If you clicked on this post then please be ready to cringe at the behavior or some people and wonder who raised such heathens. I know I certainly did and I'd enjoy not being alone in this.
Instagram account @concrunch is one of my favorite accounts at the moment. It posts so much relatable cosplay and convention humor that it's helping me to stay connected to that awesome con feeling during this pandemic. If you're not familiar with the account then I HIGHLY recommend that you follow them on their Instagram and Twitter accounts as soon as you finish reading this. You won't regret it.
I do wish that I knew who was behind the account so I could recommend them too, their humor is top tier and I wish I could have more of it in my daily life.
Before I get started I want to put out there that I'm not going to provide the @'s of any of these people, either here or in a DM inquiry. If you are a photographer and think you know who they are you can DM me and ask with their specific username and I'll confirm or deny, but only because I want my fellow photographers to not have to experience these folks too. They may have left me with a poor taste in my mouth but I won't be throwing them under the bus.
Also, I have blacklisted all of these people and will not work with them ever. So if you see your interaction listed here then please don't contact me to apologize or try to book with me for a location or con shoot. I've not blocked any of these people but won't hesitate to do so if they contact me.
To start us out, someone once booked for a single person half hour shoot and asked in a DM if they could include their friend in the shoot for free even though it is listed clearly as an up charge. I said no. The up charge isn't even for the cost of an extra person at this time, it really is just the cost of more edited photos.
They showed up to the shoot with that friend (I'm find if folks bring a friend to their shoot) and kept asking if they could join them for a few pictures. I said they could pay the difference in cash first and then the friend could join in all they wanted but otherwise no. They got mad and said I was ruining their photoshoot and con. I wholeheartedly did not feel bad for them, I made it perfectly clear before the con what expectations were. Plus at the time an extra person was only $10.
The most annoying part though? The cosplays weren’t even from the same show. The person who had booked me was cosplaying from My Hero Academia and their friend was cosplaying from Sailor Moon. They weren't even doing a mashup (like Bakugo in a sailor scout uniform or something). My best guess is that they were hoping that I'd say okay, then get some solo shots of each of them and not have to pay more for a second shoot. I was new to the cosplay photography scene at the time so it wouldn't shock me if they thought that they could scam the photos from me like that.
For this next one you'll need to know that I only take bookings before cons, and I close them about a week prior or when I fill up my booking slots. I do this because I send out an email in the days leading up to the con with important information about where to meet and how to best prepare for the shoot. For this particular con I filled my booking about a month prior to the con, so I closed. I had it clearly posted on my IG profile in the bio so there was no way you would miss it. About a week after I closed bookings someone DMed me and asked if I had any spots available. I figured that they meant like a cancellation or something so I just said that I was sorry but that I didn't. If someone canceled though that I'd be sure to let them know first since they had reached out. This apparently wasn't the answer that the cosplayer was looking for as they then said that they would be fine shooting before the con started or late in the evening. I repeated that I didn't have anything available but I did provide the usernames of a few photographer friends who I knew still had some time slots available. They liked the message and left me alone, at least until the con.
At the con I was sitting down in a quiet space waiting on a friend so we could grab lunch. The cosplayer walked past in jeans and a t-shirt, saw me, and walked over. They said hi and asked how I was. We started chatting just about the con and the weather and other polite conversation. They then pointed to my camera bag that was sitting by my feet and asked if that was my camera. I said yes, but left it on the floor. They asked what camera I used so I talked about my camera body and lens for a minute with them. This is all fine to me, I don't mind chatting with folks or talking about what I use for shooting. I wouldn't be where or who I am if others had done that to me, so how could I be such a hypocrite and do that in return?
The cosplayer asked me if I'd be down to take some pictures of them if they went and changed into their cosplay quickly and came back down to the con. I said no politely and told them that I still didn't accept bookings at cons. They said that it wouldn't have to be a real shoot (aka paid) since they only wanted a few nice pictures. I said no again, this time not politely. Then they asked if they grabbed their camera if I could take the pictures with it, but if I would use my card instead of their card, that way it wasn’t a photoshoot and they wouldn’t have to pay since I wasn’t using my camera but since the camera had my card that I could still edit the pictures.
At this point I flat out said no, that I wasn't accepting any more photoshoots for that con and that I didn't want to speak to them anymore since they were being insulting. I don't know who they thought they were, trying to get a free shoot out of me, but it made me so mad. I was venting about it to friends for the rest of the day.
While putting this blog post together I was on a Discord call with my friend @trantheeditor. With only this information he was able to tell me exactly who this cosplayer was, so this person apparently has a reputation for this type of behavior. Yeesh, don't be this person, word gets about and then no one will even want to shoot you, even if you did pay them.
Before I closed bookings prior to cons I'd accept them during a con on a case-by-case basis. Someone asked if I could shoot them the next day. I had some free time so I said sure. I wasn't super busy that day and I'd set aside some time to just chill so it all worked out.
I sent them the contract and PayPal link for where they could pay. We also figured out when and where we'd meet for the shoot to make it easier. I let them know that they needed to give the contract back and have paid for the shoot by midnight of that day and they were chill with that. Or at least they seemed to be. They never sent the contract back or sent the payment despite the reminders I sent when it started to get late. When I woke up the next day and still neither had come in I sent them a quick message to let them know that I'd not be showing up for the shoot since they hadn't filled out the contract or sent the payment. I know they saw the message since IG has read receipts but they never responded. Their lack of response was all fine by me since it wasn't really something that required a response.
When the time we'd set up for the shoot rolled around later that day and I didn't show up though, they were furious at me. They sent me nasty DMs and posted publicly about how I didn't show up. They posted a #CancelImiiciePhotography story post and tagged me in it. I made a quick story post about how someone was currently attempting to cancel me for now showing up to a shoot that while we had discussed they never paid for or provided a contract for and they took their posts down within the hour. When I saw that they had taken their down I took mine down. I don't think many people saw their posts honestly so I don't even consider this a true attempt at canceling me. I'm not sure what their goal was with the post either, a free shoot from me or a sympathetic photographer maybe? Or just attention? At any rate I know for a fact that they got neither of those so really all they did was embarrass themselves.
The last one I have isn't quite as juicy, but still, this person deserved to be included in this post just because this person also was quite audacious and it ends with such a bang.
Someone once showed up to their shoot wearing a wig that was short and blonde for a character with long purple hair. That's totally cool with me, though a bit confusing. I asked if they had meant to swap wigs or if it was intentional, and if intentional, what was the background story for the length and color change. It's not a character I'm super familiar with so for all I know it was a spin off episode or something. They said that they didn't want to spend money on another wig so they figured I could just change the color and length in post. And I can. For an up-charge. And for anyone who is unfamiliar, yellow and purple are exact opposites on the color wheel so the editing would be a bit more tricky than shifting an orange to a red or something like that.
I communicated that to them and let them know what it would cost per photo if they wanted to go that route. They apparently didn’t like that answer and demanded a refund. However they’d only paid a non-refundable deposit at that point and had signed a contract for it too. I declined and offered to move the shoot to later in the con so that they could use it for a different cosplay, but they also didn't like that. So they yelled at me and told me I was being stupid and that I was being cheap.
I'll admit that I was curious as to where they were going with this so I stayed quiet and let them yell at me. We were outside anyway so it's not like con staff could have done much, plus they had booked me for that time and whether or not I take the photos is up to the client.
In their tirade they spilled all that they could. They screamed about how they hired me because my work looked nice (thank you), that I seemed cheap (I prefer to call it affordable), and that I had photoshop skills (I do, it's taken me a long time to learn these skills so thank you for recognizing that). They also ranted about how they were relying on me to make their blond wig look like a realistic purple (not sure if they meant just make the wig look like it was purple or if they meant make it look like their hair was naturally purple) and how all of their followers would be so disappointed in me. They had about 50 followers at the time so this was absolutely devastating to hear (can you detect the sarcasm?).
After about 5 minutes of them ranting and raving they were out of breath and got quiet. I told them that my stance hadn't changed and then asked how they wanted to proceed. They then screamed and just stomped away. Can you say diva queen much?
Writing this post was far more therapeutic than I thought. Venting about them, getting the entire experience out there, all of it was super nice. And I'm sure that these are not the only people like this that I'll ever experience, so maybe in a few years I'll be able to write another post like this! Let y'all in on some wacky stuff and see how down to earth and great of a client you are by comparison. I know some of you guys apologize endlessly about yourselves during a shoot and trust me when I say you have absolutely nothing to say sorry for. These folks certainly do though!
Again, as a reminder, I have blacklisted all of these people and will not work with them ever. So if you see your interaction listed here then please don't contact me to apologize or try to book with me for a location or con shoot. I've not blocked any of these people but won't hesitate to do so if they contact me.