Weird Requests for Photographers

There are many weird people in this world and it comes as no surprise that photographers do receive weird "business opportunities" at times. Some can be very insulting to the professional photographers.

Stalk cheating husband One of the first weird encounters I experienced was a lady approaching me to take photographs of her husband in a carpark. She probably wanted to have some solid evidence of her husband cheating. I was straightforward and told her I wasn't a private detective/investigator.

I wasn't sure of the reason why she would decide to approach a photographer instead. Maybe she thought photographers would charge cheaper rates or could take clearer photographs.
Ideas for commercial shoot A popular brand company contacted me and wanted me to come out with a proposal for their commercial shoot. Although I had been doing creative/boutique shoots, it was weird that they had approached me instead of going to an advertising firm with the appropriate resources.

Another odd thing was that they didn't even promise that they would hire me. I could have spent time researching and coming up with some interesting ideas; but eventually, if they didn't want to engage me, I would have wasted a lot of time and effort. What I worried most was that they could have taken my ideas and hired some cheap photographers to do the shoot.
Introduce social escort An open-minded girl I met online suddenly re-surfaced and asked me to poach my models to work as social escorts. My models were friends and clients and to the best of my knowledge, some of them could be daring but none was seeking dirty money. This girl seemed to have a very negative impression of art.
Join in the fun A guy approached me on Facebook and told me that his wife wanted to do a boudoir shoot. He warned me that his wife was very shy before getting his wife to contact me via WhatsApp. I was amazed that she was not shy at all. She shared some stories with me, including how her previous photographer got turned on by her after instructing her to do sexy poses for the bikini shoot. She then told me she wanted to do a couple photoshoot with her husband and things might heat up and she hinted to me to "join in the fun" when I got aroused. She also asked me sensitive personal questions. When I tried to get back to her husband, I was stunned at his reply, telling me "his wife was ready to be unleashed". I started replying to her less. She probably gave up because I wasn't responsive to her teasing and sharing of her cleavage photographs.
Lesbian 3P A lady approached me and told me she was helping a female look for a boudoir photographer. The friend would be coming over from overseas and then I started contacting the actual lady instead. She told me she was requested by her husband's boss to do the shoot and I was puzzled over their relationship. Anyway, just as I was trying hard to think of how to make her look good since she was a bit plump, she told me she wanted to shoot with another two girls and she would be looking for them. I told her I wanted to do artwork that didn't involve porn.
Sell nude photos A desperate person messaged me on Instagram to ask if I would sell him nude photographs of models. It was a great insult to me. He likely didn't look through my website to understand I'm extremely stubborn and principled. My work alone shows tastefulness.

Firstly, I persuaded my models to do up to at most implied nude when they suggested full nude shoots. Secondly, it's business ethics and no professional photographer would ever do that.
Make a photograph look nice I was approached by a client for an interior shoot. Being over-friendly to her, she tried to ask me for help without even engaging my services (yet?). She sent me a photograph of her house that was taken by her contractor, probably to prove to her that the work was completed. Then, she wanted me to "make the photograph look nice" without paying me.

I turned her down after looking at the photographs due to various reasons.
- I didn't know what was considered nice to her although she loved my work a lot. I could provide photographs using my style but editing another person/photographer's work would never arrive at the standard of my work.
- The composition and lighting of the photograph weren't good and I couldn't help much.
- The resolution of the photograph, taken by mobile phone, wasn't good enough for editing. Professional photographers usually use RAW files so that there will be lots of details for editing.
- Being a low-resolution photograph, it didn't worth the time and effort to edit it.
- It's time-consuming to edit a photograph although most non-photographers think otherwise.
- She was supposed to engage my services for an interior shoot anyway, so, she wouldn't need the bad photograph.
Pair me up with another (female) model "I am male and I am willing to sponsor a portion of your photoshoot fee if you can pair me up with another model. Looking to do a swimsuit theme. This is mainly for collection as I am keen to explore many themes."

The above offer via Telegram is an obvious downgrading of the photographer. That's a cheap shot to bring down the true value of a photographer in terms of the photography fee. It also implies that he's not going to pay for the casting fee to get another (female) model. For a possibly sensual shoot, a model may charge extra while even more for "pairing up with an unknown person (not a model)". Lastly, we won't be sure if this person has any ill intention to try funny things during the actual photoshoot.

Months later, the same person sent me a nude picture of some girls. He could be working as a pimp.
My wife needs physical adjustment to feel confident A guy approached me for a surprise outdoor photoshoot for his wife. The weird thing was that it was going to be a sexy photoshoot. He stated bikini and even implied nude. Then, he would also be joining in the shoot, probably at a later part.

He spoke over the phone with me for an hour and I advised him that since his wife wasn't a model, it would be best to discuss with her because this kind of shoot was challenging and would require mental preparation. I also proposed to him to keep the shoot indoors, such as at his house or a hotel.

On the next day, he rang me up again. Throughout the one hour of painful conversation, he was trying to push me to agree that I had to adjust his wife physically so that she would feel more confident. I felt super weird for normal guys who would prefer their wives to stay away physically from another man. I explained to him that I didn't have to have any physical contact with my models to pose them throughout my photography journey; at times, if they couldn't achieve what I wanted, we would simply skip that pose.

After the call, he texted me that he was still deciding between me and another photographer and I knew he was just trying to pressure me into accepting his request. Since I was quite disgusted, and although I wanted to make more money to support my photography journey, I wasn't keen to work with him. I tried not to entertain him much and somehow he gave me peace after some time.

Many months later, I received a WhatsApp message for a quotation for a couple shoot at 4+am. I was using a trial version of WhatsApp on my desktop and it didn't load any earlier messages and I thought he was a new client. I was in shock that evening when I realised it was the same guy as I scrolled up and saw the previous conversation being loaded on my phone's WhatsApp. Soon, I stopped replying him and he tried to ring me up and text me for a few days before I blocked him

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