Crazy Photography Story Submissions (Part 1)

This week on Get the Picture?, we're switching things up and diving into your crazy photography stories. From the chaotic things that happen on a wedding day to the weirdest client interactions, I'm reacting to and sharing anonymous submissions from my followers. Get ready to feel a little better about your own photography horror stories, and make sure you tune back in for part two!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello everybody, welcome back to Get the Picture. I'm your host, Tori Elizabeth, and today is going to be a little cozy episode, like my first kind of casual episode. I'm sitting crisscross applesauce on the couch, and I have been dying to do an episode like this because a lot of my favorite people who I started my business watching in the industry, like if you guys watch Cassidy Lynn, she does episodes like this. Then the Vendor Table, they started doing episodes like this. I think I saw another podcast. I think the Slow Shutter podcast might have done an episode like this too. I'm not quite sure, but I know like a ton of people read Reddit stories and crazy stories, and that's like a really popular podcast thing to do. But specifically, some of my people that I love their podcasts, they do it too. So am I copying them a little bit? Yes, but I'm trying to make sure there are no repeat stories and they're all unique and everything. So I am really excited to read just like crazy photography stories, is what we're reading today. Um I just feel like this is just like a fun while you're editing episode. Like I just get to yap, you just get to edit and listen. It'll be fun. Um, so yeah, we're just gonna get right into it. I am kind of like a little feeling a little bit lazy. I've been recording a lot the past couple days because um my husband and I are about to go on like a trip for a couple weeks to the East Coast that I've mentioned already, but it's like a camping trip, and obviously, you know, I'm recording in my cute studio, so I'm not gonna be able to record while we're on this trip, so I'm like bashing all my episodes now, and so I'm kind of tired like getting to the end of the day, and I'm just like just want this like fun, easy episode, and I feel like it's just like fun to edit to and listen to on your drive and all that stuff. So I'm gonna get right into it. I will tell you guys, I may have snuck a story or two in here, so they might be mine. I'm not gonna tell you which one, um, but I have maybe something in there. There's a mix of I put like a submission, a story submission on my photography Instagram story, and so some of them are your guys's, some of them are from Reddit, and just like ones I found online. So it's kind of like a little bit of a mix, and I'm just gonna read them and we're gonna have fun. Okay, we're gonna start off strong with this. This is really short, but okay, this person said, My oh, by the way, these are all anonymous if you didn't already know. I don't know who who wrote in any of these, and I'm gonna keep it like that anytime I do like confessions or like story submissions or whatever. So this person said, My bride called off her wedding and then messaged me two weeks later saying it was back on, but she was marrying another guy. Craziest part of the story, because that's not the craziest part. Her first fiance paid for the wedding and I was going to refund him, but he told me on the phone that she could just use it for the new wedding with the new guy. Um yeah, I don't even know what to say about that. I mean, uh hope they're still together. Hope the first guy found someone else. Also, like, I know this wasn't what the story was about, but like, why are you gonna refund them? Unless you were refunding like part of the payment. But like, I hope you weren't just gonna refund the retainer because like we don't send back retainers. I hope we all know that. Okay, actually, I'm gonna say something about that because maybe we don't all know that. If you if a couple pays their retainer, even if they call off their wedding or whatever, unless it's something crazy, like like if the groom dies, like, yeah, you should send their retainer back. But like, in if it's just like they're canceling their wedding or something like that, um, that's like quite literally the entire point of the retainer is you've blocked off their date and you should not be sending that back. So sorry for the tangent, but in case anyone didn't know that, any beginners, like the retainer is non-refundable. So I don't know why this person was gonna send a refund. Maybe they're just trying to, I don't know, be nice or felt bad. I don't know. Okay. This one is long. Not a wedding shooter, but like all photographers have been asked to shoot a handful over time. My mom talked me into shooting a wedding for her co-worker when I was still in college. I told them that I had never shot a wedding, didn't know what I was doing, and was nowhere near equipped to do it. The couple, however, was very poor, and the bride was exceptionally warm and an awesome person, and my mom really wanted her to have photos of the day, but no one in her circle could really take a decent photo. So I took the job with both sides, fully at no ex oh both sides have no expectations, and with the agreement that at the end of the day I just hand over my film and they'd take them to get developed and printed. So obviously, this is a story from like years ago and when they were when there was just film, just film cameras. I rocked it as best as my 20-year-old self could do. The wedding party was exceptionally welcoming and patient. The guests were very appreciative, and I got myself a free barbecue dinner out of it at the reception. The bride and groom made a point to find me and thank me over and over again for capturing the day for them. I suggested a couple of great pro labs in our area that they could use to get the film developed, and prints made. A few were very cost-friendly and thought they'd I thought they'd be happy with everything. A week later, my mom calls me and tells me there's something wrong with the photos. I run over to her office and the bride, distraught, hands me the prints and negatives, and everything is tinted with awful colors and really bad spots. I was flabbergasted because I had no idea what could have caused that. It wasn't equipment failure, and I could make out enough of the images to tell that I had shots in focus and exposed well. I asked them which lab they had used, and she tells me Walmart. I tell her to take them back and see what they can do. Take them back to Walmart and see what they can take them somewhere else and see what they can do. Turns out they had taken them to some rural country Walmart, and the tech that ran the film loaded them wrong and then used the wrong process on the machine, which completely ruined the film. Walmart gave them a sorry and a refund. Okay. So, first of all, it the problem is not that the tech messed up. The problem is that they took their film to Walmart. You don't get film developed at Walmart. If you're getting into film and you don't already know this, Walmart and Walgreens don't do it. Don't have them develop your film. And when you do have somewhere develop your their your film, you need to ask if they're just running through running it through a machine or if they're actually like developing it by hand. Because like like this place, like Walmart, they just run it through a machine. So like there have been places I've gone to and said, like, hey, do you guys develop film? And I literally had one place where he said, like, yeah, but like we just run it through a machine, like it's not gonna be great, like you should take it somewhere else. Um, so like you need to be picky with where you get it developed, they're not all the same. And I'm not the best person to ask about this. I don't know everything about film photography. I'll have to have someone on the podcast who does, because I have a lot of friends who are super into film, but I do shoot film and include it in my packages, so yeah, I know enough to know that you don't take it to Walmart. So that is so sad, that's so unfortunate. Uh oh my gosh. Okay. Had a videographer convince my couple to let him take all his photos first, then I could take all of mine. That's all it says. Like, so he could leave, like he gets to take all of his photos, and then you take yours, like you're not working together. That's crazy. Okay, this says I had an entire double family, I don't know what like two families, plus grandparents. Okay, so the grandparents plus their children and their spouses and then their children. So roughly 20 people. Okay. I was not warned ahead of time of the size of the group as one of the children plus their spouse and kids decided to join in the session at the literal last minute, unbeknownst to me. The family that invited themselves included five children, all teenaged. The girls were cooperating, but the men not not at all. They would only stand, no leaning, kneeling, sitting, touching, nothing. And it got so awkward You can't you have to touch during family photos, okay. And it got so awkward all I could do was laugh. I had on floral print jeans and let my hair go wild and curly that day, Queen. And the oldest man referred to me only as hippie. Okay. At the time I thought it was the absolute worst shoe ever. None of the adult men smiled for any photos, and one of the teenage sons refused to look up at all until his mom literally held his chin up in place. That's insane. Sorry, this is my commentary. This is not all just the story. I really should just read it first before I say anything. I could not wait for it to be over. After the fact, I think it's hilarious, and seeing the photos in my collection crack me up at the dysfunction. Okay, so the first problem here is more people are adding in. That session costs more money. It's not the same amount of money for a four-person family session and a 20-person family session. So, like, already that's like okay. And then the I I can't with like, and it doesn't have to be just men. I'm sure there are women who don't cooperate during photos. However, I've never met any of them. And the type of people that just genuinely don't cooperate during photos, I I just don't understand. Like, every time I read one of these, it makes me so grateful for my husband. Like, he could not be happier to like do a photo shoot with me. I get family photos aren't as fun as like couples' photos, but people do it with their partners too. It's not just family photos where people like there are men who refuse to get their photo taken. Like, they do it with their partners too. I don't know why people I think it comes from a place of like insecurity. This is my theory. I don't really know because I don't know a lot of these people personally, but I feel like it comes from like insecurity and not liking your photo, not liking how you look and having your photo taken. And it turns into like I will not get my photo taken as like a coping mechanism. So yeah, I'm not really sure how we fix that, but I think the problem is like it stems from like a lack of self-confidence because I feel like every once in a while you'll get someone who doesn't want to take photos, and like you can tell that's what it is, like you can tell they're they're not feeling themselves, like they don't feel like they look good. So I feel like sometimes that can be fixed by just like hyping them up a little bit. Like if you're someone who's had that problem where like the guy doesn't want to be there for the photo shoot, obviously you can only like deal with it to a certain extent. And like I've started saying, like, I'm not gonna take sessions and like weddings like that anymore. If they're like, no, I don't like getting my photo taken. It's like you have to at least be able to be a good sport. If you can't, then like I can't help you. Um, but if you do run into that situation where you have that problem, what I've found is like, like I said, a lot of the time the guys are like self-conscious, they feel like they don't look good. So not being weird, but like just hyping them up a little bit, being like, you guys look so good, like, okay, like like pull your thumb up under her chin and pull her in for a kiss, like, okay, that's cute, you know, like kind of like hype them up, like, not don't be weird, but just like if they feel like they look good and like they're doing a good job, like, and like it, you know, like maybe if you're hyping them up, like they're part, you know, the girl will start to hype him up, and then he'll be like, Oh yeah, like I'm doing good. And so kind of like that, like that helps them to kind of like get into it a little bit more. Obviously, it depends on the person. If they're really just not gonna have it, like it's not on you to fix that. Like, if someone's acting like a child, that's not your fault, and it's not your fault if the photos don't turn out, then like you've done your job. But at the same time, I do feel like there are certain things we can do as a photographer that will like create an environment where people feel a little bit less self-conscious and are more inclined to like be okay with getting their photo taken. But yeah, something like this is just crazy. I I have had family sessions, I think everyone's probably had family sessions like this where like the men just were really not okay, and I just feel so bad for the women there. It's just like, oh my gosh, can you not just put on a happy face for like your wife or like your mom just for two seconds? Like, come on, like they probably do so much for you. Like, it's not that hard, it's just an hour. Like, calm down. Like, oh, anyway, along the same lines, I'm gonna This one's a little bit funnier, but I'm gonna read this other one that I saw. At the very beginning of my photography career, I shot a wedding where the groom refused to smile. Like, genuinely, there was nothing I could say that would get this man to smile. It felt like doing a family session with a toddler, like bribing him to smile. So his dad came next to me, very old man. All of a sudden, the groom smiles, and I look over to his dad to see what he had done to get him to smile, and he had fully mooned the groom right next to me. Like, literally a foot from me, not kidding. Yeah, that's that's crazy. I mean, this is I it's like I know they think it's funny, but like it's not funny. I don't know what's up with like the dad of the groom and groomsman thinking it's funny to like moon people or like crazy stuff like that on the wedding. It's just it's not it's not just keep your clothes on. Like that's that's crazy at the very beginning of your photography career, too. Oh my gosh. Okay. This one says, I showed up to a wedding once and the bride was pregnant. Okay. And she was putting her dr- Sorry, I need to read it all the way through without comment commenting. Um, I will get better at this, I promise. I showed up to a wedding once and the bride was pregnant, and she was putting her dress on and said, I hope this fits. And at first I thought she meant because she was pregnant, but it turns out she had never tried on the dress before, and it was just some random dress her grandma or someone bought at the thrift store one time because she thought it was pretty. It did end up fitting, but I had some major secondhand stress. Lol. Yeah, no kidding. I would do what are you gonna do if it doesn't fit? How do you just not try it on? This must have been like a like I mean, you have to be so tight B. You have to be so like that's like maybe they didn't care about having a wedding. That's what this is this feels like to me. This feels like this person like didn't really care about like having a wedding that much. Like maybe they wanted to get married, but they didn't care about like the wedding aspect of it, because like not even trying on your dress is absolutely wild. I don't understand how that's that's crazy. I I barely feel comfortable like thrifting clothes without trying them on. That's that's crazy. Okay. This one says actually I'm gonna come back to this one. Okay, I will never shoot weddings. I will keep You know this one's from Reddit. You know I got this off of Reddit if it starts with I will never shoot weddings. I will keep it short. I followed slash shadowed the hired photographer at my buddy's wedding. Terrible, terrible experience. Told my buddy I would shoot his wedding as a present. They hired someone without telling me. Found out like a week before. The hired photographer had only shot two to three weddings previously. I had only shot one. The hired photographer was on Pinterest the whole time, looking it parentheses it says stealing, poses slash shots. Like they looked exactly the same as the Pinterest photo. She did not plan any shots out and was running around the whole time or asking me where good places were. The hired photographer did not edit her photos, maybe a slight color correction with a preset filter, but nothing more than that. After all that, I was hounded with texts and emails asking where the photos were because the hired photographer delivered hers in like three days. She delivered them something like 300 photos. I gave them 60 to 70 edited images I was proud of and would want to put my name on. My question for you is why did you still shoot the wedding if they hired someone? And I guess we'll never know. But like if your gift was to shoot the wedding for free, but then they hired someone to shoot the wedding, like you should have just given them a gift card or something. You should have just given them some money or something instead of a gift. I don't know. Maybe you were trying to do it for experience, so you wanted the experience, because it says you had only shot one wedding and you were talking about like wanting something that you would put your name on. I'm assuming that this person was doing it for the experience, but that would definitely be frustrating if you offered a gift and then they hired someone, but at the same time, like I don't know, it's like it's for free, like you can't be offended if they want someone different, but I feel like they should have told you that, and then you should like so you're not wasting your time and shooting it. I don't know, and then like I don't know, hounding you for the photos. That's just not it. It's like it was free. Why are we it was a gift? Like I don't know. Hopefully they liked the photos. This one just says the my bride's my bride's dad got arrested during the daddy-daughter dance. The cops didn't even let them finish their dance. When I first read this, I was like, of course they can't finish the dance. He's a r- he's getting arrested. Like whatever he did was bad enough for him to get arrested. He shouldn't like he should be going to jail. Like, I don't know. But at the same time, if it was for something like not crazy, like maybe they could have let him finish the dance. I don't know. I mean, like I don't know. That is really sad though. Like, that's crazy, but I do feel really bad for the bri I mean that just kind of probably ruined your entire wedding day, to be honest. Even like I think about like looking back on the photos from your ceremony, you probably just feel queasy, like looking at any photos from your day. Like you probably just like thinking about your wedding, you probably just like feel gross because like your dad got arrested at your wedding. I mean, that's just horrible. This one's this one I feel like is gonna hopefully no one relates to this, but I feel like people are going to, unfortunately. One time the groom went to put his hand on my back in what I thought was a not weird way. He was asking me, Hey, can you come get a photo of us over here? Okay, so he had like his hand on your back, and he's like, Can you come get this photo? But he just left his hand there for like a solid 15 seconds. I was so uncomfortable. Yeah, that is really uncomfortable. That's I mean, that's like why are you touching me? Like, that's that's weird. And maybe, maybe it was him being clueless, but I don't know. It's like, why are you touching me? Was that like you didn't need to put your hand on my back, that was not necessary, like just like leading his hand there. It's like, okay, like you can. I could see someone like like, hey, like, the problem is people touch photographers way too much at a wedding. Like, they will like grab your arm and be like, come take this photo, and it's like, get your hands off me. But especially like if you're a male photographer listening to this, I probably have zero male photographers listening to this. But if you are, just know that like as a female photographer, we get like like people like grab your arm and like touch you or like put their hand on like men will like put their hand on your back a lot. It's like really uncomfortable to just get like touched all the time on a wedding day. That's like a unique female photographer experience, I feel like. But I don't know, maybe you need to talk to a male photographer. That would actually be a good podcast episode to have a guy on and we talk about like the differences between like what you have to deal with as a man or a woman in the wedding industry. But anyway, we will table that for now. But yeah, like I've had like like uncles or whatever who were like nice, like put their hand on my back. Not in like a weird way. It's like weird that people feel so comfortable touching you, but at the same time, like sometimes it really doesn't bother me sometimes. But I'm also not super sensitive to physical touch, and I know a lot of people are. But the hand just like staying on your back, like it's not that he put his hand on your back, like putting the hand on the back being like, hey, would you come take this photo? Like, that's like fine, but like why is your hand still there? Like, move your hand. Like, I don't know. People act so weird on wedding days. This one just says, groomsman trying to get with you, sir. Leave me alone. Yeah. We've all experienced that. It's it's not good. If you're someone who's gonna be getting married soon or just at any point in the future, I know that like a couple of my brides listen to this podcast too. Just know that like groomsmen terrorize your photographers, and you will probably never know what they do. You'll probably never know what they say to your photographer, but your groomsmen or I mean your husband's groomsmen could quite possibly be like, I don't know, saying and doing crazy things, and you might never hear about it, but your photographer has to deal with it. So maybe give them like a lecture or something before the wedding day, because we have to deal with so much crap from groomsmen. I it doesn't like I immediately drop the my husband, like walking around with my wedding ring as soon as I start working with the groomsman because I'm just like I can't deal with the with the flirting and you trying to like just just let me do my job, please. Like, no, I don't care that you have a camera and you've taken five photos. Like, I I don't want to come shoot with you. Like, people are crazy. People ask the craziest things. Okay, that is all we have time for today. I hope you guys had fun listening to these crazy stories. I will have to do another episode like this. I'm hoping I can do just solely my follower submissions. So, like, just like follow my podcast Instagram and then I'll put a poll on there and hopefully we'll get enough that I can do one with just that because I would love to just be reading like your guys' stories. Again, these are all anonymous, so don't be afraid to submit your crazy ones. I also just barely posted this poll today. So, assuming that I get some more, I will do another episode with the rest of the ones that I get. But this was so fun. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. I hope you've been loving the podcast. I know I'm still getting the hang of it, but I really, really appreciate you guys listening, downloading. I see all of the stats, like everything that you download, and it means so much to me. If you would leave me a five-star rating and write a review, it would literally mean the world to me. And if you're on YouTube, if you want to leave a comment, um tell me if you liked this episode, if you want to see more like this, that would make my whole day. My podcast Instagram is get the picture.pod. My regular Instagram and the rest of my socials are at Tori Elizabeth Photo. Elizabeth is with an S. And my website is Tori Elizabeth Photography.com. Again, Elizabeth is with an S. And that's all for today. Thanks so much for watching. Have a great rest of your day. Bye.