‘Be the photographer, or leave without pay.’
Trending on reddit.com is a photographer who posted what happened recently—asking netizens for their opinion if what they did was right or not.
"I'm not really a photographer, I'm a dog groomer," he starts off. But even so, his friend, who wanted to save money, asked if he could be their official photographer. "I told him it's not really my forte but he convinced me by saying he didn't care if they were perfect: they were on a shoestring budget and I agreed to shoot it for USD250, which is nothing for a 10-hour event."
The photographer started at 11 a.m. and the estimate time that he was going to be done was 7:30 p.m. He spent the day following the bride as she prepared for her big day, shot the ceremony and the reception. "Around 5p.m., food is being served and I was told I cannot stop to eat because I need to be the photographer. In fact, they didn't save me a spot at any table. I'm getting tired and at this point kinda regretting doing this for next to nothing. It's also unbelievably hot: the venue is in an old veteran's legion and it's like 110F and there's no AC (air-condition)."
He told the groom that he needed a 20-minute break to take a bite and drink. "He tells me I need to either be the photographer, or leave without pay. With the heat, being hungry, being generally annoyed at the circumstances, I asked if he was sure, and he said yes, so I deleted all the photos I took in front of him and took off saying I'm not his photographer anymore. If I was to be paid USD250, honestly, at that point I would have paid $250 just for a glass of cold water and somewhere to sit for five minutes."
He ended the long post by asking if he was wrong for doing so. "They went right on their honeymoon and they've all been off of social media, but a lot of people have been posting on their wall asking about photos with zero responses."