my laptop right then and there and then printed on my mobile little 4×6 printer and people seemed pretty impressed and while it was intended to be free for promo in a sense, one guy shelled out 20 bucks and was adamant I take it just because he saw the process and got a physical print out of it just because I liked his car.
“for the exposure!!!”
Look how many photographers feel entitled to free features and accuse camera companies of “crippling” because they don’t make some cool new feature available in their entry level lines.
It’s pretty universal, trying to get something for nothing.
A lot of photographers suck. suck at everything. It is an oversaturated market. photography isn’t viewed as a very professional or skilled profession by people like me, with disposable income and who have paid premiums, seen their friends pay premiums, and have coworkers and acquaintances pay premiums because it’s basically a major roll of the dice if you’ll get someone competent, someone available when you need them, and someone who is great but isn’t leaving the field between now and the event.
As shallow as that all sounds, the reality at least for me and my circle is that the hobbiests in the group are way better. Period. By no measure or exception has a professional ever out done them. If you are thinking of a reason, I don’t know what you’re thinking because it’s a period. This causes all of us to push people to never hire out and turn to people who are their social circle and basically trust and reward.
Because so many people feel entitled to lots of things they didn’t earn or pay for. It’s not just photos.
because people no longer value photography. It really died when the iPhone came out.
That’s why I don’t understand why they don’t just use their iPhone since it’s “basically the same thing”
People will ask for anything… this will never stop. Prepare yourself with either a canned denial response, or a block & forget.
You also have to remember that there are a limitless number of people who have a camera and some skill who will do it as a favour or for the cudos of being published etc that either don’t charge or only charge a token amount. This drives overall prices down because even when someone is prepared to pay a photographer the rates they can charge are forced down. You charge what? well theres this guy who’s nearly but not quite as good or experienced than you doing it for half. He’s doing it for half because his competition is the brides niece who did a photography course as school and is really artistic. Not to mention that if its an event and one person lucks out and takes a great photo with their phone, suddenly they are better than the pro who churned out several hundred photos and missed the one because they had to shoot something else.
You pay peanuts, you get monkeys, as they say.
It would be fun to troll them back.
“Thank you for your enquiry. As you intend to get married at a church, the weather (sunny, cloudy, rainy,) will determine the equipment to be used, as well as the use or not of off-camera flash; similarly, it may be necessary to use a high ISO, necessitating the correct use of noise reduction later. Depending on various other factors, a wide angle zoom lens may be suitable, or, for other shots, a moderate tele lens. However, as you just offered an insulting amount of money for this service, I suggest you get your phone out and do it yourself. Sincerely…”
Slap your watermark as a pattern all over the photo like they do with school photos
The problem is competition.
Your phone’s camera plus AI can produce decent photos now, so all the expensive equipment a photographer has plus their experience isn’t worth as much as it used to be. We are just at the start of the AI revolution. People and society will have to adjust and it will be a difficult time for some.
Not only have I been a victim of someone editing out my watermark and not paying for the package
If you’re feeling vindictive…
Send them an invoice for triple the original package price.
Removing a watermark is an automatic win if you have to take this in front of a judge (you won’t) - as it constitutes what is to a judge a magical phrase: Willful Infringement.
It means the person cannot claim ignorance or “innocent” infringement, like they didn’t know what they were doing was wrong. They knew it was wrong to do that, they did it anyway, automatic /gavel for you. (Edit: Oh, and you get to claim triple because it was willful)
So anywhoo - send them an invoice for triple the price, and if they don’t pay it, file against them in small claims. If the treble amount is high enough, you can just sell the debt to a collection agency for 10 cents on the dollar. You earn a little money from that bad debt, and the collection agency gets to hound them for the next 7 years or so - and it shows up on their credit history.
sorry, but the majority of people no longer see the value of the photo, few can appreciate the skill in getting a decent pro photo… or even just a basic event photo. Unfortunately it’s a side effect of the digital era… camera phones that do a brilliant job (under typical conditions only), and the very short term nature of the image. For most… an image now only has value so long as it’s trading on their feed. I’m surprised you have not encountered mums thinking they can just use your santa clause and setup to take a pic on their smartphone… so don’t need to pay anything. It’s certainly not the industry I entered… can hardly be called an industry now. Sadly I have watched it’s slow painful death, especially on a local level, as I was part of it.
It’s a shame it is so inappropriate… woulda loved to make an album of kids just freaking at Santa. I was shocked there were so many. Almsot as shocking as it was hard to find a half decent santa. I’m still wondering at this point if Bad Santa was a movie or a documentary
My friend, understand that photography has approached true art more than most art forms. By that I mean, it’s so ubiquitous that many people would not be willing to pay fair prices and there’s enough people hungry to learn willing to take those «jobs» for practice, and more over most people who pick up a camera do so as a past-time. If you’d like to make money from this, I see that the most successful ones either embark in these greater than life projects (Salgado, Iturbide, …) or have a patreon-like model of funding. Also, I’m a strict amateur and a novice so there’s 90% I don’t know what I’m talking about, just general impressions.
Because they don’t value your work or your talent. Copyright everything. Join PPA and if someone, anyone, anytime infringes your copyright, contact PPA and sue for copyright violations and get court cost, and lawyer fees. It’s not about $20 bucks, it’s about stealing what it took you a lifetime to learn.