Sticky situation.... your thoughts?

[Karalee]

So here is my dilema....Sometime in August, I shot a family reunion for a family from California. The guy who hired me, when I asked him if there were any "special" shots he wanted, told me this:

My Grandfather – in a fishing scenario. Actually, this family photo session is a gift to him for his 80th B-day which was last Feb. He’s quite the outdoorsman, and we’d like to capture his passion for fishing by having him with his gear (which he’ll bring) near some water...we’ll have to find a decent location nearby to do this. I believe there is pond on the property, but we may scout out something on Saturday or Sunday that we can try to use. I am actually a film / video director and shooter myself, so I may be able to find a spot that is easy and close and will capture the background look we want. If not, we’ll fake it at the pond and do the best we can The larger prints in your package will be gifts for my Grandfather to have whichever shots he wants.

they didnt end up "scouting" an area for him so we did it at the pond on the property. They had just come back from white water rafting, where he had hurt his arm (there was blood on his sleeve) and he was quite shy in front of the camera. We had him standing on the rocks, which at first he wasnt comfortable with, which didnt help even more because he was already nervous. Plus we had to have him starring into the sun, and because his wrist was hurting he was having a hard time whipping his line out into the water. After I got home I picked this shot in particular as the main shot, and did different variations on it, because out of all the photos I took it had the best expression on his face for an environmental portrait.

This evening he sent me an email....

Although there are many great family group portrait shots, both
my dad and I were were not that pleased with the final outcome of the
portrait of my grandfather fishing. Were there any other shots of
him that were better? I guess we expected it to also be a bit tighter
shot of him... it is so wide you don't really get much detail of him
or his expression.

Let me know your thoughts.

So now Im not quite sure how to procede, because Im confused. I was under the impression that what they wanted was a portrait of their grandfather fishing, but its too wide, but if I crop in any more of any of the photos I have, you wont be able to tell that he's fishing?!?!

What would you do?

ps - I might have posted this in the wrong area, if you need to move it mods feel free

 

[ClarkKent]

Did you show them any of the other captures that you had of him? Or just the one that you had posted here. If you do, maybe you have one that they would like. If not, thats a toughy, maybe some of the more experienced photographers here could help you out?

 

[newrmdmike]

you could offer to reshoot if its a friend or if you want to uphold your name. however, if you are confident in your work, and its how you want it, then i would say, you hired me to do a job, and i did it how i saw fit, and to my creative eye. i'm sorry if your dissapointed, but this is what i'm offering, if this isn't what you want then you'll have to go somewhere else.

 

[Karalee]

Im very picky about my work, so I try to only show what is up to par in my opinion. At the moment Ive been going over the other shots, and there hasnt been anything thats popped out to me, because he was so uncomfortable in front of the camera. Im going to see if I can try to make lemonade out of these lemons.

I would offer a reshoot, but unfortunately I live in Montana, and they were from California, so besides salvaging what I have here, Im stuck straddling the fence. Looking forward to hearing what everyone thinks though.

 

[Christie Photo]

I had the same complaint years ago. The customer insisted on a full-length shot then was disappointed in the head size.

What size are the "larger prints" in your package? If you'll be printing large, maybe printing a portion of the image at the final size will help. What I mean is... if you'll be printing 24x30, prepare the file at that size, then print the portion showing his face on a 8x10 so they can see it at 100%.

If they're still not satisfied, I'd be reluctant to do additional photography. It may be you won't be able to please them... ever. If Mr. Film Director can't explain what he wants, then I suspect he doesn't know what he wants and should find a new line of work. I think they'll have to chose between grandpa and the fishing pole. If they want all of both, it's gonna be tough.

Let us know how this all ends up.

Pete

 

[markc]

To you mind if I edit and post a crop idea?

 

[Karalee]

hey Pete!

My "large prints" are only 11x14s. My husbands on the same page as you, he was there that day assisting me, and knew from the beginning that he was going to be a problem in some way, hes a good person reader. I think more than anything Im taking it personally that someone didnt like my work, because I work very hard at what I do. I think I might need to chalk it up to experience and cut my losses, apologise for the miscommunication and tell them theres not much else I can do.

Mark, go ahead, would love to see your crop

 

[markc]

Thanks! I was thinking of something along these lines:

It gets in close to him, but leaves enough room to "allow" his arms to move for casting and retains the fishing identity. He also looks less off-balance. I don't know if any of the others you have would work better with a crop like this.

 

[memphis]

it's a great picture --- not sure what to tell you...

 

[Pirate]

I gotta tell you that I prefer the uncropped version much better. It gives a feel that I don't get with the cropped version. It kind of says that "I'm willing to go anywhere to land that fish". As for them not being happy, I would offer to show them some more of your shots and see what they think. But I'd stand with this one, nothing wrong here.

 

[AprilRamone]

I feel for you...I've had a photo shoot where they just were so picky and I couldn't figure out a way to really get them what they wanted because they just couldn't explain to me what they wanted very well.
That being said, as long as you appear to be as understanding and compromising as possible, then I've found that they don't continue to be too upset/disappointed. Show them some cropped versions even if you don't feel like they are as good. They may love them. They may even love one of the other ones that you took. At this point, I would just try to show them what you got, why you chose what you did and hope they understand why you made that decision.
It does suck to feel like someone didn't like your work, but it's part of the biz and you'll get less sensitive to it with time I think. Good luck with this!
-April

 

[photogoddess]

Where in CA? If you can't get the guy to like anything and it's close enough to me, I'll go reshoot Grandpa for you. For what it's worth, I really like it and think he's nuts. :hugs:

 

[jemmy]

PICKY PICKY Pain in the butt PICKY!! It is a great shot for sure, and in my eyes you have done everything they asked! Would have been different if they specified 'close-up' face shot? Do you have anything closer that you may be able to show them? How disappointing to get a comment like that.. u poor thing~ great shot anyway! x not sure what else you can do? x

 

[Karalee]

Thanks all!

I basically did what I knew that I had to do, suck it up, apologise profusely, re-edit, recrop, jump through a ring of fire etc. I still havent heard a word back, so Im not sure what that means, its been over a week, so Ill give him till after thanksgiving. I cropped in as Mark suggested, and also did this one, in full color, desaturated, black and white and sepia:

Tammy :hug:: , thank you so much for the offer! Im getting to the point now where Ive had about enough tho :blushing:. I guess well see what he has to say.

 

[Peanuts]

If they don't prefer the second one, they must not know what real talent is. Personally I believe that captures everything they were looking for. Sorry that you had to deal with people who just can't be pleased