D.B.
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I offered to pay for family portraits for my brother's family whose family is dealing with a serious illness. I sent him a couple of websites of photographers who charged $150-200 for an on location photo shoot which I thought seemed reasonable. He had a friend that's a photographer that he wanted to use instead and decided to schedule something with. I spoke to her and asked what she charged and she said she wasn't going to charge anything. I immediately offered to pay for her time and we left the conversation there. I guess I mistakenly assumed that she meant she wouldn't charge as much as she ended up charging me which was close to $500 which I cannot afford. I have a family too and I've never even been able to afford photos for us.
I'm really stressed out now and I'm not sure how to handle this. I know I need to call her and talk to her and I really don't want to involve my brother. I feel like my intentions to do something nice for them are now kind of ruined by my inability to afford these photos. What should I say to her?
thanks to everyone for confirming my feelings about this - that as a professional photographer, she should have communicated with me before charging me that much and that the price seemed pretty steep for family photos that didn't even include prints. I called her and she somehow accidentally overcharged me $200 and outsourced touching up the photos without my permission. She also told me that when she said she would do it for free that I told her to charge me whatever she wanted. I never did say that but I'm not going to let it fester. She said to pay whatever I could and that's what I'm going to do.
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Sounds like a miscommunication and I'm sure there is some room for negotiaiton.
I would call or email and just point out what you said above-you're sorry, you must have misunderstood, but you can't afford X, but still want to pay for her time-and then suggest what you are comfortable with.
What an awful situation. I am a wanna-be professional photographer, and do a lot of portraits for my family and friends for next to nothing. If I was the photographer in this situation, and there was a misunderstanding like this one, I would be absolutely understanding about coming to a comprimise, especially since she innitially said she wouldn't be charging.
I would contact her, adn tell her just what you said to us. She very well may take care of it immediately. That way your brother will have his pictures and never even know this mistakenly happened.
Please let us know what happens!
Did the photographer just let everyone order whatever pictures they wanted with you paying? I can understand you paying for her time and perhaps a couple pictures for your brother's family but I think they got more out of it.
Why don't you find out what is included in the $500. If it turns out it includes extra pictures tell her this was all you were paying for and they will have to pay for the extras.
I am a professional photographer and if I tell someone that I will do it for free (usually only for family), then I do it for free, even if they offer to pay. It seems like there was either a miscommunication or she has a bad work ethic. You do need to give her a call and figure it all out though. Good luck!
I have not read all the responses. This does not make sense. You told your brother the gift was between $150-200, right? How good of a friend is this person? Was your conversation over email/text?
She is a business person and should have had you sign a contract and made it clear it was $500 and what that included (a DVD/CD and/or prints or just the time). Photographers are priced so differently from one another. I do agree with someone else that you should tell her the truth. I would also be careful on what extra info you add incase she plans to take you to court. Such as, "I really can not afford to get my own family photos, therefore I do not want to pay you $500 for my brother's family's photos even though i said I would pay for them."
She could be very understanding and charge you what you planned to pay.
How much "time" did she spend? IS that the amount for her time only?
Photographers ARE expensive.
I'd call and ask what the amount is actually covering.
Do you think there's a chance she sent an invoice so YOU know the amount she is "donating" overall? Just a thought.....
It sounds like the pictures have already been done, so I'm not sure how you can handle this, other than as others here have suggested, just tell her what you have told us and pray that she is reasonable about it. Of course this is the classic case of needing to have something in writing before you agree to anything, but don't we all make this sort of mistake from time to time?
I'm also wondering just how many pictures were involved. Our kids had a friend do their wedding pictures ten years ago ... and you know the time and amount of finished pictures that can involve ... and they only paid $800. Surely something like family pictures wouldn't be anywhere nearly so involved as a wedding shoot, and even with the fact that things are more expensive now than ten years ago $500 sounds outrageous for such pictures.
I guess I'm wondering why you were even brought into the picture if your brother had a photographer friend that was willing to the pictures for free? It makes no sense to me. I would tell her, you can meet her in the middle, since she said she would do it for free & now is billing you for $500 more than that. Hopefully she is a reasonable person.
Wow, she said she wasn't even going to charge, then invoiced you $500 when you offered to pay her something? That's some shady business as she never even spoke to you concerning prices. You seriously need to call her up and tell her you do not agree with the price b/c she did not quote you anything beforehand. Has she already taken the photos? It really sounds like she is milking you here. I know plenty of photographers and prices are discussed up front.
W., send me a pm. Where does your brother live? I am a photographer that does shoots like this all the time. Sometimes photographers ask for a sitting fee but then will charge extra for the pics themselves. I think you should talk to her and tell her you'd like her to do the shoot at a fairly nearby outdoor location and since she is a friend of your brother's tell her you'd just like a cd of the pics. That can save you money by developing them yourself. Some photographers don't like to give up their images for free though.
If all else fails and you get back to me very soon, I may be passing through and be able to help out.
