I’ve always wondered how a shrewd Businessman could get away for so long being a d*** in this industry without eventually having everything come crashing down on him. Well, I’m not shrewd Businessman, but I’ve been played by one like a fiddle so to speak. Awhile back, long before said Businessman came into the picture, I started shooting for a local tuning and customization shop that built highly recognizable high end cars for clients and for show. For years we worked seamless together, booking covers and shooting amazing feature pieces for magazines.
One day, that all came crashing to a stop when enter said Businessman. A verbal agreement that we made for pictures of a car soon turned into one of the biggest mistakes I could possibly make. See, this verbal agreement I made was that I would give high resolution pictures for internal promotion of the company. Before I knew it, I was literally taking a s*** on the toilet when I ran across one of said images in an advertisement in a 170K/month circulation magazine. A company I’ve never contacted before, a few calls and emails later, I found out the image was handed down by the “Businessman”.
Given the economy and photography being a main source of my income to provide for my family, I thought it was a cheap blow, one that was denied at first actually. After a few lengthy emails, a few phone converations, the Businessman said he would make it up to me by trying to get me shoots of other cars for more higher end commercial work, because lets be honest. A full page ad in a 170k circulation magazine in more than one issue is a lot of money I lost. That never did happen.
I agree’d, knowing that true business relationships work via compromise and sacrifice, rather than crying about it and dropping everything. I’ve been cautious with the Businessman moving forward, but it seems like I’m only getting stuck in different situations, one after the other. I’ve always been cautious of sending out high resolution images, to any one, other than the person that paid for them, for exactly these types of reasons, which brings me to the whole point of this rant/blog.
As of today, I’m no longer the preferred photographer of this company and of this Businessman because I refused to give them high resolution pictures of all their cars for their ‘website’. Instead, my plan was to give them hand selected/edited shots of their cars with both our logos, but thats a lot of time and work for something they want for nothing. It’s sucks because I’ve been put in a situation, for me, wasn’t in my favor either way. They pretty much put me into a situation, give us what we want, or we drop you. I stand by good business ethics, and I respect those that do the same, but when you try and push me into a corner and force me to do something because you think you can get away with it, then all respect is lost.
Best of luck to guys that I really enjoyed working with at the shop, you guys always made each shoot a blast and it sucks that unfortunate events played out the way they did and we can no longer work together because I hold higher standards than most.
To the Businessman, I guess the best words I can come up with are, Well Played.
To Myself, never do business without contracts ever again.
