I April, I went to a group shoot in the city where I now reside. I had a great time, and everything seemed to go well for me. I got to meet some new people, models and photographers both. It was fun.

Since then, I have received photos from only two of the five or six photographers that I had the pleasure of working with that weekend. Of the two, one sent me photos via email, thoug only half the set - I received the other part yesterday. Those were the first I received and shortly after the shoot.

A month later, I moved tot his city, making sure to send my new address to all the photographers I had worked with. I also kept checking back with the family I had been staying with to see if anything had arrived in the mail for me... Nothing.

So I waited a few weeks and then started sending messages to the photographers I hadn't received anything from. I got a few responses saying they would be sending me something within the wek. During this time, I scheduled a photo shoot with a local photogrpaher, hoping to take my mind off not having photos from April. By this time, friends of mine had already received most or all of there photos by the second or third week after the shoot. Still nothing had arrived in the mail. Though at the end of May I visited my friend IvyLynn and received a CD from one of my photographers at the April shoot. My first solid set since then.

Over the next few weeks I sent more messages to the rest of the photographers, asking if they had sent anything out. I got replies of being busy, broken computers, even procrastination, but that they would put me at the top of their lists and send photos within the week or so.

It is now the middle of July and I still have not received CDs or even samples from the remaining photographers. Though the latter didn't even cross my mind until just now.

This isn't my saying I'm more important than anyone else. I know how busy a person, whether model or photographer, can get. Not only with this, but every day things too. One photographer told me that he likes to keep busy because it keeps him out of trouble. Or it does most of the time anyway. I understand this, I do, but shouldn't there be some sort of priority when it comes to getting anyone their photos?

Another photographer I know said this recently: "TFPCD means you get CD's (in a timely manner) from the shoots you were involved in." By what standard are we setting a 'timely manner'? I pose this question to all photographers and models, old and new. What is considered timely?

From where I'm sitting, three months doesn't constitute as timely. I apologize if I'm out of line, but I honestly don't think I am.

Three months is a bit of a stretch.......even being busy.....plus it's not professional to waste the time of the model on a TFCD shoot considering he's already used your time and hasn't given anything in return......

All my shoots regardless if they are paid or TFP/CD...are put in rotation based on what order I shot them in......my paying clients would hit the roof if took anywhere near that long.....

One guy in town took shots of my favorite model about 3 months ago.  Not only hasnt he delivered them but now he wants to get paid nearly $400 just for proofs.  His assistant said he was a working professional who didnt seek out models to trade out prints and services with.

I'm thinking a professional wouldnt have accepted a job without discussing what they expected to be paid; I know my model and her friend wouldnt have wanted to pay anything for this shoot. 

It sounds like an unfortunate misunderstanding, but the part of the PROFESSIONAL is to make terms clear to all the parties involved. 

Most unfortunate.

20 months plus so far waiting for copies
from TFP
can any one beat that???

i even turned down paid job that day just to work with Ed Gordon who is so re knowned for his professional work, i liked it a lot - but i ever saw my pictures
ps
If he's watching
''Hey Ed
What happened to the TFP nude shoot pictures Sasha and  Britt posed for, for you and Yubrage your ptofessional colleague?
You were both shooting nude for free and we got nothing at all?
this was in LONDON - OCTOBER 2004 at Beehive studios Camden??
Nothing recieved from you or Yubrage despite us both asking and now is nearly 2 years later!!!
I am living in USA now
- would like them as historical record.

please e-mail and let me know the position

thanks
BRITT

:-)

sigh
I'm out now, looking for flying pigs

I agree that 3 months is excessive. Sorry professionals, but if you are that busy with paying jobs, why are you taking on TFP shoots that you can't deliver?

My longest was 6 weeks to deliver and I am embarassed about THAT! We even had extenuating circumstances there...planned to shoot again shortly after, and give her the CD then,  but we had to re-schedule. Even so, in the case of every shoot I've done, the model has been e-mailed some shots within 48 hours of the shoot.

Maybe years of retail makes me sensitive, but this business is based on customer service. All else being equal, the one with the better service will usually get the business..

1 TFP shoot where the photog forgot to bring release forms / didn't mention it so we shot without them. He now has the images but won't give or show me any because he says he still needs the release. I've given him my mailing address and fax # - no response.

Another TFP shoot where I got just the raw images that I can't use (but since he gave me images, he considers it fulfilling his part of the deal) and he hasn't edited/sent any finals for me...He is the only person I've worked with to have given me raw images so by sheer accident and momentary daftness I posted two of them on my port for a couple of days. He noticed and told me, I apologized profusely for being a dumbass and removed them immediately. Still no edited shots, 3 months and many emails later. Not one. I understand he is peeved at the raw posts, but it was a freakin' mistake and I doubt the 72 hours online destroyed his photographer reputation. And now I'm stuck with having spent hours at the session with noooooothing to show for it.

Any suggestions???

After reading all these post I am amazed at all the problems.....been doing this for a long time and have never run into problems like all of you have......are there that many un-professional "professionals" around????

I do realize that photographers are busy....I'm out everyday....but if I do a TFP/CD shoot....the longest a model had to wait for the CD was a week....prints may have taken a day or two longer....but that's it......

What amazes me even more are those who shoot totally digital.....it made my work turn-around even quicker than with film.....

Realistically, I know if I piss someone off.....either a client or a model doing TFP/CD work....my chances of ever working for or with them again is zero....and in this business I really hate burning my bridges.....

After I closed this...I thought....perhaps the reason might be that some just consider this profession a "job".....as for myself....I love it......no matter the subject...whether it's the most gorgeous woman in the world....a food shot of really nice cheesecake....or a catalog shot for a pair of shoes......I can't wait to see the image....it always excites me....been that way for over 20 years.....

If I shoot digital, I try to have the images ready by midnight that day, or the next day. Film is a little slower, might be up to a week, but no more. I hear all these horror stories about models waiting for discs; it's kinda amazing.... first thing I do is run home, dump on to the computer, and see what came out nice. Only takes 5 more minutes to burn a cd. If I do some processing, sure, takes a few more hours, depending on how many, but still.... I think anything over two weeks is excessive.

I've waited three months for images, but it was film.  I've also waited that long (and longer!) for edits of digital work, and I was most displeased. My record is still a year.

If you're talking group shoot as in a camera club type thing.. That's fairly common..  Lot of amateurs trying things for the first time..  Pictures often end up looking like crap and you don't want them seen..  So you duck and run..

I know I was guilty of this once or twice early on..

Nearly two years, Anjel! I hope you get something soon!

Oh, no. The group shoots that I'm referring to are all done by professionals, it isn't a camera club, though I've seen those too. I've never had to wait this long before. Funny thing is, all the photographers, save one, were using digital cameras. The photographer I got the CD from was using film, but he got me my pictures within at least two months. I have another photographer with a CD for me, which I'm hoping to get at the next shoot I'm going to in two weeks.

But still, even if the pictures look like crap, there are ways to fix them. Any paint program, such as Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro, are wonderful things.

See, I'm not the most spectacular creature on the planet, don't care. I know how to fix a photo of myself so it looks a bit more presentable (i.e.; airbrush blemishes, stretchmarks, even out skin tone, et cetera). But that's all I do. I don't go overboard, well, unless I'm bored, but then that's just because I like to play with images as well.

And now I'm digressing. At least now I know I'm not the only one who has had problems like this. It's a shame that there are professionals that can't get their models their images in a timely manner. Or that when they finally do arrive, they aren't as good as you thought they would be. I've had that happen before too. Then I do as I stated in above paragraph. -chuckles-

Maybe some of the photographers we models have worked with will see this and think on it. Maybe they'll actually send us our stuff. One can only hope... and then get even. Okay, I'm kidding about that last part.

Hmm,  Don't understand this.  The models reaction to her images is one of the benefits of shooting.    Kevin

As a photographer who has arranged models for multi photographer shoots, I can tell you it is very frustrating for me as well.  I like to get my processed digital shots to the model as soon as possible but bugging other photographers to get their images in to me or the model is a royal pain.  Excuse after excuse...it really isn't fair to the model who has already committed the time to the project...or me since I've committed to the models for TFP and it's my reputation on the line.

One of the best approaches has been not to invite those photographers to followup shoots...which doesn't fix the initial problem but does help reduce it in the future.  I'm also considering holding on to the releases until the models get their shots.

Sorry, but the term "Deliverance" always conjures up images of banjo players and pig- squealing!

Group shoots present interesting challenges as far as getting images out on a timely basis. Both models and photographers are equally to blame. Releases are forgotten to be signed, contact information is not exchanged, one of the parties is not responsive afterwards, etc.

It's a costly pain to send CD's to 5 models, each of which you only have 10 or 20 images of. E-mail or online delivery makes a lot more sense.

As far as delivery of images, I believe in getting at least something out very quickly, while taking a bit longer for the CD. I upload a password-protected preview gallery on the same day as morning shoots and on the following morning for evening shoots. The only delays are a result of computer "crunching" time.

I encourage models to pick 2 or 3 images for immediate post-processing and online delivery so as to get images in ports quickly and to discourage "grabbing" proof images.

This method works well when I am backlogged, as everyone at least gets something right away.