Clients from Hell Photographer Edition: "What are your rates?"

This blog post is pretty funny:

http://retouchist.net …ition-what-are-your-rates

I think most of us can relate to most.

Just had this gem yesterday, his exact words, mine paraphrased

Guy who looks like a wannabe rapper ad likes my Facebook page and messages me. He's the owner of 20 'models' and their pages.

"Hey I'm looking to book a shoot for one of my models"

Me:"Hi give me some more details and I can provide a quote"

"she wants to do lingerie sexy not trashy"

Me: "Ok I am running a boudoir promo at the moment, and my promo rate is 140$ for a 2 hour photoshoot."

"it's ok never mind she charges 160 an hour"

I didn't bother replying to make a comment on that one...

Lots of good stuff.

Always love the apples to oranges scenarios, when you point out you're more expensive because you're using light modifiers, shooting raw, and doing post production.

Ugh. SO many of these. But for every radio silence / who do you think you are / you should be paying me not the other way around / I deserve a discount just for existing / how dare you charge so much non-client, I get plenty of great clients too.

I guess it all evens out.

Same but different:

Guy calls me yesterday ... Now let me back up, this guy called me probably 10 years ago wanting to build a website, he didn't have one at all. Met with him to discuss possibilities. Weeks go by and he decides it isn't the right time.

I keep in touch with the guy. Swears he is going to do it at some point. Four or five years go by. Still call the guy once a year. Nothing.

Maybe 3-4 year ago he says it is time. Meet with him again, and tell him I am going to charge him for the proposal (to cover my arse when he decides not to do it).

Sure enough, put detailed proposal in his hands and he doesn't do it. A year or so goes by, now he's really ready. Really!

Impossible to get to do things, took six months to schedule headshots for his office of FOUR! Cannot get the guy to respond, ever.

Finally after two years of struggling we are almost there. It is now one year ago, January 2016. He just has one thing to do ...log on to a trade group website and follow a few detailed steps to set something up, copy/paste a link and send it to me for an iframe. 15 minutes work, tops.

Won't do it. I contact him once a month. Doesn't do it. I offer to go by and do it for lunch and fifty bucks. Nope, he says, he will do it this time.

I give up.

Hadn't heard from the guy for nearly six months when he called yesterday. Wants me to change something on the website. Says to me, "I need it done right away, will you do it today?" It's 3 in the afternoon.

No, I will not do it today. I MIGHT be able to get to it by Monday. If I feel like it.

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #18263696
No, I will not do it today. I MIGHT be able to get to it by Monday. If I feel like it.

If I feel like it after the check clears! ; D

PhotosGuy wrote in post #18263762
If I feel like it after the check clears! ; D

I was paid in full long ago. Drew a line in the sand at one point before most of the site went live. The change is two characters ... "$25" changing to "$30", so I will do it for free, it takes 20 times as long to create an invoice. However, as part of the deal I set an appointment for Tuesday to go to his place and hold his hand while he finishes what he is supposed to do. He will pay me for that. If he ditches me on the appointment, I will change it back to 25.

There are great.

My fave was when I was asked to shoot a for profit event and was told there was no budget for a photographer. I asked if everyone else was getting paid or were they expected to work for free and was told everyone was getting paid their full rate. So I told the lady organizing the event I would do the job for free if she would donate her pay from the event to a local food bank. She laughed and told me no, that she has bills to pay and a family to take care of. I said I have those same responsibilities so why should I be expected to work for free. She told me to quit wasting her time and walked away.

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the flying moose wrote in post #18264485
I said I have those same responsibilities so why should I be expected to work for free.

Because there are many people who will do photography for free, while there are not many people who will undertake event organization for free. Many people like to do photography as a hobby. Almost no one wants to do event organization, ever - so they'll only do it if they get paid for it. Therefore it is almost impossible to find an event organizer for free. But it is relatively easy to find someone to do photography for free because a lot of people like to do photography.

Furthermore, people feel that they need event organization to be done at a high level of competence, so they are not willing to trust that part of things to a part-time hobbyist. Conversely, many people really don't care about how good the photos from an event are, and will be satisfied with a mediocre effort, so they are willing to sacrifice professionalism and quality for the sake of saving money, when it comes to photography. The photography part of things just isn't very important to most people.

That is why you/we are sometimes/often expected to work for free. It is a dynamic of the relationship between supply and demand.

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The whole "what are your rates" business is partly why I started posting rates on my site in the first place; it does to an extent save me and potential clients from the awkward conversation. There is no ambiguity, it's all there in print.

And yet, there's always those few...

Get a random text one day saying they got my number from a friend, asks how much I charge for a maternity shoot. Give them the rate, they ask how many pictures and prints they get, tell them it's usually around 20-30 final pictures and no prints but I can get prints done if needed. They ask for discount so I say since they were referred by one of my friends I'll give them a discount (about 22%) never hear back from them.
Couple months later my friend says her friend was pissed because I wouldn't do the pics cheap enough and she wasn't able to find another photographer before the baby was born...... apparently it was my fault lol.