📸 Skai Chan Photography

Clients from Hell (Photography Services)

While clients choose their photographers, I believe in photographers choosing their clients as well.

There are photographers who will do anything for the sake of money but there are also some who are more into art (of course, require to make money as well but not desperate).

I belong to the group that chooses its clients and is thus able to reduce the number of problems. This is probably the reason why many people say artists are poor people.

Case 1: Asking for Discount after Doing the Boudoir Shoot

The first time a client was dissatisfied with my photography services was due to the number of photographs she received, even though we had agreed on just five final photographs with advanced editing. The rate was quite low as I was simply trying to test the portrait market and thus she was actually a "budgeted client" (although many "photographers" were charging much lower than my rate even at that time).

It was when I was new to shooting for clients and I thought I could accumulate some experience. This client was asking for a boudoir shoot and I agreed too early to take up the project without interacting more with her. She was weird and seemed to be sceptical of people. I could only see a small number of her photographs in her Facebook profile and they were taken many years back. When I asked her for more recent photographs, she sent me two similar ones that were taken by her friend, which she called a "photoshoot". When I asked her when they were taken so that I could roughly judge her looks, she refused me in a shocking "tone" like "does it matter?" and I could see she was hesitating to give me more information about herself. I was unable to communicate a lot with her before the shoot.

    There were plenty of obvious reasons why there was a "low quantity" of photographs given back to her for the two-hour shoot.
  1. I had to set up the place It was terrible timing (nearly noon time) and the sky was probably clear, such that very harsh light was entering the studio. Besides, I had to use the backdrop for more varieties of photographs - that was the purpose of booking a studio. I had to draw the curtains to block the harsh sunlight and since they were poorly maintained, I had to even find clips to secure some parts that could not be closed. There was a glass door next to the backdrop that didn't have any curtain to cover up and I had to find something to block part of it.
  2. I had to set up unfamiliar lighting equipment I did bring my speedlites along but since there was some splitting of light through the curtain and especially the glass door, I decided to use the existing studio strobe, which was much stronger. At that point of time, I had not tried working with any studio strobe before and the radio trigger the staff passed me didn't seem to work. Eventually, I used my speedlite to fire the strobe in slave mode. I had to go down to ISO 50 and around F8 or smaller to kill off the harsh light.
  3. She wanted to print and sign a contract Even though she was the one who had approached me, she did not seem to trust me. So, she had to get the staff to print out the service agreement on my website with some amendments to indicate the privacy of the photographs. Then, both of us had to sign on all pages on both copies. Of course, I also had to do a little checking of the contents since the thumb drive was brought by her.
  4. There was a CCTV that made private shoots awkward I had given my best advice to do the shoot at her house. Instead, she booked this studio because it was one of the cheapest she could find. She was proud to highlight to me that the website had indicated that we would have our privacy. I was professional enough to check the surroundings and spot the CCTV. However, it seemed to make both of us more awkward. Besides, the boss of the studio was a photographer who did not have a very good reputation. It was disgusting if he were to look through the recording of a boudoir shoot for a "free show".
  5. The staff entered two to three times As much privacy as the studio had offered to users, the staff came in to take things two or three times. Of course, both of us paused due to the awkwardness.
  6. Restricted angles It was a big rectangular layout studio. One long side was actually full-length glass while the opposite side was occupied by equipment. The curtains were made of reflective material that didn't cover the entire glass, leaving a gap at the bottom. For a boudoir shoot, the reflective material would kill the "soft" feel and besides, the gap at the bottom was ugly with some light coming in. Therefore, we weren't left with too many angles to shoot.
  7. She could not differentiate between right and left She had issues with her sense of direction (in both English and Chinese Mandarin) although she had her driving license. It made directing her extremely difficult.
  8. She was an awkward person with a very stiff body I thought she was rather too self-conscious, which made her worry a lot about her poses. Her body was stiff. Even when I got her to lie down normally like how she would laze around at home, her postures were weird. It was difficult for her to get any good posture.
  9. She didn't bring along a prop I got her to bring along a prop, which would help her a lot since she couldn't pose. Using a prop would make her more relaxed and she would definitely look more natural in front of the camera. No, she didn't.
  10. She insisted in imitating a photograph She had found a nice photograph of a girl laying partially on a nice ground and a white mattress. The room seemed to be located at the corner of a building with natural light coming in from two sides of windows 90 degrees apart. It was a high-key photograph with very soft light somehow. After taking a few shots, I knew it was impossible to replicate the photograph because of both the setting and the lighting. However, she insisted on doing it on the floor with the cushions she had brought along. The overall feel was awkward and we wasted a lot of time on it.
  11. She had to change into her outfits Changing of outfits required time.
  12. She told me to filter the photographs taken I did take quite a few shots for each pose we attempted, however, most of them were awkward either due to her poses or expression. Therefore, I filtered away most of them and chose the best for each pose. Given the limited time, it was impossible to give her hundreds of photos. I did not want to give her like five similar photographs for each pose just to make up the number.
  13. We were aiming for only five good photographs The agreement was that she would only pick the five best photographs for advanced editing and I did not realise quantity mean a lot to her. I had already emphasised a lot about quality over quantity on my website.
  14. We ended before the booked two hours We had to stop earlier to pack up and she had to get changed - we did not have the full two hours to shoot.
  15. I wasn't that experienced YET For the price she paid for the quality of photographs with basic editing (although I wasn't that experience), it was really a good price for her. I could have insisted on communicating more with her before the shoot, even at the expense of her getting annoyed.

She paid me in full as agreed, except for the advanced editing, at the end of the shoot. However, she borrowed some money from me to pay for the studio. After I was done with the filtering and basic editing, she was displeased with the number of photographs.

She used an example of her shoot with her friend who had given her around 200 photographs. However, the two photographs she sent me were similar and I would not be shocked if the rest of them were mostly similar. They were taken without any professional lighting and they were both underexposed. She was actually playing her musical instrument, which made her look more relaxed.

    She did not know the difference between the shoot done by her friend and the shoot done by me.
  1. I used professional light instead of just ambient light I wanted to produce soft light to make the model's skin look better and avoid causing noise on the photographs due to using of high ISO. Given the situation of an indoor place with windows covered (to avoid harsh sunlight), flash photography was required. Whereas, it took time to test both the ambient light and the artificial light just to get the correct setting. Besides, every time the model switched position, I had to test the light again. The end result was having better lighting on her skin to make her look younger even before doing any advanced editing.
  2. We had tried more varieties of poses At least, it seemed to be - the two photographs she sent me were similar. We shot at the sofa, floor and backdrop. I could have done the entire shoot at the same spot and moved 360 degrees around the model to get "360" photographs. Then, I could also shoot from different heights. Eventually, I could have given her one thousand similar photographs. I do not do stupid things.
  3. She didn't bring the prop along I had already planned something with the prop and it could really help to get many nice photographs, including getting her warmed up quickly.

She asked for a discount of $50 (the amount I loaned her at the studio) and I refused because I had already done my best. She returned the $50 and did not want any advanced editing to be done to any photograph as she claimed she wanted to use the money to pay for better photographers.

Generally, she is not a bad person, but definitely not someone easy to work with for a portrait shoot. She is also the very budgeted type of client whom I'm not going to target.

Case 2: Ridiculous Timing

My good friend got my help to take up a project together from a very reputable institution. The client didn't state all the special ridiculous requirements before I gave the quotation. After realising it, I didn't want to do the job but the client has already unofficially confirmed my services and I didn't want to put my friend in a tight spot. Eventually, more ridiculous things came out.

One of the worst things was the planning of the schedule from 9am to 10am and 4pm to 5pm on the same days, wasting three entire days of mine. Besides, there was no clear instruction and thus I was very lost during the shoot. The client was a photography hobbyist who did some insulting things to me unintentionally.

The client cited that some of the locations, such as labs, were considered as a sensitive areas and thus he didn't permit me to use the photographs in my portfolio.

Eventually, even getting the payment took months.

Case 3: Revenge for Not Giving Extra Services after ROM Shoot

This is the most disheartening incident because of the extra effort I have done for an old client. She was very happy with both my work and personality so she referred a few clients to me.

This time, she personally wanted to engage me for her younger brother's ROM and she asked for a big discount. After some casual chit-chatting with her, I actually gave an open-ended answer and stopped replying when it came to the money issue again. A week later, she approached me again and I hesitated before accepting her request.

The reasons for accepting her request were (1) the rate I charged her previously was much lower as I was newer, (2) we treated each other as friends, (3) she appreciated my work, (4) she had recommended clients, (6) she and her husband were very good people, (6) her brother looked decent and nice and I assumed would not give me any issue, and (7) she did not give up after the first try to engage me.

    The things that I had done professionally and the extra things I had done as a friend:
  1. I usually would not bother with any lowballer but I gave her a lower rate and she had only booked me for two hours (my minimum booking block), which made the trip less worthwhile.
  2. The time that she requested for me to be there was the starting time for the solemnisation. If I did not check with the groom who then told me to reach 15 minutes earlier, there could be some problems.
  3. I reached out much earlier and started shooting to capture some of the "behind the scene" moments even though it was not yet the official time. I did not charge her for the extra time.
  4. I was not informed of the presence of a videographer who seemed to be the groom's good friend and I did not get to communicate with him. However, I tried my best to work with him to not get into his lens and also tried shooting from other angles to avoid capturing him. Unfortunately, he did block me from the best angle during half of the solemnisation process.
  5. Despite asking her for the programme outline, I was only informed on that day itself that the dad would be receiving the bride at the lobby as if she was not present earlier on. The nightmare was that nobody informed me when the bride had left to make a round trip back. I played it by ear and managed to find her dad to capture the moment.
  6. When the bride and her dad were entering the function room (the doors were congress, together with the videographer), I made effort to dash to the other end of the room to enter using the other door just to capture the moments from their front view.
  7. Due to the fact that the original plan was to take group photographs at the park nearby under the hot noon sun, which was going to give a harsh and bad angle of natural lighting, I brought along extra lighting equipment (portable studio strobe), on top of the heavy spare equipment (just in case my main set would give problem).
  8. During the shoot, my client and some of the elderly had repeatedly asked me to eat but I refused to because the couple might need me to take some photographs and I was trying hard to see if there was any special moment I could snapshot while the guests were still around. I wanted to give them more photographs.
  9. While I could idle or take short breaks when there was nothing interesting to capture, I took photographs of my client's kids as requested by her earlier.
  10. I took very little food so that I could continue with the shoot (already over the engaged time) to capture more good moments/expressions.
  11. I stayed on much later to try to capture more things, even until most guests had already left. It was when my client's dad was about to drive his car over to drop me at the nearest train station, I quickly packed up.
  12. For post-production, I tried to give back as many photos as possible, including some that I did not like the background (for example, I was told to take group photographs with backlighting, although I did advise them to change location) - they were bad photographs to me but definitely good enough to show the happy faces. Even for most of the group photographs, I took insanely a lot to increase the chance of getting good photographs (everyone with their eyes open). I even gave two of each (close-up and full body) for their personal selection.
  13. It was my reservist period, which I had already informed my client about before taking up the shoot and I had to do other daily tasks at night after booking out every day. I also fell sick due to lack of sleep. However, I spent time working on the photographs and managed to return to the couple very soon after reservist, which was about two weeks after the shoot. Besides, the due date was two months after the shoot, as indicated in my service agreement.

My sixth sense of upcoming trouble came during the actual shoot when the bride asked me if I would "edit" the photographs. I sensed that she could be the type of girl who would "photoshop" all her selfies before she could post them anywhere. Immediately, I told her that there would only be basic editing.

After receiving the photographs from me, the groom messaged me to see if they could request for editing. I was horrified but stayed professional and replied to him with my standard rate for editing each photograph. I was not even interested in making the extra money since I thought the event shoot was not worthwhile to be edited with advanced enhancement because I could not pose the models, set the best lighting and avoid the crowds (their guests) or other distracting elements in the background. Anyway, there was no reply from him after that.

On the next day, I received a Facebook message from a net friend to whom I had not spoken for years. In fact, we had only exchanged a few messages when I was new to portrait photography. She told me someone had posted something bad about me and she detested such a poster because no evidence was included. After confirming with this net friend regarding the contents and location, I found out that the poster was the bride whom I had done a lot for and the post was located on a secret Facebook group "Budget Brides (Singapore)".

client from hell
Printscreen of the dramatic allegation post
"JTS... don't ever engage Skai Chan as ya PG if you don't wanna be tramautised.

Engaged him for my ROM and after waiting 2 weeks for my photos, I get bad quality picts of my Solemnization. All Picts were not focused and bad angle. Was so upset and when my..."

I was in a dilemma because it was a super good marketing opportunity for me and yet it was in the wrong group since I was not interested in "budgeted clients". I was sure not everyone inside was a "budgeted" person as my net friend was somehow added in after her wedding and she was not a "budgeted" person, at least not for her wedding.

    Anyone with a sound brain who had seen the post could easily tell it was an allegation.
  1. The bride did not post any evidence to support her claim. She behaved just like a spoilt kid who was randomly accusing someone had killed her family.
  2. She was far too dramatic with her accusation "all picts" - not many people with common sense would buy her words. She could have thought of other ideas to accuse me or my work but definitely not say "all".
  3. All married couples who did not go for a budget wedding would know she was being ridiculous for complaining when she had received her wedding photographs so fast - two weeks.
  4. She had added a screenshot of my Instagram and Facebook accounts, which would lead viewers to my work if they really cared. After viewing my work, they could easily judge the quality and see through her plot.

What I could do was simply upload all the photographs into Facebook, write as normal to describe the shoot, then include her accusation in the last paragraph to shock everyone and get my net friend to post the URL to the "budget" group. It would definitely backfire on her badly and the story would become an internet sensation. People would take pity on a photographer who is being wrongfully taken revenge on for refusing unreasonable demand (she was expecting free advanced editing).

However, since my client was the one paying me for the photographs, I tried to contact her to sort it out before I would do anything. She then got the bride to remove the false accusation to end her childish wrongdoing.

Analogy

Imagine you are an organic fruit seller who imports quality goods from reputable countries. A regular customer buys a watermelon from you to give to her sister-in-law. You kindly put the watermelon into a nice bag and carry it home for her even though you are busy and not feeling well. Her sister-in-law comes back to request you to do a sculpture on the skin, which the effort, time and skill surpass the actual price of the watermelon by a lot, and no customer would request. You quote her your usual price for the work and she is unhappy that it costs "additional" money. Then, she starts posting online in a "China products" forum accusing that you are selling rotten watermelon and she has waited a very long time for the watermelon to be delivered to her. She does not even post photographs of the "rotten watermelon".

Case 4: Rich but Stingy

When the HMUA approached me for my rates for the client, I quoted her an hourly rate, together with the number of photos to be returned with editing. She assured me that the client was satisfied with the rates. Since she sounded very experienced, I thought she could manage her client well.

The HMUA initially told me the shooting venue would be at Marina Bay, near the LV building and Helix bridge. She told me to start shooting between 4.30pm to 5pm since she would start the makeup at 2pm. Eventually, she wanted to include the shoot in the hotel room.

However, on the day itself, the HMUA suddenly told me to meet at 5.30pm instead and then further postponed it to 6pm when I had already left my house. I reached the hotel and contacted her by 5.35pm.

The HMUA's assistant came down to the hotel lobby to fetch me near 6pm. The hotel room wasn't a good place to shoot because of many reflective surfaces and I told them of the constraints immediately. I got them to give me samples of how they (the HMUA and client) wanted to get the shoot done inside the hotel room while I set up my equipment. They also told me the plan was to work with two outfits inside the hotel room. The outfits were not easy to be shot with.

I was a little lost since I wasn't sure whether to take the HMUA or the client's instruction. Although the HMUA told me I was able to use my creativity, they had samples to try to imitate. Thus, I followed their instructions on the poses and backgrounds, while I focused on producing the best lighting possible and at the best angle.

Due to various factors such as location, lighting, makeup for different looks and preparation, we spent quite an amount of time on the shoot. We ended the shoot at 10pm.

The client told me she wanted 15 photographs and thus I quoted her the rates for four hours of the shoot with 15 photographs. She told me to choose the best 15 photographs for her. I tried to reconfirm with her and the instruction was clearly to choose around five photographs for each of the three outfits. I was paid the full amount in cash.

A week later, the HMUA texted me politely and I told her all was fine. Suddenly, she called me and said the client was concerned with the editing. She told me the client wanted to get the raw photographs as well, so that she could get more photographs edited in Malaysia (cheaper). I told her the agreement was to provide only the edited photographs and my policy was that I would not send any raw photographs. She said she would get the client to contact me directly.

The next day, a lady called me and claimed she was working for the client. She said all photographers would give to them all the raw photographs - as if they had been engaging photography services often. She twisted the fact and said the client (her boss) told me to choose the best photographs for her to choose the best 15 photographs. However, I highlighted to her that the client had specifically asked me to choose 15 photographs to edit and she also mentioned that I could choose around five photographs for each of the three outfits. I also explained that the client didn't need too many similar photographs while I had already chosen the best photo for each of the scenes - we didn't have a lot of photographs in the first place. She then told me that she would need the extra photographs just for keepsakes. Next, she bargained for 30 photographs instead. I turned her down and asked her to get the client to contact me directly.

It was weeks or a month later and this lady contacted me using the same number and introduced herself before I realised she was the HMUA's assistant. Eventually, I realised she was actually the assistant of the client and the HMUA used her as the makeup assistant on the day. She asked me to deliver the 15 photographs, marking the end of the drama.

After running through the entire encounter, I had high suspicion that this assistant was the mastermind of the cheapo request. The HMUA told me that the client was rich and from my interaction with her, I thought she was generous and easygoing. On the other hand, the young assistant seemed a little crafty.

Case 5: No discount, no additional photo, thus bear grudges

I was approached by a client who was referred to me by a close friend. I tried to be as accommodating as possible, however, the client was a bit of a handful.

From the start, the client was primarily concerned with getting the best price. I tried my best to give a good quotation and the client accepted. However, the client went missing in action twice before finally getting back to me around half a year later. Each time, she made changes to the headcount and I had to refresh my memory and gave a new quotation.

When she asked for further discount, I intended to give up the job and be ready to answer to my close friend. I stopped replying. However, the client eventually came back to me and agreed to my latest quote.

The client asked for excessive suggestions and advice. This was very draining for me because as a professional photographer, I had to be mindful of the way I presented my words, just in case the clients would use my words against me in the future for her personal gain. Most of all, many elements, such as locations and outfits, are very subjective to personal's taste and I can only give general guidelines.

Out of goodwill, I made the extra effort to take photos of the locations for the client to visualise the shoot. One absurd thing was that her requirements didn't match the location she eventually picked. It clearly showed that she was initially unsure of what she wanted. The client was also lazy and asked for detailed instructions on how to get to the location, even though she lived in the same city as me (Singapore).

On the day of the photoshoot, I arrived early to set up, but unfortunately, the weather forecast was inaccurate and it rained. The shoot was delayed. I did not charge extra for the delay.

The client eventually alighted at the wrong place and asked me for directions, which was very challenging since I wasn't sure of her exact location. I felt like I was a tour guide.

As I chatted with some of my client's co-workers, I was surprised that they didn't know the exact spots, although she told me the final decisions were made after their meeting.

The client's team dragged the photoshoot because they were trying more ideas and incurred additional time and effort from me. It was extremely unfair to me as they didn't stick to the agreement of shooting at the same spot for the individual headshots and thus I had to shift my heavy and bulky lighting equipment around. On top of that, I had to adjust the setting and do more test shots. Again, I did not charge extra.

The client then demanded extra photos after the shoot, but I refused, which may have caused the client to bear a grudge.

The client's team requested a lot of editing and retouching of their photos. Somehow, the client was not satisfied with the final products, even though they were edited exactly as instructed.

The client then accused me of making her eyes smaller, even though the size of her eyes in both the unedited and edited photos were exactly the same.

The client shouted at me over the phone and eventually gave new instructions, such as "reduce the editing of eyebags by 50%."

After I sent the revised photos, the client never got back to me to thank me or acknowledge them.

This incident fortified the fact that "not all money can be earned".

Case 6: Unreasonable demands

As a professional photographer, I always make sure to include clear instructions and terms on my website for potential clients. I ask them to state their purpose when they approach me, instead of simply saying "hi" or "hello," to avoid frequent spam messages.

However, one day, a stranger texted me and said "hi" without anything else. It was clear that she either didn't bother to read my instructions or didn't care about them. I decided not to reply, as even if she was a client, she wasn't the type of client I was looking for.

Around 25 minutes later, the same stranger texted me again and asked me directly for my availability for an office party shoot. I decided to give her a chance and asked her for her name and the location of her office. She finally introduced herself and apologised for the confusion, explaining that it was actually a private birthday party and not an office party. She attempted to give me the location, but it wasn't clear and she gave a slightly wrong road name. I found it strange that she would mix up an office party with a private birthday party, but I decided not to focus too much on the small details.

As we continued to discuss the shoot, she started asking me for the rate for 1.5 hours of shooting instead of the 1-hour and 2-hour packages that I had indicated on my website. After she confirmed me on her side, she asked me if I needed her to place a deposit to confirm my services, which was already indicated on my website. She also asked me to show her my party portfolio, which she could have found on my website.

I gave her the instruction to transfer me the booking fee but she didn't do it although she had decided to engage my services.

She then told me she would send me some references of what they were after, which puzzled me as no client would do that for a birthday party event shoot, as they would want me to capture candid pictures and probably some posed group photos. I tried to prompt her for more information.

She got back to me only hours later when it was nearly midnight. She asked me how soon I could deliver the photos and whether I could send her some of the group shots on the same day. I didn't reply to her as the questions were already answered on my website and they were very irritating demands. I didn't want to let it spoil my night when I was already in bed.

The next day, I wasn't feeling well and didn't have the strength to answer her earlier questions. She continued to message me, repeating her request for me to send her some pictures on the same day and suggesting a quick call the next morning. I wasn't in a good condition to entertain her, but she gave me a call the next morning anyway while my phone was on silent mode.

In the afternoon, she texted me again to tell me she was ready to transfer the deposit, which she could have done on the first day once she confirmed my services. She gave me the "address," which was the restaurant's name, in digits and asked me to be there at a certain time. She then gave me the links to the restaurant on Google Maps and I was finally able to confirm the location. It was common sense to highlight that the digits were the restaurant's name instead of simply putting it at the front of the address, in case the recipient thought it was a house number for a landed property.

I was stunned when she sent me a screenshot of her payment, as it seemed that she had more demands that I hadn't accepted. It was weird for her to do that when the photographer (me) hadn't gotten back to her for more than 24 hours.

She then asked me for an invoice, which was the first time a non-corporate client had demanded this from me. She then sent me some images for my "reference." From the sample photos, I realised she wanted to do some portrait shoots and not just for me to capture candid shots of the birthday lunch party.

After resting for a long time and drinking lots of water and taking herbal tea for the flu, I finally felt better and tried to attend to her via texting since my throat was still soring badly. I apologised for being unwell and confirmed with her that I would keep my promise, although I would not be in my top condition during the shoot.

She then continued prompting me to send her some of the photos on the same day. She even naively tried to entice me by saying her friends would credit me on their social media. For sure, any photographer could easily draw lots to pick a couple of the photos out of hundreds of clicks and deliver to the clients instantly, but the photographer's reputation would be badly tarnished by the bad photos, especially when the clients tried to be kind by crediting the bad photos to the photographer.

I turned her down by saying that I wasn't able to provide this add-on service for this project due to my poor health. I expected her to be more considerate, knowing that I was only beginning to recover and had to exhaust myself for her event (or portrait session?). She started sounding a little passive-aggressive and claimed it was only one or two pictures.

She instantly asked me for the timeframe to deliver the final images, which I had indicated on my website as well. I answered her earlier enquiry by explaining that it takes time and effort to cull a huge number of photos and thus it's not a simple job. I wouldn't have the energy after the shoot (because I was sick) and I didn't want to give her empty promises.

Before I could reply to her on the delivery of the final images, she prompted me on it again. Although I had indicated 2 months on my website as a very big time buffer in order not to over-promise to clients, I told her I would give her within 2 weeks after the shoot or earlier if nothing went wrong in terms of my health.

She only replied to me the very next morning, telling me 2 weeks was too long and demanding me to deliver within 3 days, although I had already indicated on my website that expedited photo edit services would incur an additional charge and was also subject to my availability. She then blamed me for not telling her about this "as soon as I had agreed to the job" in the same passive-aggressive way.

Then, she threatened me that if I had any issue with her unreasonable demand, I had to let her know immediately and she might have to reconsider me as her photographer. Upon seeing her hostility and knowing that she had an alternate photographer, I felt great that I could finally reject her directly.

Being professional, I immediately refunded her the booking fee, gave her a screenshot of it and wished her to enjoy her party. She didn't reply to me after that, not even to acknowledge receiving the money. I was surprised that she told me earlier that she was working in the PR field.

I could honestly and humbly say that it was her loss because she could have received a very high-quality set of photos and I usually tried my best to surprise my clients by going the extra mile without over-promising. Nevertheless, she didn't deserve it.

From this incident, I learned that I was good with my judgement of clients, or at least, I could sense most of the problematic clients when they first approached me. So, I was happy that I was right and I didn't regret not replying to many others who did the same "hi" to me.

I decided that in the future, I would be more assertive and not afraid to ignore clients who were not a good fit for me. This would ensure that I only worked with clients who respected my time, energy and professional expertise. I also made a note to remind myself to always stick to my policies and terms and to make sure the client is aware of them before accepting any job.

Case 7: Drama Papa

Let me share this amusing tale about an elderly gentleman who approached me for a fitness shoot via my website, where I had put in thousands of hours to add content. I was very appreciative of him for staying healthy at his age, which would motivate others. He seemed all enthusiastic and ready to roll, talking as if he was already sold on my services. We had quite the chat but here's where things took an unexpected turn.

He sent me some photos of himself, which was a little early signal that our styles didn't fit completely. As trusting and confident as he sounded, the photos were cropped and it was obvious that he didn't want to reveal his face. As a person seeking help from a portrait photographer, it just didn't seem like he was ready to get my full advice.

After our lengthy conversation, just when I thought we were all set, he dropped the bombshell on me. The guy suddenly informed me that he needed another three months! Can you believe it? Talk about a plot twist. Well, that's one way to keep me on my toes, I suppose.

But wait, it got even better. Since he mentioned editing a few times, I was concerned about his expectation that I might not be able to meet. I kindly asked him what specific edits he had in mind for his body, for example, moles, wrinkles, acne, scars, you name it. And guess what? He kept hammering on about editing whichever body part he happened to be showcasing, without telling me his concerns that I was supposed to rectify. I mean everyone has a different view of the body, and some imperfections can be considered treasures, while I don't do extreme editing like replacing fats with muscle.

Now, let's move on to the topic of prices. This gentleman had a unique way of approaching it. He acted as if my pricing was some kind of mysterious puzzle as if it couldn't be found on my page. Well, sir, I assure you, it's right there for all to see. But hey, who needs straightforwardness when you can throw a sprinkle of confusion into the mix, right? While he might not really mean it, he was being sarcastic, although I explained to him that due to the huge set-up, the initial cost would be high, which means the price for getting just one good photo is out of proportion to a set of 10 good photos. In his drama, he also stated figures that I couldn't find on the fitness page.

Now, this story takes a hilarious turn. This busy bee, who suggested scheduling a call three days later, suddenly started bombarding me with calls like an insecure wife looking for his womaniser husband. I mean, come on, my friend, if you're that swamped, why the sudden urgency? The good news was that my phone was forever in silent mode and thus I wasn't disturbed by his harassment during my busy day.

And here's the cherry on top: within 24 hours, he started throwing nasty words at me. In his new drama, I noticed he had deleted a bunch of his previous messages on WhatsApp. Maybe he was trying to hide some of his previous antics or just tidying up his virtual space. Regardless, it brought an extra layer of amusement to the whole situation.

In the end, I decided to keep my cool and block him. As a seasoned photographer, I've dealt with all sorts of characters and I've learned to roll with the punches. Life is too short to let such encounters dampen my spirits. I'll just take this as another quirky tale to share with my fellow photographers over a cup of coffee. Cheers to the unpredictable adventures of the photography world!



You may be interested in:
- Photographers from hell
- Unreasonable requests for photographers in Singapore
- Cheapo the photography story
- Ways to insult a professional photographer
- Disadvantages of being a freelance photographer



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