What would you do? Scheduling delima.

About two weeks ago I booked a family shoot with a co worker. It's her grandmother's 85 birthday and she has about 20 family members who will be there for the shoot. I didn't charge her much for the shoot itself and any money would have been made from purchases after the shoot. I haven't taken any deposits or any money at all for this. The shoot is scheduled for Oct. 17th and can't be rescheduled.

Tonight I get a call for a much, much larger and more lucrative shoot with a lot of ongoing possibilities of more work but it's on the same day as the other shoot already mentioned.
I know I need to take the better opportunity for my business but I'm not sure how to get out of the first shoot without seeming like a jerk.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Thanks

Pay another shooter to cover Grandma's party. You don't have much of a choice becasue you already comitted to it and it's not like you committed just last night.

I shoot HS Sports and because of an arm injury, I had to bring someone in to shoot a championship game for me. I had the the photographer sign a "work for hire" agreement which means the copyright belonged to me.

jdouglas003 wrote in post #8744779
About two weeks ago I booked a family shoot with a co worker. It's her grandmother's 85 birthday and she has about 20 family members who will be there for the shoot. I didn't charge her much for the shoot itself and any money would have been made from purchases after the shoot. I haven't taken any deposits or any money at all for this. The shoot is scheduled for Oct. 17th and can't be rescheduled.

Tonight I get a call for a much, much larger and more lucrative shoot with a lot of ongoing possibilities of more work but it's on the same day as the other shoot already mentioned.
I know I need to take the better opportunity for my business but I'm not sure how to get out of the first shoot without seeming like a jerk.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Thanks

You've already committed yourself. Unfortunately its what happens when you're in business and its just you.

If you cannot arrange another shooter of at least equal caliber that is acceptable to the client, you need to simply show up and do the first gig. As you don't have something in place with the first client that informs them that it might not be YOU that shows up, you're going to have to make sure that it is an acceptable solution to their needs. They may not want someone they do not know at this event, no matter how good a shooter that person might be.

Terrible business practice to commit to a client then dump them because something bigger comes along, but I hope you already knew that.

It's a crappy thing to do someone on a personal level, too.

Do you really want to bail on your co worker. Is that how you want to be viewed, even if you did arrange for another shooter. Are you going to be able to find someone else to do it for what you were.

This happens in business. There is always something else around the corner. I would stay with what I have booked. That is the most etiquette proper thing to do, in my opinion.

Yep, stick to the first....you don't want to loose your integrity in a business that is driven by word of mouth and reputation. Try to work with the second person to re-schedule or maybe secure future work. If you stick with this for a while, you'll find that you may often need to pass on "better jobs" because you're already booked for something else.

Do you really have to think about bailing out on Grandma's 85th birthday? You agreed to shoot it. Be true to your word. End of story....

This will NOT be the first time it comes up, so get used to it....

I'm second shooting a wedding that same day for a good friend of mine, and after that was "booked", I got an inquiry for me to shoot a Bar Mitzvah. I didn't even have to think about what to do...

^^^^^^^^^+ 1 to all the above ^^^^^^^^

Jeff

How would you feel if you booked a wedding and with 2 weeks to go, the bride calls you up and says she found someone else. Shoe on the other foot sure does not smell very good. I don't think you needed to even ask this question here...you already knew the answer.

You agreed to shoot it, you shoot it end'a story. It happens to me several time a year. In fact this past year I had to turn away several really big jobs because I was already committed. If you commit and then bail after you commit, you won't stay in biz to long.

We had my Grandmother's 90th birthday a couple of weeks ago. We had 72 family members there and wanted a large group photo, photos of individual families, and candid shots throughout the evening. My aunt found a photographer who agreed to come. I don't know all the details but the photographer ended up canceling and we were unable to find another one. I spent the evening taking photos but it won't be the same quality we were hoping for at all. I would never think of using that photographer again and would never recommend them to anyone. You said you don't want to end up looking like a jerk, but if you cancel for a "bigger" job that is exactly what you will look like. Is this really how you want to treat a co-worker?

If you know of another photog you can hire, and you know they will do good work, hire them and go to the other gig - even if you lose money on the party gig.

But before you put that into motion, make sure the party gig people are fine with someone else shooting - they don't need to know why you aren't shooting, just that the person you found is someone you trust to do a good job, and go from there.

It all worked itself out. I had my dates wrong for the first shoot. Whew!!!

Awww ... I was going to stay stiff Grandma, go for the money. Then the second job will fall through for someone doing it for FREE and you'll get what's yours! In the mean time, Grandma will also have found someone to do it for photo credit and everybody is happy! Well, almost.

NEVER mess with a grandmother!! They can be experts in punishment.