Of course it’s morally fine - with TFP you’re giving up your time and effort in return for something useful to you, as well as the model and anyone else involved. If the shots aren’t useful to your portfolio then you’re wasting your time too. Those sort of jobs you do for pay not for free portfolio work.
Legally yes, ethically up to you. If you feel like it’s useful content for you to have on your account then just do so, but if they contact you and ask to take it down just do it without fuss or making a bigger deal of it. If they’ve seen your account before meeting and know you post portraits then it’s even less expectation of privacy if they agree to a photo date!
I’d try a black mist for that. But any filter you add reduces light transmission, often by a stop or more, which is typically not what you want at night. You might end up with harsher shadows because you need more flash power. If you want softer shadows the answer is bigger modifiers and better light positioning ie off camera strobes.
I shoot boxing, which involves a lot of burst shooting. For a big event on a Friday I might come home with 5-6000 shots and I get the editing done that weekend ie within 2 days. The matches vary in duration. So let’s say something that goes 12 rounds and takes 45min i might shoot 2000 pics and deliver 200 of them ie 10% are delivered. Not all of these are portfolio worthy of course but the tell the story and are appreciated by the recipients. But I’m shooting this for the club, not for a publication. If I was shooting for sporting news, I’d have to get say 50 pics from the whole evening up within hours of it finishing.
Re editing, you need to get faster. I cull using photo mechanic which is very quick. Then the 10% ish of pics I’ve chosen all go to Lightroom for cropping and editing. They get a generic preset for contrast, clarity, sharpening etc. If I set up the camera properly there will be very little shot to shot adjustment of lighting and WB which speeds it up massively. And if you have the right lens and framing you won’t need to crop much. Only practice will give you better results in camera.
After 2wks they’ll barely remember the match. And might be on to the next one. Sports pics only retain value for a little while unless it’s an amazing portfolio shot.
One of the best advantages of a pelican 1510 is that you can stand it on one end and sit on it! Can be a consideration if you attend events where a seat would be helpful to shoot from. Having waterproofing for outdoor events sounds like a pretty smart justification too.
It’s not bait and switch, it’s a classic old school business model that hasn’t changed from the film photo days when the only option was to receive prints. Nowdays it seems regressive and ugly but it’s still around. Sounds like they paid for a pretty high end photographer, and didn’t look at what they would get for the money. They only paid the ‘sitting fee’ which doesn’t give you anything in return unless you buy prints. They might have accidentally booked something much more high end than they can afford and I don’t think there is much recourse.
Doesn’t help to suggest they should have asked more questions before booking sorry! Only option is to negotiate with the photographer, be clear they can’t afford large framed prints and see if you can get a couple unframed 8x10s or something at a moderate price. The photographer might accept since they won’t get anything else out of it.