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Has anyone ever been ghosted by a photographer?
Hi everyone! So a photographer reached out to me from MM a couple weeks ago, saying that he really wanted to set up a shoot with me. I gave him my rates and he agreed to them, so we picked a date and a time for the shoot. He sends me details of the shoot etc., and everything is going smoothly. Three days before the shoot, and he has yet to give me a location. Two days before, he said he would text it to me but I never received anything. Day of the shoot arrives... and there’s just no correspondence from him at all. I emailed him a couple times, double checked all our emails to make sure I provided him with accurate contact information, so I know it wasn’t a problem on my end. I even messaged him on MM. I was honestly worried something bad had happened to him for him to just drop off the map. BUT I log onto MM today and lo and behold, it says he was active six minutes ago, so clearly he is able to access technology! Has this happened to anyone else? Can someone provide insight... this has literally never happened to me before. Thanks! Jul 04 20 02:33 pm Link Condrea wrote: I'm sorry for your bad experience. Jul 04 20 02:54 pm Link Sad to say it happens often. Photographers as well as models flake a lot. Some try to solve this by asking for part payment in advance through PayPal. If you chose to try this, they will either agree or the conversation will end right there. I sometimes agree to this knowing the model may or nay not have enough money to make the trip. That and there may be some recourse through PaPal if it don't work out. I've had no problem, ... yet. Jul 04 20 05:38 pm Link Ghosting is fairly common. The internet has provided a degree of anonymity that did not exist before, and the result is that many people no longer feel the need to observe the basic courtesies of life. Jul 04 20 05:41 pm Link Condrea wrote: Mark Salo wrote: As a photographer, if I received emails and/or texts from a model in which the model stated they agreed to my rates and to a time and date for the photo shoot, then I would have believed the shoot had been confirmed. Jul 04 20 06:03 pm Link I tried to quote Rob Photosby, sorry I screwed up the quote method. The internet has provided a degree of anonymity that did not exist before, and the result is that many people no longer feel the need to observe the basic courtesies of life. This is my feeling EXACTLY. Flaking and poor communication are so common these days that in the past I would get upset, like I was stood up for a date but now it doesn't even phase me. Jul 04 20 06:05 pm Link G Reese wrote: Not just photographers and models. People fail to show up to doctor appointments, veterinary appointments, appointments with financial advisors. They fail to be at home when they have made appointments with repair technicians of all sorts. All of these professionals attempt to confirm a day or two in advance. Jul 04 20 10:26 pm Link Mark Salo wrote: Camera Buff wrote: The OP and I live in a commuting area that includes four cities, toil roads, traffic patterns. I can't imagine agreeing to a photo shoot before I knew the location. Jul 04 20 11:01 pm Link Mark Salo wrote: Mark Salo wrote: And quite different again if the OP and her ghost photographer live within a short commuting area to each other. Jul 05 20 03:14 am Link As Mark said, it's not just happening in photography. It's everywhere. OP, you should set a policy for yourself that if you don't have all the key details nailed down a certain number of days for the shoot, you don't have a shoot. Don't let a flake string you along up to and including the day of the mythical shoot. Three days before the shoot is my usual cutoff point. Jul 05 20 05:46 am Link Some of the photographers here on MM are as bad as some of the models on MM. He may have changed his mind about working with you and didn't have the courage to tell you or he is just unprofessional in his dealing. Or, it may have been intentional from the start but don't let it discourage you. Thirty years ago I was to shoot a model in New Orleans. I bought my airplane ticket from Miami, prepaid hotel fees and a week before the shoot she stopped communicating. I didn't like it but it didn't stop me from flying places to shoot models in other locations. Don't let one bad apple spoil what you want to do. Jul 05 20 09:47 am Link Flaked. Forget it, and move on. Jul 05 20 11:27 am Link G Reese wrote: Mark Salo wrote: People fail to show up in court hearing resulting in warrant for their arrest. It happens! Jul 05 20 12:15 pm Link GianCarlo Images wrote: This here. Jul 05 20 05:42 pm Link Condrea wrote: Mark Salo wrote: Yes and No. I will often need to scout a location just before the shoot. Are flowers in bloom there? Or do I need to switch locations? Did a farmer decide to plow the fields? Did an event suddenly appear on the calendar? All of these things and more can result in me deciding a different location than wherever I originally had in mind. Therefore, if I book a shoot two months in advance, it can be conformed, but the location not finalized until a week before. Of course, I communicate this when booking the model, and I often ask where she will be staying in general terms to not cause her to have to drive clear across the county if avoidable. I can scout in her area. At the very least, I know the studio location might need to be used if the weather turns sour. Jul 06 20 01:43 am Link I am sorry this happened to you. Unfortunately, it was an inevitable event and it will happen again. It has happened to me several times. Some people just don't care. I will also say that it was more likely to happen to me as a newcomer, than it has been for a while. This gets worse when you are taking a day off of work or something and a shoot gets canceled. No one wants to lose money because of a flake. One warning sign I can suggest, is that if communication seems poor as the shoot gets closer, there is a good chance it isn't going to happen. It is hard to balance staying in touch and communicating while not being a nuisance. But slow or no responses are also a nuisance. Since everyone is different, you will have to be understanding. I don't get email on my phone, so communicating with me by email, if time is of the essence, isn't going to work. I suggest that you inform the photographers that you want a confirmation the day before, and if there is no confirmation you will make other plans. But even then, there is no guarantee. You can check references, but the people he ghosted before aren't going to show up on his profile. You can try networking with people in his area and see if they have any experience with him, but this could be a significant time investment. I don't really understand it. If something unavoidable has come up, a timely text, email or call isn't that hard. it is common courtesy. I don't know if people are afraid of being embarrassed or if they are afraid of having to pay something to make the cancelation right. But ghosting should be far more humiliating than cancelling, and making it right with someone is just the right thing to do. Jul 06 20 03:47 am Link Don't people talk on the phone anymore? I read of emails and texts - fine, but if I really want to communicate with someone the best is on the phone - voice to voice. I say this as one who hates to talk on the phone, but I also realize that a phone conversation tends to more serious than a text or email. Maybe we should go back to TALKING to each other. Jul 06 20 11:35 am Link I got ghosted by a photographer once, like a decade ago. Another photographer and I were shooting a look book for a company in san francisco. Not too long after the shoot, the other photographer moved to los angeles. When she left, she took my portion of the pay. Also I got an email from that company's wardrobe dept, asking if i had talked to her. Apparently she also took some items from their department too before she moved, and ghosted them as well. what a thieving asshole! Jul 06 20 01:01 pm Link Weldphoto wrote: I, for one, prefer email because it's a record of everything discussed and agreed to. Email has solved many misunderstandings and has gotten me out of some nasty accusations. Jul 06 20 06:16 pm Link Before shooting someone for the first time, I ask for a short non-shoot meeting, preferably in person, in order to become acquainted. I present it it as a business meeting to discuss goals, wardrobe, and get a sense of how we would ;mesh' in a shooting environment. This usually yield better images, and a more comfortable working environment. I used to lose an hour of shoot time and less than great images, while we got to know each other. A pre-shoot meeting helps manage this. Jul 09 20 06:58 am Link Aug 30 20 09:22 pm Link Require a deposit. Aug 31 20 07:39 am Link |
