We are are Part 2 for Photographer Case Study #763. If you have read Part 1, you will need to read it in order to get the full story and the gist of this Photographer’s Case Study. So, without further a due, let’s get on to part two, as it keeps getting better!

Photographer Case Study #763 Part 1 Summary

So far we have another Central Ohio photographer who contacted us about shooting our fashions and products. The photog was provide a general overview of the scope of work, a number of our practices, policies and procedures in order to decide if he wished to provide a quote. He did so and the quotes were not completely itemize and left a lot of questions and concerns to be answered. Rather than addressing and answering our questions and concerns, he side-stepped a lot of them which only raises more questions and concerns. In a number of email exchanges, the photog was quickly finding out first hand that he was dealing with a very experience business owner.

A number of facts were twisted such to make it sound as if we as a company have a ton of horrible experiences with hired photogs when that is merely a falsehood. Another fact that was twisted was that we were looking for a partner of investor and that too is again a falsehood. As a business we don’t owe anyone and have no strings attached. Therefore, we can grow within our means and control the direction of the company without any secondary or third parties.

We also reviewed can covered that despite we were clear that any hired photog must agree and sign our contract clearly stating that any images or media created in any form would be the sole and exclusive property of our company. The photog attempted to force his terms on us and sought payment for images he would take of our intellectual property, control the rights, pay him to advertise on his website and “other affiliated” websites that he never to disclose, was not within our target market audience.

Part 2

The email exchanges continue and the photog was asked what Studio was he figuring his prices from. This was never disclosed to this point our throughout the negotiation process. Also he refused to answer what “equipment” was provide or include with the cost of the rental studio. Further, he also refused to disclosed what these “affiliated websites” were. When people do that and especially photogs, that should be a red flag! That is called Deceptive Business Practices and we’ll cover that! But you should be very cautious of any photog or business that fails to address your questions and concerns in an honest and timely fashion!

Photographer’s Third Email Response

“Dean 
Hi! Thanks for getting back with me. I completly understand your concerns. Thank you for your valuable insight. 

I believe there is a solution to the 1099 and help reduce my sales quotes. The 1099 I cannot do unfortunately. I have discussed that with my attorney and that would be a liability issue for my company. Although if your looking for a right off on taxes. You can rent the equipment I need and pay for the studio time. That way you are only paying for my time which is factored in at $50.00 hrly as contracted services and a write off as well. If you look carefully at the quotes that is what the retainer was for in the first place. 

I have already shopped R&L Studio which comes to $245.00 for your alotted time of 4hrs your requesting and another studio that has the same if not a better studio for $200.00. Maybe not so many backdrops. All equipment is provided at the studio. If you add my time of $50.00 hourly to the studio time it still comes to $500.00 which is fine because you said we are just doing basic shots nothing creative. Again trying to be cost effective for you it comes to $500.00 if we used R&L Studio, it would be $45.00 cheaper to use the other studio. 

As for control of photos is not a huge concern of mine other than liability as you have stated. I don’t want my name or business associated with something I have not approved. Again only listening to my attorney. I don’t care about bragging rights my work speaks for itself. For the record I don’t do nudes and never will. There are no uses for them in my business model. I would rather have a great experience and recommendation from a client vs a million photos. Business relationships are the true art. 

I truly believe you would have a great experience with me.
 
So let’s do this. Lets waive the the 50% up front payment. You rent the equipment for tax purposes. You keep the images, and you will require payment of my services at the end of the fashion shoot. In addtion I just require copies of the raw images for liability reasons and will include in the contract that I will not post any photos without your direct written permission.

If you like my work. Then we will continue!
Hope we have come to an agreement. Would really like to start doing the shoots and having fun! Let me know? 

Thank you”

Third Photographer Email Analysis

Once again, not only are new questions and concerns coming up, note than he still has not address prior questions. Let’s start with onsite/locations quote for 4 hours, for $375.oo. If we look at this email above, he states “…you are only paying for my time which is factored in at $50.00 hrly…” I’m not sure where this guy went to school but 4 X $50.00 is $200.00 where I went to school! So you see why I asked him to sharpen his pencil? Where is he coming up with the other $175.00 and what is that for, or cover? Likewise, his other quote for shooting in this unnamed studio is $200.00, which I would book and he provided a rate of $500.00. Again, I’m paying the studio rental cost, and based off his 2 statements above that he is figuring an hourly rate of $50.00 an hour for a 4 hour shoot, that is $200.00 Where is he coming up with the other $300.00 and what is that for or covers? Let me be clear, from start to finish he would never answer that question or revise his quotes!

So lets look at the other area photography studios that can be rented. Links have be provided so you can check for yourself. There are a handful of others, but they are more specialized.
True Studios – 4 hrs., $200.oo – We have shot here
Zurie – 4 hrs., $200.00
Bluestone – 4 hrs., pricey! Call for pricing
R&L Digital Photo – 5 hrs., $245.00 – We have shot here
Qwirk – $25 per hour – 4 hrs. $100
Illumination Studio – 5 hrs. $400.00 – We have shot here
Creative Drives – Columbus – pricey but with 4 studios

The 1099 issue. He states “I have discussed that with my attorney and that would be a liability issue for my company” This is complete crap and a lie, which he didn’t realize at first who he is dealing with. Ideally you want to discuss this with a CPA, not an attorney! Here is the other thing I called his bluff on. What he is really saying here is he can’t do it because he is a new business and photographer and he doesn’t want to have to pay taxes. Which he is a registered LLC with the State of Ohio. This means he would have to claim it on his business taxes and not his personal taxes like a sole proprietor would. Further, if his attorney is telling him to do this, well he just threw his attorney under the bus for misconduct! In Ohio, attorneys are given their licenses by the Ohio Supreme Court after successfully passing the bar exam. They are also required to follow the The Ohio Rules of Professional Conduct as an attorney, with Rule 8.4 covers Misconduct. This means he so called attorney could be disciplined, fined, suspended and even be barred in the state from practicing law. He quickly changes his camera settings so to speak in his next response!

The next issue is his statement of ” I just require copies of the raw images for liability reasons…” Okay if you only need copies for liability reasons, why does he need copies of the RAW files? If there is any liability, which anyone reading this can clearly see there wouldn’t be as I do not engage in deceptive business practices, it would be on my company not him. That is not to say a civil suit could not be brought against a hired photog engaging as a sub personally. Regardless, this is just another prime example of what photogs will do to get RAW files they can edit, use for self promotion and get paid for it as well! This is also just what so many models deal with and because most do not know what I photogs take advantage of them and exploit them for self gain, self promotion and profit.

Now let’s cover the Deceptive Business Practices! In Ohio, like most all states, we have what is called a uniform code. The intent is the same, however the language can vary state to state based on their needs. In Ohio we have Ohio Revised Code 1345.03 Unconscionable consumer sales acts or practices, including but not limited to, (A)(B)(2)(5) “Whether the supplier (photographer) required the consumer to enter into a consumer transaction on terms the supplier (photographer) knew were substantially one-sided in favor of the supplier (photographer) ; (6) Whether the supplier (photographer) knowingly made a misleading statement of opinion on which the consumer was likely to rely to the consumer’s detriment;”

At this point you have seen the screen shots of the emails as well as the quotes. If you were on a jury and the cased covered all what has been covered so far, would you agree that this photographer was engaging in illegal and deceptive business practices as well as his so-called attorney – and trying to get me to enter into a one-sided contract / business transaction that was substantially in favor of the photographer? I’m sure most would say yes and agree!

This is the whole reason for this blog site! At this point this guy was #763 and that should tell you just how much this sort of thing goes on! What is totally sad is that in the early 2000’s, I took over a failed swimwear company and two photogs just like this one and the other 762 conned, scammed the former owner, a single mother trying to make ends meet to supplement her income to care for herself and her kids. She used her retirement money to start the business and was doing good, until she came across two con-artist photogs like this guy! She used the rest of her retirement funds to try to keep the business afloat and paying those two con-artists (who their attorney was involved too) for not just photography services, but licensing and other usage fees. It was nothing short of racketeering! That is, until they came across me. They story is covered in Photographer Case Study #1. Spoiler Alert – Thankfully, I put a stop to their scam, which affected about 15 other known businesses. She was able to recover 90% of her retirement funds.

Below we are going to see him get mad for calling his bluff and calling him out on everything I pointed out so far.

Photographer Email Response Four

“Dean

Hi! Thank you for following up and also thank you for the compliment. Yes, I agree that I am very personable and professional. As I would expect anyone who is employed, retained or is a client to be. Again this is business and nothing personal. 

I’m so sorry that we were unable to come to an arrangement and terms to do business together. Except for the 1099 which was an oversight or miscommunication on my part. XXXXXX XXXXXXXX Studio LLC still remains compliant with the tax laws and conducts business in a legal, ethical and professional manner. 

As for the terms of doing business with XXXXXX XXXXXXXX Studio LLC this is all laid out in the formal contract along with a formal release of photos in which we never reached. We were merly negotiating terms which I am sadley embarrassed of even entertaining. That should of ended when you openly discussed the list of problems you have had while doing business especially with photographers to date I am not even sure is factual nor do I want to be a part of any slander. 

The terms of my contracts and standards of doing business is pretty cut and dry. The terms which were developed to avoid any business complications and any potential high risk clients. This is very common in my trade as you claim to already had experiences with whether good or bad and whether you agree or disagree with them. 

Even as a young business and photography not being the only line of business that XXXXXX XXXXXXXX Studio LLC offers. We offer the experience and a quality product for our clients. Our goal is not to retain strong long term clients and employees.

To date all of our clients our extremly satisfied. 

So I do wish you all the luck and success in your future ventures. 

Thank you”

Photographer Email #4 Analysis

What you see above is very consistent and typical of a lot of photogs when they are exposed for their clever cons and/or their oversights. Sadly, while this photog finds it very difficult to admit when he is wrong, you will note in the bold italic type where he attempts to make me appear to be the bad guy. There are numerous things to stop here and point out.

• Did he address the calculation errors of his two quotes? No!
• Did he address itemizing the difference in both quotes and what that money is to cover? No!
• Did he address who these affiliated websites are? No!
• Did he provide his deposit and refund policies as required by law? No!
• Did he apologize for his snarky / snide remarks? No!
• Did he address the 1099 Misc. C issue? Yes, an oversight on his part.
• Do you feel he was lying about having an attorney advise him to break the law? Yes!
• Did he ever provide his so-called attorney’s name, contact info and his license number? No!
• Do you feel he was being over bearing and attempting to force his terms and condition on a client rather than agreeing to ours? Yes!
• Do you feel he has been engaging in Deceptive Business Practices and attempting to get me to enter into a one-side contract / sales transaction that substantially favors him being the supplier (photographer) and prohibited by law? Absolutely!
• How likely would you be to hire this guy for his photography services having seen all of this? Not likely!
• Do you feel this guy and other photogs who engage or employ the same tactics is an “artist” or a “con-artist”? Con-artist!
• Would you now agree at this point that due to Copyright Law, that a ton of photographers use owning the image upon pushing the shutter button making it a “fixed medium” as a way to exploit models and clients?
• Would you agree that today the majority of people learning photography is done via YouTube and other social media platforms and like this guy, as a new business he has learned a lot of bad things, habits and business practices? Yes!
• Do you feel this guy was concerned about our needs, concerns and fully answered our questions? Or do you feel he was selfish, self centered and out for himself at the expense of anyone who hires him?

It is truly sad what is going on across the industry. Stop and think about this. You are a wedding bride. You want your day to be perfect and memorable! You find a photog and not knowing all of this and how to protect yourself, you chunk out $6500.00 for wedding photography. As in Photographer Case Study #435, you see crappy images that are taken, removed as “outtakes” only shown what they want you to see, the images are edited their way, you get lessor quality images (“high resolution jpegs”), you get a minimal amount of images – say 75-100 for your album, your images may have their advertising mark on them, you are given a list of terms and conditions where you can post the images, licensing and usage crap, you paid the photog to advertise his/her business, to self promote in photography and social media groups all for a mere $6500.00… and no payment, no photos. Now let me ask you, is that a fair deal or more of a one-sided consumer transaction? I don’t know about you, but I’m a photographer and that is pretty one-sided if you ask me!

Conclusion

I want to stress that this is NOT all photographers. In fact, there are just as many great photogs out there who are not just great at what they do, but they will work you, work to meet your budget(s), not get caught up in the copyrights stuff, not exploit you, or have a list of restrictions as long as your arm. We have worked with tons of them without any problems! In fact, unlike this guy, we don’t do the 1099 Misc. C tax forms, we give them a complete set of RAW images that they can do what ever they want with provided there is not restrictions to either party and they are used in a respectful manner.

If you are a model or a consumer seeking photography services, use this case study to avoid the same issues. Hopefully, you seen how this photographer and tons like him attempt to use deception to con models and clients into one-sided business & consumer transactions. Most are merely amateurs who use copyright law to not how it was intended to be used, but to con people.

Make sure they fully answer your questions. Tell them if you are paying them, then you want to see all of the images, make you pick or selections, have the selected images edited your way, you want high resolution raw files and no watermarks on your final images! If they won’t do or agree to that, then move on. There are plenty of real professionals who will.

Thanks for joi

Thanks for joining me! After 16 years doing fashion design and fashion photography, I have witnessed all sorts of scams, schemes, tricks used in the photography industry. One major thing that is evident that lends to a lot of this stuff is so many models and photographers lack business savvy. 

Unfortunately, many these days take to the internet to learn photography and there is a ton of bad advice out there. These photographers take to photographer groups and share what they know and new photographers take this miss information as gospel. It’s a vicious circle, then add models or paying clients into the mix and you get a wild array of problems. 

The goal here is to expose those bad apples in the industry and provide sound advice to models, the public who seek photography services and those who are just wishing to start a business. The photography industry makes for a great example to cover a host of business / consumer problems and solutions.

So without further a due, let’s get started! 

“If people like you, they will listen to you, but if they Trust you, they’ll do business with you.” ~ Zig Ziglar