derekrock Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Event Photography: Problems with Organizers | |
A problem has arising from an event I recently covered and need your inputs as to how to go about it since it is my first time. I belong to a group that had a dinner recently and was asked at the last minute to photograph.
1. I was not given a free entrance ticket to the dinner: I bought my own ticket to support my group and also photograph the event.
2. I rented a back-up lens at my own cost for the event (car rental, gas, etc total event cost to me $220.95, excluding time spent editing 1000 pictures)
3. The organizers did not pay me anything to cover the event because I was not the original photographer they contracted. The original photographer cancelled it at the last minute. The only agreement I had with them was through text messages from my own group president asking me to cover the event and sell prints
4. At the event venue, I realized the dinner (about 500 attendants) was a joint program between two organisations. My organisation and the sister group. I never knew that before the event day.
5. The sister group's president daughter is a photographer and unknown to the two groups, when the original photographer quit on them a day before the event, my group asked me to cover the event and sell prints to recover my cost while the sister group president also told her daughter to cover the event.
6. I happily worked with the other photographer and we actually decided to team up in the future and do some sessions together. She is nice to work with.
7. Unfortunately for her, she came with one camera, one lens, one SB 600 and nothing to back-up anything while I had 2 cameras, multiple lens and 5 nikon flashes (loaned her one) and backup equipment. And unknown to me her mum, the president accidentally formatted her card when she was going through her pictures, leaving me as the only photographer.
8. I edited about 1000 pictures, posted high res JPEGS on my website, and low resolution pictures with my watermark on MY GROUP Facebook page. I realized that people were posting some of my pictures screen printed from my website for use on their facebook page instead of tagging themselves in the ones I posted there.
9. Today, my group President told me they had a lengthy meeting and the other association president told my group to inform me that since I was not a sponsor for the event, I should make post high rez pictures on Facebook without my watermark, make prints and frames for the Mayor, the MPS, and about 5 corporate sponsors since it was the agreement with the sponsors that they would provide them with such package. And that I can only sell my pictures after. I SAID NO right away because they did not pay me to cover the event and if they want the packages they are requesting, they need to PAY for them but I will provide a discount of 15%. They said NO to my offer and want everything free.
What do I do now, I want to keep the clients (not the official group but members of the group) but the only way I can do that is to message them through FB and now they have removed me from the group (unless I provide what is in 9). They also threatened me with legal issues that I am selling pictures for an event I was not an organizer or sponsor. I was thinking of removing all the pictures from the group page and post on my own page but have now being blocked from the group
What do you advice?
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