As a professional photographer, is it okay to ‘delete’ somebody’s big day pictures without sharing them with them beforehand? Well, under certain circumstances, it may be!
An internet user asked, “Am I a jerk for deleting my cousin’s wedding pictures that I wasn’t paid for?”. Here’s the full story for you to decide.
Backstory
The Original Poster’s (OP’s) younger cousin’s wedding was last December and she asked him to be the photographer for the wedding (OP is a semi-professional photographer).
She told OP what types of photos she wanted and he gave her a quote of just under 1k. The wedding happens, OP takes the pictures, edits them, and then waits for payment which they agreed he’d get in full after the wedding before sending any pictures.
She No Longer Had Any Money
However, suddenly she didn’t have money and wanted to set up a payment plan to pay it off in 8 months AND still get the pictures now.
What Does OP Say
OP says, “It’s not that I don’t trust her but once you start opening such doors you’ll find it hard to close them so I told her we could do the payment plan but the photos will only be released when the full amount is paid (didn’t even add interest).”
February Rolls In
OP’s cousin didn’t respond. February rolls in and she asks to at least see ‘samples’ to confirm that they were worth the price. OP sent 4 pictures and she says she’ll show them to her husband and get back to OP.
About A Week Later
Cue silence for a week or two until OP asked for an update and she responded saying she’s still discussing it with him. OP told her this was getting long and she must just start paying now and she ignored OP again.
The Flash Drive Incident
So OP had saved the photos on his roommate’s flash drive temporarily while he was waiting on an actual hard drive. June came around and he texted OP while he was at work saying he needed to use it and took it from OP’s room but saw that there were still files on it.
He Couldn’t Move It To His Laptop
He couldn’t move it to his laptop because it didn’t have space (thus him needing the flash) so he was ‘asking’ if he could delete the files. OP said fine and he deleted them.
OP still had about 20 of the photos saved on his phone from when he was choosing/sending the samples so he just explained the situation in a message to his cousin and sent the existing photos to her free of charge.
The Chaos Followed
That was last month and OP is still getting flamed for this.
“She’s been slandering me online, and it’s quite literally created a division between our families and to the point that our mums don’t talk now. I obviously feel bad but also feel like given the circumstances, I wasn’t really in the wrong, though I still acknowledge that it’s obviously very crappy for her that I would’ve wished to avoid. What do you guys think? Am I a jerk?”, asks OP.
Everyone’s a jerk here
“Everyone’s a jerk here. I agree with not sending the photos until you receive the money. She was obviously planning on stiffing you. However, if this is how you handle your product (borrowing a flash drive to store the only copy of someone’s photos), you should give up the claim to being any sort of professional photographer.”
Both Parties Are Equally Awful
“Everyone’s in the wrong. There is no way you are ‘semi-professional’. A professional has multiple backups of paid work. I used to own a studio and I had every file backed up on a hard drive AND stored in the cloud.
It is irresponsible to store them solely on a flash drive. I’m willing to bet your work probably wasn’t worth the $1000 and that is why she didn’t want to pay.
Owning a camera doesn’t make you a professional. I don’t care how nice of a camera it is. Professionalism means treating it like a business and taking responsibility for safely storing your images.
She’s being awful for not paying you. But you’re awful too.”
It’s On Her For Taking It For Granted
“Not the jerk. She played around too much and continued to drag out her responses. No payment, no photos. Simple. Family or not, she was given options. She didn’t respond in a timely manner with a solution. Now she gets nothing.
I don’t understand why people hire others for their services if they don’t even have the money. Surely everybody else got paid. I’m sure she was hoping as a family you would just say “F” it and hand them over if she dragged long enough.”
That Sounds Unprofessional
“You’re the jerk. I am a professional photographer and you never ever delete the photos. Bad business. However, I will say always always always have a contract in play even when family. I require full payment before I even shoot on the day of the wedding.
Never take the images off the memory card if you are not planning on storing them. She can now slander your payment or not because you didn’t cover your behind.”
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This article was originally published on Mrs Daaku Studio.