The Three Worst Types of People Photographers Have To Deal with
Note this post may be a bit of a rant…
When I first started working as a photographer there were a few things that I hadn’t anticipated: The number of out-there requests. People expecting me to work for free. Those who did not take well to me refusing both the above.
It’s amazing how much shit you have to put up with as a photographer. At the higher end of the market, it’s probably different, but for a mere mortal photographer like me, the lack of respect shown by some people is crazy.
There are three types of people who cause the most problems.
People who want you to work for free because they think it will be good experience for you
The amount of people who message me asking me to work for free is ridiculous. Some say doing so will be a good experience, making me a better photographer. Others would say it will help give me more exposure i.e. that somehow taking pictures of them will give me more work. Some say it will do both.
I’m always so thankful for these offers. After all, I don’t need money, right?
In my experience, it’s largely women (sorry women) who aspire to be Instagram famous who do this. Perhaps because there are so many men out there willing to take pictures of women for free, and because there are so many women who wish to be Instagram models.
But it’s not just Instagram wannabe women who are guilty of this. Yep, sorry guys, men are also guilty, and it’s not just those who wish to be models either. For example, the amount of people who contact me wanting their weddings photographed for free or next to nothing is ridiculous.
Even more ridiculous is how annoyed many of those people get when inevitably you tell them that you won’t work for free. For example, “Semen Guy”.
So a guy messages me on Facebook saying he’s looking to do a sexy art nude shoot. I have no problem shooting art nude, so ask him for specifics. He says he doesn’t mind getting wet and dirty and sends me a load of fully naked selfies flaunting himself. There was semen in his pubic hair. I don’t like to judge, but he could have at least showered. He then says he wants professional pictures doing poses like the ones he sent.
I really did not want to do this shoot for so many reasons. But money was short, it was a simple shoot, and as beggars can’t be choosers. Despite the semen, I sent him my rates.
Cue an explosive tirade about how my work was shit, how no one in their right mind would pay for my services as a photographer, and that he had been doing me a favour by “allowing” me to photograph him.
Apparently, this would have been good “experience” for me, would have taught me some things, and the pictures could have given me a good amount of exposure.
The only experience I missed out on from not agreeing to this shoot was the traumatic kind, and the only type of exposure I missed out on was the indecent kind. When I told him that, he was not impressed, though speaking of exposure…
The people who want you to work for “exposure” instead of money
Like I said earlier, it’s amazing how many people think you will work for free because somehow magically by doing so and having pictures of them you will gain “exposure.” How I have come to loathe that word. I don’t want “exposure”. I want money. How else am I going to live?
Cue sad music. But what is especially frustrating is sometimes even when you are paying the model, they ask you to shoot some pictures for them outside the remit of the shoot, and they ask you to do it for the glorious reward of, you guessed it, “exposure.” It is surprising how frequently this happens.
For example, “Angry Girl”. Yes, I named all the worst ones. There have been many, like cucumber guy (don’t ask), catfish who is not a catfish girl (long story), bridezilla (perhaps an obvious one), frog man (again, don’t ask), and many more.
Anyhow, for a time I dabbled with stock photography and arranged a shoot with a “professional” model (note the quotation marks); basic lifestyle pictures of a woman in a park using a tablet, reading a book and the like. The day before the shoot, she asks if I would be willing to do some pictures for her at the same time.
Then she uses those words I hate so much: “It will be great exposure for you.” She tells me how many Instagram followers she has, and how all those Instagram followers would get to see these pictures. I then made the “mistake” of saying that we didn’t have time but if she wanted, we could arrange a separate shoot, and I told her my rates.
“You’re a shit photographer,” came the furious response (the amount of people who say this to me after I turned them down, it’s a wonder how I ever got any jobs in the first place). “I would never pay to work with a shit photographer like you, you don’t know what you’ve just missed out on. I could have given you so much exposure and connected you to so many people… blah blah blah blah blah.”
Needless to say, the shoot was cancelled. I worked with a different model, meaning that the only person who missed out on something was her, and what she missed out on was paid work. Amusingly, afterwards she continued to try to get jobs with me, and I took great joy in never responding to her.
In the immortal words of I have no idea who: “In your face, Angry Girl.”
People who think you are obligated to do anything they want so long as they are paying you
This one really irks me. Just because you’re paying me doesn’t mean I have to do everything that you say. You are paying me to do a specific job that has been agreed beforehand. I am not a strict operator and within reason, I am willing to deviate. But there are limits.
Some people think otherwise. For example, “Blowjob Woman”. (It’s not what you think. Or maybe it is, depending on what you think.)
A woman messages me about a coastal shoot for her clothing range. She had some bikini designs and needed some pictures to show them off. I send her my rates. She agrees to them. Everything is sorted, but then at the last minute, I get a message out of the blue asking if we can add something to the shoot.
She is a foot fetish dom, and thought it would be good to combine getting some pictures of her feet with the original shoot. No mention of any additional pay of course, but then why would there be? I don’t need money after all. I’m just a photographer.
I once did a similar shoot for a friend which I’ve talked about before on here, but this is not something that I would do again unless for a friend in need, or if I was desperate for money. There’s nothing wrong with that style of photography but it’s not really my thing.
When I explained this, her response was explosive. She ranted about how she hated people like me, how we clearly thought we were better than people like her, and that I didn’t know what I was missing. That it wasn’t even a big deal, and she probably would have sucked me off afterwards anyway, but now that would never happen, which was my loss. She then blocked me.
I guessed that meant the shoot was cancelled. I also guessed that she probably wasn’t being serious with what she said. She just somehow thought in her warped mind that implying she would have gone down on me would somehow make me feel really bad about not having photographed her feet for free. She was wrong. It made me realise the only thing I’d missed out on was most likely herpes.
Final words
So there you have it. The three most troublesome types I came across during my time as a photographer. Thanks for reading!
And remember: If you wish to work with a photographer, they deserve to get paid for their work. They deserve to have their boundaries respected as well. Just because they turn down your proposal does not give you the right to be a dick.
If you found this story interesting, you may also enjoy the following:
That Time A Guy Made A Crazy Wedding Request
That Time a Bride-To-Be Propositioned Me for Sex
Twelve Brilliant Wiseass Comebacks To Common Insults
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