ApSciPhoto
TPF Noob!
- Joined
- May 4, 2010
- Messages
- 27
- Reaction score
- 2
- Location
- Dayton
- Website
- www.apsciphotography.com
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos OK to edit
This summer I collaborated with a local photographer to help fill in gaps in my schedule as her second shooter. I honestly had never shot as a second, and when I hire someone on as my second, I do things completely different - I'm a little in the dark here.
When we hooked up, she told me that I'd be "representing [myself] completely". This sounded like a great deal at the time - I didn't get paid much but I gave myself delusions on the great print sales I could potentially get from it; also that it would be a great portfolio filler, and a nice way to meet some new people in areas I don't go to often.
Now that a few weddings are out of the way and I've finished my edits, I feel like I'm competing heavily with her for attention. I'm posting images and finding it difficult for the clients to understand that my images are not included in her package, that if they want them they have to purchase them from me. I can't find a graceful way to "represent myself" to them. Basically I hate this set up, I feel like I'm being ripped off twice for the work I've done and that potential clients are seeing me as pushy.
***I don't know if this will show up as new, but I think this really important and now I need super advice.** Like said before, I understand better ways of working this situation. When I hire a second shooter, I pay a percentage of the final package as purchased from the couple, collect unedited raw files, and give proper credit when due. The bride and groom only deal with me, never with my second.***
So all this has happened:
I photographed two weddings with a woman who has now presented herself as a person who has just started (I'm not a regular reader so I don't know if there's a fair term. I call her a blog-mom photographer.) She is definitely someone who has asked me to work with her to bail her out because she doesn't know how to handle difficult situations (low light, jealous bridesmaids, why-do-I-have-noise-at-1600-and-why-do-I-have-blur-at-1/30-what-are-these-numbers-I-read-this-on-a-blog-to-what-I-should-set-my-camera-at, whatever). She texted me earlier demanding that I stop posting images because of the agreement between her and the couple. Of course, I'd be fine with this if she paid me more than the $150 she paid me. This demand has put me in a sour position because:
1. I'm not being paid enough for the amount of work I've done, and for the quality of work I feel I produce.
2. The original agreement of "representing [myself]" means I REPRESENT MYSELF, my way. When I make a bad ass picture, I want to show it off. So I do.
(If it matters, the agreement was, in the beginning, $150 per wedding, as my own representative. My images would not be included in her package, would not be a part of her album, whatever. I'm responsible for my own edits.)
So I posted a few images of a wedding we did at the beginning of June. THE BEGINNING OF JUNE! I don't know about you all, but I edit images FAST because I want the couple and their family to stay super excited about the wedding. I pick a few favorites, post them quick, then over the next few weeks post a few more like "OH MY GOODNESS HOW AWESOME IS THIS?!" and it's always been great. My clients feed off this, I get more jobs because everyone's excited about how awesome they look and how awesome their photographs are.
Right?
I don't want to work with her anymore. I have like four more weddings scheduled as her second but I feel like it's hurting me hard. I want to walk away. I'm doing this all by myself and the $150 for her to bully me around at this stage is not cutting it. If it was $150 and I toss her the files to do whatever she wants with, I'd be okay. But it's not. It's all backwards. I don't know how to deal with her.
Please don't judge me for working for $150/wedding. I'm getting married next year and I don't know how I'm going to afford my photographer on my budget without whoring myself out every now and then. ?
Also, I keep repeating this "representing" part because those are her words, on the record.
When we hooked up, she told me that I'd be "representing [myself] completely". This sounded like a great deal at the time - I didn't get paid much but I gave myself delusions on the great print sales I could potentially get from it; also that it would be a great portfolio filler, and a nice way to meet some new people in areas I don't go to often.
Now that a few weddings are out of the way and I've finished my edits, I feel like I'm competing heavily with her for attention. I'm posting images and finding it difficult for the clients to understand that my images are not included in her package, that if they want them they have to purchase them from me. I can't find a graceful way to "represent myself" to them. Basically I hate this set up, I feel like I'm being ripped off twice for the work I've done and that potential clients are seeing me as pushy.
***I don't know if this will show up as new, but I think this really important and now I need super advice.** Like said before, I understand better ways of working this situation. When I hire a second shooter, I pay a percentage of the final package as purchased from the couple, collect unedited raw files, and give proper credit when due. The bride and groom only deal with me, never with my second.***
So all this has happened:
I photographed two weddings with a woman who has now presented herself as a person who has just started (I'm not a regular reader so I don't know if there's a fair term. I call her a blog-mom photographer.) She is definitely someone who has asked me to work with her to bail her out because she doesn't know how to handle difficult situations (low light, jealous bridesmaids, why-do-I-have-noise-at-1600-and-why-do-I-have-blur-at-1/30-what-are-these-numbers-I-read-this-on-a-blog-to-what-I-should-set-my-camera-at, whatever). She texted me earlier demanding that I stop posting images because of the agreement between her and the couple. Of course, I'd be fine with this if she paid me more than the $150 she paid me. This demand has put me in a sour position because:
1. I'm not being paid enough for the amount of work I've done, and for the quality of work I feel I produce.
2. The original agreement of "representing [myself]" means I REPRESENT MYSELF, my way. When I make a bad ass picture, I want to show it off. So I do.
(If it matters, the agreement was, in the beginning, $150 per wedding, as my own representative. My images would not be included in her package, would not be a part of her album, whatever. I'm responsible for my own edits.)
So I posted a few images of a wedding we did at the beginning of June. THE BEGINNING OF JUNE! I don't know about you all, but I edit images FAST because I want the couple and their family to stay super excited about the wedding. I pick a few favorites, post them quick, then over the next few weeks post a few more like "OH MY GOODNESS HOW AWESOME IS THIS?!" and it's always been great. My clients feed off this, I get more jobs because everyone's excited about how awesome they look and how awesome their photographs are.
Right?
I don't want to work with her anymore. I have like four more weddings scheduled as her second but I feel like it's hurting me hard. I want to walk away. I'm doing this all by myself and the $150 for her to bully me around at this stage is not cutting it. If it was $150 and I toss her the files to do whatever she wants with, I'd be okay. But it's not. It's all backwards. I don't know how to deal with her.
Please don't judge me for working for $150/wedding. I'm getting married next year and I don't know how I'm going to afford my photographer on my budget without whoring myself out every now and then. ?
Also, I keep repeating this "representing" part because those are her words, on the record.
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