I haven’t blogged in a few days.  I had to face it, I just don’t enjoy coming up with random things and then writing  like I actually care about the topic.  But I am posting today because I do have a subject that I want to write about with conviction.  Yesterday, I was told a story about a bride and her wedding photographer.  It is not a happy story, and I am both sympathetic and angry at the same time over what was done to this poor young bride.  I am sharing this story so that if any potential bride reads this blog they at least have an awareness that not every vendor has the bride’s best interest at heart.

To begin with, I obviously know the person who told me the story, but I don’t know the bride and I don’t know the photographer, nor have I ever met either one of them.  I will tell the story based on my best recollection and as straight forward as I possibly can.  Any conversation between the bride and the photographer is just a third hand paraphrase of the conversation. I will not use the name of the bride or photographer.  Draw your own conclusions about the incident.

The Story

The photographer ran a contest with the prize being free wedding photography.  The bride won the contest and the photographer shot the wedding.  A couple of weeks after the wedding the photographer contacted the bride and informed her that 360 pictures had been chosen out of all the shots taken at the wedding and told the bride where she could find the proofs online.  Then the photographer informed the bride that she could get the 360 pictures unedited for a payment of $1,500 to the photographer.  If the bride wanted edited photographs, the photographer would edit and hand over the pictures to the bride for $1,600.  The bride is stunned because she is operating on the belief that her wedding was being photographed for free.  She emailed the photographer expressing concern and dismay over the situation and wanted to schedule a meeting with the photographer.  The photographer emailed back saying something to the effect that the bride couldn’t expect the photographer to shoot for so many hours and not get some type of payment.  The photographer also informed the bride that there would be no face to face meeting and that their contact with each other was essentially over. And now the bride cannot even view her proofs online.

My Thoughts and Opinions

My thoughts and opinions are based on the facts as I know them at this moment.  I am going to look at the facts and draw my own conclusions and share them with the reader.  If facts become available at a later time that change my conclusions, I will post those changes if they occur.  Read the facts for yourself and draw your own conclusion.

In the name of fairness, I will tell the reader that I have not seen the contract, nor do I know the rules and the conditions of the contest, or the discussion on the day of the client-photographer meeting.  What I do conclude from the information I have is that the bride left the client-photographer meeting believing that she owed no money, that everything was going to be free.  If the photographer was expecting  a payment for the prints, it is up to photographer, in my opinion, to make sure the bride understands what is owed to the photographer before the client-photog meeting breaks up.  After all, the photographer IS the expert in the room and I believe photographers bear the final responsibility for the client fully understanding what she is getting and the way of service and how much that service will cost.

Let me continuew by examining the contest aspect of this story. I have seen these contests on Facebook, and I have even participated in them to help out my friends.  Contests are used all the time, from beginners in the profession to the rock stars of wedding photography, as a means of advertising and expanding their business   Now I don’t have the details of this specific contest, but let’s look at what we do know about it.  The contest was for free wedding photography.  In law, there is the “reasonable man” test.  In my opinion, a reasonable man would assume that getting free wedding photography would also mean getting the pictures as part of the package.  But let us assume for the sake of argument that the photographer meant the shooting was free, but a fee would be charged for the printing.  This photographer’s starting package is $1,500.  So if the bride gets the actual shooting time for free, but ends up paying the full package price to get the prints, where is the advantage of winning the contest?  This would be like me winning a contest for a free haircut.  A haircut runs $30 and includes a shampoo.  I go in for my free haircut and at the end my styler charges me $30 and when I say but I won the free haircut, she  tells me that only the haircut was for free, that she is charging me for the shampoo. And charging me full price.  Ask yourself, how many brides-to-be would even enter a contest for the chance to win their wedding photographed for free but the prints needing to be purchased?  At full price!

When I was starting up my wedding photography business, I took classes on the business and have talked to other professionals to get the knowledge of the best and most ethical business practices; the business practices that work and keep the customer satisfied and get those good referrals so my business can grow and be successful.  So when I was told this story, I was asked what my business practices are.  Would I do something like this photographer had done?  My obvious answer is no I wouldn’t.  I want happy brides and good reviews.  The bride’s wedding day has to be almost as special to me as it is to the bride.  So what would I have done differently?
This is what the bride would have experienced with me if I had held the contest and she had won.  This is “What if she had gone to Poole Photography…”

To begin with, I would have made sure when I advertised the details of my contest, that I provided full disclosure on what winning the contest meant.  Let’s say I have a $1,200 package.  I would state in the contest literature that the winner would get free wedding coverage worth $600, or half off my $1,200 package.  The winner would be responsible for the rest of the fee.  This would be known to anyone who entered the contest.  The winner is picked and announced.  As my bride and I start to communicate, we would set up a client meeting.  At this meeting, along with all the other client meeting items, I would absolutely make sure that the bride understood what exactly she won and what exactly she still owed and make arrangements for the payment.  My standard wedding contract, amended to include the details of the contest, would be signed by both of us.  The last agenda item of the meeting would be to review the meeting and to have one final reminder for my bride of my responsibilities  and her responsibilities.  When my bride left that meeting there would be no doubt in her mind that she was getting my photography time for free and she was financially responsible for $600 and a fee collection plan would have been in place before we parted company.

The scenario I related above is how most wedding photographers, with individual differences of course, conduct their client meetings.  A wedding photographer who is using good business practices and believes the customer is the person he or she is working for would never, NEVER leave a client meeting or shoot the wedding without the client knowing exactly what services she is getting and how much she is paying.  And more than just being good business practice and such, it just isn’t right that the bride doesn’t have full disclosure and knowledge of the services she is getting and what she has to pay.

No bride should have her memories held hostage.

FOR BRIDES

I am fortunate to have learned from some really solid professional wedding photographers.  Most of the suggestions I am going to give I learned during the classes I took from one of the better local wedding photographer, Diana Elizabeth. I tell the reader this so that you don’t think I came up with these suggestions all by myself.  Some pretty good people have taught me these suggestions and I want to pass them on to future brides so they don’t have  a similar situation put a black cloud of despair over their happy day. The overwhelming majority of wedding photographers are righteous people and have nothing but the best interest of the bride at heart.  But there are swindlers and hustlers and people who just don’t know what they are doing in the business.  A bride needs to be alert for the hustlers and such when choosing a photographer.  As the old business adage goes, “buyer, beware!”

So in no particular order of importance, here a few of my suggestions for the future Mrs’s out there.

1.  The devil is always in the details, so make sure you know them.  Don’t let a photographer gloss over anything you don’t understand that is either in what he or she says or what is in the contract.

2.  Make the photographer earn your trust.  Don’t just give your trust away to a total stranger. A little harsh, but it is a good rule to keep bad things from happening.  Now the majority of the photographers out there are trustworthy people, but make them earn your trust.  Nobody has your best interest at heart except you.

3.  Make sure you know what is in the contract.  This is kind of repeating #1, but it is so, SO important that you don’t leave the client meeting without knowing the services the photographer is providing, and how much you are paying for those services, and when you are expected to pay.  A good wedding photographer will do one final read through of the contract and have you initial all the important points of your rights and responsibilities and the photographer’s rights and responsibilities.

4.   When meeting a potential photographer, come with a list of questions for the photog.  I know this drives some photogs crazy, but Google “questions to ask your wedding photographer”, and find a list or two that you like and have them ready.  Remember, the photog is APPLYING for a job.  You are the client, and the photog wants to work for you.  He or she should be willing to answer any and all questions you have.  You are the one spending the big bucks.

A side note to the above is that it is quite alright to ask the photographer how they dress when they shoot a wedding.  A complaint about the photographer in our story was that this person did not dress appropriately.  It is up to you.  If you don’t care how they dress, don’t ask.  But if you do, ask. It’s OK.

5.  Never assume anything.  Because when you assume…

6.  See rule #3  And along with that, it goes without saying, make sure you have a written contract.  It is for everyone’s protection

FINAL THOUGHTS

My belief, and I run my business this way, is that once I have a bride as a client, I work for her.  I am also the “expert” in the room.  It is incumbent on me as that expert to make sure my bride is thoroughly informed about all the aspects of  me and my photographic services.  In the story I have told, the evidence tells me that this was not done in the case of this particular photographer and bride.

The hardest part in writing this blog was not to venture into the area of speculation as to why this happened.  I haven’t seen the contract nor have I seen or heard any of the pre-wedding communications the bride and photographer  had, nor have I seen the contest rules and regulations.

The facts as I know them right now are these: the bride won a contest for free wedding photography only to find out AFTER the wedding that the only way she could get her photographs was to pay $1,500 for 360 unedited photographs.  Draw your own conclusions.

Applying the “reasonable man” theory, if I found out ahead of time that I would have to pay $1,500 for UNEDITED pictures, contest winner or not, I would be looking for a new wedding photographer.  But our bride found out after the fact, after the wedding, after it was too late to find someone new.

My hope is that this situation gets resolved fairly and equitably and that no other brides have to go through a similar situation.

MOM AND THE BRITISH ROYALS

I have a plate that I inherited from my mother.  It was a plate she bought in 1953 commemorating Queen Elizabeth’s ascension to the throne of England.  It always hung in a prominent  place in all the houses she lived in.  The plate passed in to me when she died. Today, it sits in my living room.

My mom, like so many others, got up at 1:00 am to watch live the wedding of Princess Diana to Prince what’s his name.  And she watched all the replays.  She loved the royals and all the pageantry.

She loved Queen Elizabeth and loved and adored Princess Di.  She also loved and adored OJ Simpson, obviously before July, 1994.  Mom passed away in April 1994.  I know she would have been devastated with the murders and the trial and been glued to the TV every minute of the trial and the reruns.  And I know she would have been downright inconsolable when Princess Diana was killed in the auto accident.  That is just the kind of person she was.

I at times had played around, like many others, with having a funny answering machine message.  I had recorded Tarzan’s call from an old Johnny Weissmuller movie.  I think my best was when I recorded “there are some who call me…Tim?” from The Holy  Grail.   But I had heard from somebody that this wasn’t a cool idea because so many messages could be of a serious nature.  So I just put up a simple, Jim Rockford type of message.  I was glad I did, because that is how I found out my mother had passed away, by a message from her husband on my answering machine.  I am always grateful that he didn’t get a wise guy message from my machine.

My mother and I didn’t always get along, like all kids and parents.  We had just been on a little family get away the week before over my spring break.  We all lose our parents.  And no matter when it is, it is always to soon.

THE LOWDOWN, UNREAD, TIMMY THE BLOGGER BLUES!

One of the cool things about WordPress, and I am sure other blog sites do it to, is that my statistics are tracked on a daily basis.  Ideally, I suppose, the astute blogger looks at these stats and tries to figure out ways to improve the blog so he or she gets more readers.  I am not yet at that point in my blogging experience.  I have contented myself in just seeing how many people have read my blog.  I am very grateful to those who do choose to read my little blog here.  My hope is you find it amusing and insightful.  Amusing, because I do try to write in a humorous style and give a chuckle or two to the readers. Insightful as I am trying to give readers, and hopefully potential customers, a basic look at who I am as a person.  Everyone who hangs a shingle as a photography has some skills in the medium.  So many times it comes down to whether a bride likes someone or not.  I have heard a photographer talk about getting a client because on their blog they mentioned their dog.  And the customer liked that kind of dog so she picked that photographer for the job.  Hint…hint…brides to be who are Minnesota Vikings fans…just sayin’.

So I skipped Friday blogging, but made up for it yesterday.  For the first time in about 2 weeks, I really didn’t struggle to find something to blog about.  It was like when my college English teacher finally picked a topic I was enthusiastic about and I couldn’t wait to write the paper. So last night I spent about 2 hours writing the blog and uploading the photographs.  When I finished, I was stoked.  This was the blog I wanted people to remember me by, it was that awesome!  I couldn’t wait to check today’s stats.  “The Gunfight at the Cadillac Ranch” was going to go viral, baby!

As of this moment, “The Gunfight at the Cadillac Ranch”,  my blog that would quite possibly change the world of blogging as we know it, has been viewed by….. drum roll please…. no one.

Ah me.  I feel like the high jumpers I used to coach that set the bar high, only to hear the clang of the bar as they missed the jump.  That’s me.  I am now laying on the high jump pit of life, looking at the sky and feeling the cool breeze gently blow over me, the leaves in the distant trees making a rustling sound.  As I lay here, I remember the days of my childhood where win, lose or draw, we always got taken to Dairy Queen.  I think I would like a Dairy Queen cone right about now.

As I lay on the high jump pit of life, waiting for someone to spring for a soft serve cone, I am reminded of the time that I accidentally took a picture of my Canon camera strap.  I had forgotten my camera was set on 10 second delay.  So I am taking this picture, and nothing is happening and I am staring dumbfounded at the camera and then I hear it go click.  As a lark, I posted that picture on my (*shameless self promotion link alert)  Poole Photography Facebook page.  Now normally my posts on that site average 30-40 views.  My Canon strap picture had 201 views.

So what am I to conclude from these two anecdotes about those two media posts?  I conclude that if there is ever a market for photographs of camera straps, I am in.  I will corner the market.  No others need apply.

GATHER ‘ROUND THE CAMPFIRE

This is one of the other photographs I took at the Wild West Festival.  This fire pit was next to the traditional chuck wagon that was on display.

I like the textural content as well as the juxtaposition of the linear items in the composition.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I just want to clarify a couple of points I made in this blog.

The high jump bar does not clang when it gets knocked off.  The crossbars have not been made out of metal in years.  But saying “they hear the thump of the bar” just doesn’t seem to carry as much visual and audio energy into the story.

For you brides to be that are dog lovers…I am a dog lover, too!  Right now, I have two cats in my house.  You know that old saying, “Dogs have owners, Cats have staff.”  My cats have yet to give me written permission to get another dog. And If you are a cat loving bride-to-be…you understand my plight.

TONIGHT’S MUSIC TO BLOG BY:

BLACK  by Pearl Jam

LIGHTNING CRASHES by Live

SHE ‘S SO HIGH by Tal Bachman

In the movie “The Graduate”  Benjamin Braddock comes into the kitchen and gives his parents the great news that he is going to marry Elaine Robinson.  The parents go nuts for many reasons, one of which is they have really been pushing for this relationship to happen.  What they don’t know at the time is Elaine hates Ben because Ben has been having an affair with Elaine’s mother, Mrs. Robinson.  (By the way, this was a pretty racy subject matter for 1967.)  Ben’s dad reaches for the phone to call the Robinson’s.  Ben says not to call. Ben explains he hasn’t even talked to Elaine and that she doesn’t know about them getting married, which elicits the following lines:

“Ben, this whole idea sounds pretty half baked.”

“Oh, it’s not.  It’s completely baked.”  (cue the music:  Simon and Garfunkel’s Scarborough Fair)

I kind of feel like Ben’s father when I look at Poole Photography right now.  It’s half baked. Well, a bit half baked.  Don’t want to be too hard on myself.  But to be honest, after Mallory and John’s wedding in August, I went on a mini-mental vacation from my business.  Oh I did do some menial tasks, but nothing really dramatic, nothing to really promote or improve Poole Photography.

I finally got to the point where I decided to I should sit down with myself and take stock of where I am and where I need to be if I want to get where I want to go.

I came to the conclusion that after the wedding, I had allowed myself to disengage from the business for a bit too long.  I had quit paddling the boat, pulled in the oars and laid back and just let the current take me where it wanted to.

Not exactly the Harvard MBA model of excellence.

So I stuck the oars out, shook off my lethargy and am rowing the boat again.

Started back on my business tips for photographer’s meetup courtesy of the Photographers Adventure Club and Nick Pappagallo.  Finishing up some online classes I had put on hold for awhile, and signing up for a couple of new ones in November.  I figure it is now a good time to review and revise my blog and my web page and to work on my branding.

Now let’s see if I can’t get Poole Photography completely baked!

In the meantime, here’s something we hope you will really enjoy.

I love Bougainvillea.  I cannot grow Bougainvillea.  That must be why I like to take pictures of Bougainvillea.

“I believe in fire at midnight” Jethro Tull

“These things will last forever: faith, hope and love”  1st Corinthians 13:13  This message of hope was affixed to the fence by members of Apprenticeship to Jesus in downtown Phoenix.

I will psychedelicize any of my pictures at the drop of a hat.  You can take the boy out of the 60’s but…

Tonight’s blog music:  The Graduate soundtrack.  Of course.

When I sit down to blog, I am reminded a bit of the following scene from Blazing Saddles.  Mongo, played by the recently passed Alex Karras, has the entire town pinned against the wall of the saloon using the piano.  Sherriff Bart, played by the late, great Cleavon Little, shows up as a Western Union messenger with a Candy Gram.  “Candy Gram for Mongo!”  “Me Mongo.”  And the Candy Gram blows up allowing Sherriff Bart to capture Mongo.  As he was being congratulated for capturing Mongo, Bart says “that was the easy part.  The b**** was inventing the Candy Gram!”

That is exactly how I am feeling about blogging.  I can write and write and write with no problems.  The hard part is coming up with a subject to write about on a daily basis.  I am sure it will become a lot easier after my 30 days of daily blogging, but for now, a daily topic is a bit challenging, especially when my target audience are potential brides, mother’s to be, the newly engaged, the senior in high school.  I don’t think ranting about the election or the sorry state of the Minnesota Vikings football team is going to attract my target audience.

So I have decided my topic today will be about a book.  When I finally decided to read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the clerk at the bookstore told me that if I liked the series, I should check out Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole (pronounced Huarry Hooola) series.  So after reading the GWTDT trilogy, I bought my first Harry Hole book.  I then proceeded to read the rest.  If you like murder mysteries, Nesbo’s books are among the best I have ever read.  I only have a couple of complaints about the series.  The first three books in the series have not yet been translated into English. I don’t know about you, but I must read a series from the first book.  I just can’t jump in the middle of something. So it  got a little frustrating when the first English book refers back to incidents that happened in the first three books.  The last I had heard is that they are starting to translate those first three for the English Market.  I am excited.

The second problem is the book is a hard read.  The action and the plot move along fast.  The plots are complex and intriguing and all the good things a mystery should be.  The problem with reading them is all the Norwegian names and places that one has to wade through and keep track of.  It is almost like one needs to have a English/Norwegian dictionary around just to aid in reading of the book.

But I am enjoying the book.  If you enjoy complex mysteries and your main characters extremely flawed, and don’t mind reading Norwegian at times, I recommend starting with  The Red Breast by Joe Nesbo.

Now if you will excuse me, I am going to think about tomorrow’s Candy Gram

Blog music tonight:  Sunday Night Football

I had an unexcused absence from blogging yesterday.  My sleep habits have been a bit “Krameresque” the last couple of days.  I refer to the episode of Seinfeld in which Kramer decides to try a polyphasic sleep schedule where he sleeps 20-30 minutes 6 times a day.  This, of course, backfires on Kramer.  He falls asleep while being intimate with a mob boss’s wife.  She assumes Kramer is dead, gets a couple of her husbands soldiers to dispose of the body, and the next thing we see is Kramer waking up in the East River.

My sleep schedule wasn’t as extreme, or as on purpose as Kramer’s, but the lack of sleep the last few days finally caught up with me yesterday and today.  I did try to rouse myself and write yesterday, but after a few sleepy attempts I found myself searching for the DELETE THIS ENTIRE BLOG button, because I just didn’t want to write a blog anymore.  Fortunately, I fell asleep at the computer before I found that button.

In case you hadn’t noticed, it is election time again.  I am a political junkie, but I try diligently to stay non political on my social sites.  But I saw a post that I feel very passionate about, and I want to share my views about the topic.

It starts with Prince Amukamara of the New York Giants posting an Instagram of himself in a shirt that says “VOTE!”  As I have mentioned earlier, I coached Prince in high school and am really proud that he is now using his status as an NFL player to promote worthwhile ideas and causes.  But as I was reading the comments I saw one that always makes me bristle a little bit when I see it.  It is the comment “your vote doesn’t count.”

I guess my main problem with that opinion is I don’t understand what people mean when they say that.  I don’t understand why one would have that opinion.  I suppose if a person’s candidate lost, or proposition lost, then I guess that person might feel like his or her vote didn’t count.  From my point of view I have back a lot of losers but I have always felt that my vote counted.

I have heard some explain their vote note counting because politicians say what they think we want to hear to get elected, and do what they want after they are elected.  I agree that that happens quite a bit, in fact more than it should.  But our system does have built in accountability. If the majority of we, the people, are unsatisfied with the performance of our elected officials, we, the people, can fire the offenders in 2, 4 or 6 years, .  For example, then candidate Clinton’s first campaign ad in 1992 promised a middle class tax cut.  In 1993, President Clinton, instead of giving a middle class tax cut, raised taxes on the middle class.  In 1994 the Republicans gained control of both the House and Senate for the first time in 40 years. Accountability.  And to be totally bi-partisan, I think everyone remembers then candidate George HW Bush’s famous “no new taxes” pledge in the 1988 campaign.  During his presidency, President Bush raised taxes.  Because of this broken promise there was a serious challenge to President Bush in the Republican primary.  Bill Clinton even used this broken promise by Bush to show evidence of Bush being untrustworthy.  Bush lost, Clinton won.  Accountability.

There may be other reasons for people saying that our votes don’t count.  I am sure they believe they have valid reasons for believing that way.  I just believe that the right to vote is a sacred right that people have fought and died for, are fighting and dying for now, and are willing to risk their lives for now and in the future.  To me, my vote has to count, it has to matter, whether my candidate wins or not  If it doesn’t matter, blood has been spilled in vain.

I remember when I turned 21 I couldn’t wait to cast my ballot.  I was gong to college in California, so I made sure I got registered to vote in California.  Voted, and took my “I voted” button to Shakey’s and received a small pizza for free.   Participate in democracy and get free food.  What a country!  When I taught, I always went to the polls at 6 am, so I could wear my “I Voted” sticker to class.  I could empathize with the Iraqi people who were voting for the first time and proudly holding up their ink stained fingers that indicated they had voted.

We are all products of our upbringing, so I am sure much of my enthusiasm for voting comes from my father.  He is also a political junkie, so I am sure that rubbed off on me.  My dad, in kind of a poor man’s Michael Corlioni way, was being groomed by my grandfather to be a politician.  Grandfather was very involved in the politics of Ohio and he had plans for my dad.  However, my dad did not share in those same political ambitions.  Except once.  He ran for mayor.  The city at the time did have a few gangland connections so that it had the nicknamed “Little Chicago.”  Sometime during the course of the election, my father was made an “offer he couldn’t refuse” that he, of course, refused.  Our landlady convinced my mom that if my dad got elected that he stood a good chance of “sleeping with the fishes” in the Ohio river.  So mom and all the family friends got a concerted effort together to make sure that my dad did not win the election.  I would say this is one time that everyone’s vote counted.  I am pretty sure even my dad voted for the other guy.

Finally, f you believe your vote doesn’t count, trust me, I have not written this as an attempt to change  your mind.  I have heard many of the reasons, but I don’t understand them, so I am not going to presume I can offer you any solid reasons for changing your mind.  I just wanted to share my reasons for voting and my belief that my vote does count.

New York Giant’s and former Nebraska and Apollo High School standout, Prince Amukamara, encouraging you to vote.

Today’s blog songs: Elected by Alice Cooper, Politician by Cream