Thanks all for the replies.
I'll cross my fingers for rain. ;-)
It's been raining heavily all day today!
I don't think she found a " cheaper photographer " I think she found a professional photographer. Sorry but six weddings does not make you a proffesional. Study with an established pro for a few years then I would consider you a pro. I am sick & tired of people buying a digital camera and considering themselves pros. I don't agree with the way she fired you - however she did the right thing. Remember this is a very special day for them. If you were to have heart surgery would you want a doctor whom had very limited experience to perform the operation or one that had years of experience to cut you.
Sorry I don't feel for you.
Not harsh reality.Earn your stripes first then hang your shingle. A semi-pro or as he calls himself(whatever the hell that means) would of had a written contract, would of taken a "Non refundable deposit" etc. It's just stuff that a pro would know to do. I am NOT a pro I am a hobbyist and intend to stay that way. However I have friends that make their living with photography so I know what they do and how they go about it. In my business I see so many people who buy a DSLR and all of a sudden they are "wedding photographers" with no experience other than maybe they shot aunt Betsy's 3rd wedding in the backyard.
I never said I was a professional, these are your words, I said I was a semi-professional which is what I class myself as I am not a rookie, nor a professional but somewhere in the middle. I also don't care if you don't feel for me, I find your post rather negative and from reading other peoples replies, it appears I am not the only one. I don't know why you compare me to your professional photographer friends when I am not a professional. However good or bad I conduct business, it doesn't show how good or bad I am at photography. There must be loads of people who are very good at what they do but may conduct business poorly in the early stages.
She found me for the engagement shoot on a local free-ads website. I stated in my ad that I am 'seeking further experience'. If she was not happy with my level of photography, then why would she book me for a 2nd time after the engagement shoot? There are plenty of ads on the same free-ad website from people calling themselves 'professional', she had from July to January to find one, but she still communicated with me, until mid January. She has her wedding at a small registry office in the middle of the city, this clearly tells me that her budget isn't so large. I have experienced rejection so many times in my life so I do not mind if someone wants to say thanks but no thanks and book another photographer. If she would have said "I am no longer required" then I would have been fine with that.
I was just about to say say pretty much what Sam said although he probably put it better. I was thinking she thought you too cheap and it rang alarm bells. If a friend of mine said they had a £150 wedding photographer I would tell them not to do it even if you had good stuff to show. £150 doesn't even cover your time to take the pics and then process them at minimum wage and all business transactions should work for both parties.
I think her communication was just a poor way of letting you go. Personally I probably would have rung the hotel and I would have then let them know I'd rumbled them just for not having the decency to let me know I was dumped and for not offering to pay a proper price for the engagement pics. My wife would have counselled me not to do it but I wouldn't have been able to help myself.
I don't see how alarm bells were rung. I shot her engagement, she knew my prices, she was happy with the photos enough to ask if I could photograph her wedding 6 months in advance. Up until the last 2 weeks, she has been communicating with me fine. Furthermore, I have shown her my portfolio twice so she knows what to expect. Are you suggesting she hired me for a 2nd time and communicated with me for all those months for a laugh?
With regards to your prices - I appreciate that you don't want to charge too much as a relatively inexperienced wedding photographer, and it sounds like you were prior aquaintances/friends with this couple? However, my fiancée and I are looking to get married and I can tell you that in our area of the UK, the average cost of a BASIC wedding photography package (images on DVD/no prints, ceremony to breakfast shoot/no evening reception coverage etc.) is about £800. If you set your prices too low, you will scare people off. Imagine being offered a telly worth £1000 for £100, your first thought would be "what's wrong with it?".
The only advertisement I do is on a free-ads website. On the website, there are about 20 or so photographers posting ads in my home city. Most of these don't charge anything more than £400 and many are charging under £275 for a full days work. These are my competitors and since I do this part-time as a small 2nd income and I am not as experienced as a professional, I can't warrant charging high hundreds or thousands at the moment but I will be increasing my prices in the future (I may post a new thread about this later with a link to my portfolio)
Do you feel wrong? Do you feel you did the right thing?
Let me tell you something I do: In my business, no photography, I do a lot of quotes, talking, making offer and visit my clients and so on. I invest time, money and my ideas of a program I elaborated them.
Sometime happens that out of a sudden the company or person cancels my contract saying it is to expensive, or saying they will postpone it or something like that.
You know what, I will never sneak around and try to find out if it is true what they told me why not. It makes my life happier. I go on with my work and tell to myself: "Next time I'll get the order" knowing that I am not that bad in my field.
I feel I did the right thing and this is further enforced by the comments on here. I didn't phone the hotel to sneak around, I did it to try and be helpful. I don't want the soon to be bride to be at her wedding, expecting me there and I haven't shown up due to a prank text. I did try and phone her, but it went to voicemail. The last thing I want is to be sued for not delivering what was agreed. If I was to go back in time, I would still do the same thing, I caught her in a lie and she has revealed her true colours.
But if, hypothetically, he has shot a dozen weddings does he stop before he shoots the 13th?
I've only shot half a dozen, but I've also shot christenings, birthday parties and a few other misc jobs, as well as a recent baby shoot.
I just want to put my two cents worth in here. Maybe the wedding
was cancelled. Maybe even last minute. It may have caused the bride a lot of emotional grief. She may not have had the time and strength to make decisions about cancelling things. I know situation where a wedding was cancelled last minute and the reception was already paid for and they would have lost all the money so the brides family went ahead with the dinner because their were all sorts of "fallout". Not sure if that is the word I want. But people had plane tickets booked to come and hotels booked etc. Only the brides family was going to the dinner and they just made it a sort of re-union type affair. It may have been a situation where it was all just starting to unravel around the 20th. Could have been just bad timing and if it was, you may have taken a bit of the hurt and pain she was going through. Having the photographer phone the hotel to mention a cancelled wedding before she has had time to make a decision or contact them might have panicked her and she lashed out. I don't think you did anything wrong in the circumstances and I don't think you should take it too personally. Now if you run into the happily married couple in the future, just disregard this post!
Thanks for your post. Yes, it's certainly possible that was what happened, but I phoned the hotel the night before the wedding day so if she was going to cancel, I would have thought she would have done so before hand. I guess we will never know what really happened.
