Monday, 21 May 2018

Did I make a professional mistake?


I was contacted to shoot a sweet sixteen party. The birthday girl and I made a verbal agreement, I was paid upfront and I was to upload all the images on Google Drive and share them with her. That was all the business we spoke.Party was thrown in a local place, not really a club but a smaller venue where people go out in the evenings. Every guest was underage and by the time party was done, many of them were heavy intoxicated. Keep in mind that this is in the Balkans where being a drunken 16 yo is nothing unusual, but still illegal.I have a great experience shooting birthday parties. In the last two years I shot more than 60 events, most of them being 18th birthdays. This was not much of a difference, besides guests being two years younger than regular. Living in a small town with no more than 10k people helped me get established as one of the few photographers doing this kind of events. Also, in a small place like this every person knows each other. I am currently 20 years old, so I know most of the birthday boys and girls I worked with.That being said, all guests and people coming to birthdays got used to my work: take pictures, edit them, upload to Google Drive for everyone to see and download. For a few days after the party i get messages like "Send me the photos", "Where can I find the photos" etc. I either direct those people to the birthday boy/girl to ask them, or more regularly send them the link myself.Now this is the thing that bothers me. Sweet sixteen party went well, I got home around midnight and by the 3am all images were edited and uploaded to Drive. I sent the link to the birthday girl and went to sleep. Next morning when I woke up, there was a message from the guy who attended the party. He asked for the pictures. I sent him the link like I always do and went on with my day. A few hours later, the birthday girl asks me did I send someone the pictures. Yes, I sent them to that guy. Suddenly she gets all furious, gets mad at me, tells me I am no professional. Not everyone should see all the photos, there are people who do not want to be seen in the images (???), I was paid to shoot photos not spread them around, her inbox is full of people sending her all the images.I understand that maybe she wanted to keep pictures to herself, and that she is the one to send all photos individually to each and every guest. But she did know beforehand how I work, she was a guest on some parties I worked before, and in the end, couldn't she have told me not to send link to anyone? In the end she even jokingly said that I could get sued for doing this? Sorry, doing what exactly? It's not like we made some kind of contract, but she didn't even tell me what not to do. In the end, I think that the main reason she was angry is because people saw her images the way they originally look. Photos she uploaded on her Instagram paged are all edited, and by edited I mean she narrowed her face, made her lips bigger and all those things girls do. And she isn't even a bit chubby, actually she looks very good.In the end, I did apologize for sending the link, even though I think she has no right to be mad. So I am looking for your unbiased opinion: Did I really make a mistake, or did the girl get furious for no big deal.TL;DR: Shot a birthday party, uploaded all photos to Google Drive. Sent the link to the birthday girl, and the next day also to the guest who was at the party. Girl goes into rage mode for me not being a professional and sharing her private photos to other people. via /r/photography https://ift.tt/2Iz28xQ

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