As you can see from some of my case studies, I often cover multiple events over a weekend. However, there are some occasions when it’s best to be unavailable. Here are my top 5 reasons to turn down photography work:
1. Family Weddings
Your son or your daughter is getting married. Why would you put the pressure on yourself to take the pictures? You might want to walk her down the aisle. Or you might want to be in the photos. Or you just want to enjoy the day for what it is, and not see it all through a camera.
Apart from that, family can be an absolute nightmare when it comes to wanting more and more. They don’t listen to you. They will be putting pressure on you, because they want to see the pictures. On the Sunday after the wedding, instead of relaxing with everybody, chilling out after such a lovely day, you will have your daughter on the phone asking, “Have you got those pictures ready yet?” You don’t want that.
I’ve got this standard phrase that basically tells people that when I do a wedding for them, they become clients for the day; they stop being a friend. I’ve standardised that by taking a deposit, which family will never give you! You will never get paid, so then it will become stressy, because you’ve put in all those hours when you could have been enjoying your family day more by not working.
Family or friends will not do what their told as far as weddings are concerned, but clients will. Essentially, you’re not just a photographer, you’re a stage manager. You’re there to do a job and organise things. you don’t want to be taking time out from your photography work to argue with people.
You must have pre-wedding meetings, but family will ring you up and say, “We can’t make it today dad, is it alright if we do it next week?” Then the big day comes around and you haven’t had any meetings.
You’re not just a photographer; you’re a stage manager
If your friend doesn’t become a client for the day, things are likely to go wrong. I arranged to do a friend’s wedding, and she kept putting the meetings off. Because she was a friend, we kept agreeing to see each other next weekend. Eventually, two weeks before the wedding, she said, “We’re never going to have this meeting, are we? Don’t worry. We know what you do. Just do what you do.” I was at the wedding and I asked, “Right, can I have both sides of the family please?” The groom’s dad leant forward and said, “We don’t do families on this side.” I thought, ‘Dig me a hole and make it a deep one!’ You must have that meeting.
You do weddings for clients, and family will never ever become clients. It’s as simple as that.
2. Photography work that will stretch you too thin
I rarely say absolutely no. But if I think a job is possible, but might stretch me too thin, I will say, “I will try and get there.” I might be able to get there for an hour. But if you feel you have to say no to make sure you’ve got your headspace right, that’s the best thing to do. It takes experience to learn how to manage your stress levels, break times and mental health. The more you do it, the better you get at it.
3. Photography work that’s outside of your experience
The best way to get photography work is to work, but if you’re a sports photographer and you’ve never done a wedding before, and a football player asks you to do their wedding pictures, you can do your reputation some serious damage. If you mess it up, your name’s going to be mud in the football community too. So, just think along those lines.
If you’re a wedding photographer and you’ve never covered a rugby game – that’s not so important. There are dozens of rugby matches every weekend. If someone from a wedding asks you to photograph their rugby team, you could be honest and say, “I’ve never done rugby before. I’ll probably need to cover a few games to get some practice. But if you bear with me, I’ll get the shots.” It’s a way to get some experience in another area.
4. Family members offering to be models
The missus and I were walking in Cockington one spring Thursday evening, and we were talking about how the flowers had come out. I said, “This would be a cracking place for some wedding portfolio photos.” But I would have to find somebody to wear a suit, somebody to wear a wedding dress, etc.” The missus suggested we do it, and my alarm bells went off. Not because people might think we were getting married, but I know she would want to take the dogs or go for a coffee. I would then be saying, “No, the light’s just right. We can’t go for a coffee for another hour. We’ve still got to do these pictures.”
Family will be late for a start! That’s all that it takes for the lighting to go to pot, and then you’ve got stress etc. Then they will say, “I don’t want to do my hair that way,” when you know you want their hair done like that. There’s got to be that photographer/model boundary where the model is paid to do a job. She’s there to make the picture look good and do what the photographer says – not go for a coffee!
5. When you don’t get on with someone
Avoid working with people that you don’t – or wouldn’t – get on with. If I was asked to do a portrait of a certain TV presenter, I would say, “No, I’m not available.” Simple as. If they asked me when I would be available, I would say, “Never.” Because I just don’t like the guy. He’s a bully and a male chauvanist pig who talks over people.
You can come away from a wedding meeting sometimes thinking, “I hope I don’t get that job,” because the couple are obnoxious. At a wedding, you’re spending all day with a couple, and you’ve got to gel with people to get the best out of them. So, if you don’t like the people looking to hire you for any kind of photography work, it’s better to politely decline.
Have a burning photography question you would like Al to write about in his next blog post? Email info@miraclepr.com with your request.