Don't waste my time

BGeise · Oct 5, 2014

So about a month back a family member asked me to take some photos for the because we had a group of Chinese media come visit our family farm. She writes a blog and normally takes her own photos but this time she wanted to be in them. So I willingly (and freely) obliged. I spent most of my Sunday afternoon following them around in the heat taking photos. To make sure that I got the type of photos she would want for her blog I looked through her recent blogs and got my ideas. After we were all done I gave her my SD card to let her pick and edit what she wanted. Long story short she never used any of the photos and about a week later brings me some photography books with my SD card to "look" through. I didn't think my photos were too bad SOOC. they may have needed some editing but not much. How do you guys think I should feel about this?

bribrius · Oct 5, 2014

she basically just told you that you sucked.
so you might want to consider why she feels that way and look for areas of improvement.
Looking at her blog could have been a mistake. If she thought the photos on her own blog sucked then you probably shouldn't have been following the same line.

robbins.photo · Oct 5, 2014

Smile, thank her and then hit amazon and find a book that details how to show gratitude. Send it to her for Christmas.

BGeise · Oct 5, 2014

bribrius said:
she basically just told you that you sucked.
so you might want to consider why she feels that way and look for areas of improvement.
Looking at her blog could have been a mistake. If she thought the photos on her own blog sucked then you probably shouldn't have been following the same line.

Her photos to me are ok. They are like instagram quality with filters and junk. I know I am not a professional but she could have used at least one.

The_Traveler · Oct 5, 2014

BGeise said:
Long story short she never used any of the photos and about a week later brings me some photography books with my SD card to "look" through.

I would feel insulted at the rude way she acted.
You did her a favor and she took the opportunity to critique your work unnecessarily in a pretty paternalistic manner.
Since you've never posted here, I have no idea how good/bad/indifferent you are but, as a person, you deserve more respectful treatment than that.

MSnowy · Oct 5, 2014

Lets see some of the pics from the shoot.

BGeise · Oct 5, 2014

I will get some uploaded here shortly

tirediron · Oct 5, 2014

Definitely an inappropriate reaction, but if you look at say, ten of her images side-by-side with ten of yours can you see any glaring differences? That is, did you tend to shoot from a different perspective, or go for a brighter/darker look? At the end of the day, while I can appreciate your feeling, it's not worth the mental effort. Some people really feel that they're god's gift to photography, and everyone else is crap. Just don't deal with her again.

bribrius · Oct 5, 2014

BGeise said:
bribrius said:

she basically just told you that you sucked.
so you might want to consider why she feels that way and look for areas of improvement.
Looking at her blog could have been a mistake. If she thought the photos on her own blog sucked then you probably shouldn't have been following the same line.

Click to expand...

Her photos to me are ok. They are like instagram quality with filters and junk. I know I am not a professional but she could have used at least one.

well as you said you handed her the sd card. Lot of photographers hide the crap shots and only hand over the better or best ones so they appear to be better at photography than they really are. You also handed her unprocessed photos. Lot of photographers process images and processing brings out a photo as well as hides a lot of mistakes. That could have something to do with it too maybe? Personally I wouldn't worry too much about this (who gives a crap really) but if there are things she sees problems with maybe you should take that as constructive criticism for improvement. Really interested in seeing the pics, but also believe this could be something you need to discuss with her. She could have every good intention perhaps this is just a misunderstanding of sorts.

480sparky · Oct 5, 2014

If you handed some people a hundred-dollar bill, they'll complain it's not five 20's.

molested_cow · Oct 5, 2014

When I was teaching at a rural elementary school, one day Jacky Chan came to visit(YES THE REAL ONE). Naturally I took on the photographer role to shoot the event. There were many journalists that followed him to the school, and were shooting away as well.

Then it was time for Jacky Chan to have shots taken with pretty much everyone from the school. I took all the shots for my colleagues as well as students who wanted a photograph with him, and since I'm always behind the camera, I wanted one photo of me with him. I asked the closest photo journalist to help me take a quick shot, and it turned out to be the worst photo I've ever seen, so bad that I think he did it on purpose.

Well, I can't blame him for anything. I asked him for a favor, and I blame myself for that.

In your case, I don't think the story is quite complete, so I can't really comment.