Photo Breakdown #11 with Scott Wyden Kivowitz – Part 3

Hi, it’s your host Scott Wyden Kivowitz back with another episode sharing a story that made waves on Reddit and in mainstream news. After you hear the story, I share my thoughts of who was right and wrong and some changes that could and should have been made.

After listening to the story, please comment here with your takeaways and thoughts.

• See the original story here.

Transcription was done by Descript or Rev’s automated transcription services which means it’s an AI-generated transcript. The transcript may contain spelling, grammar, and other errors, and is not a substitute for listening to the episode.

Everyone could learn a lesson from this story. At some point in their career, every photographer will be put into a situation that makes them feel uncomfortable, disrespected, degraded. And so. But today, I want to share with you a story which was initially shared on Reddit and then made its rounds into mainstream news.

Photo breakdown is a podcast where I talk with the photographer, sharing the story of a specific photograph technique or business when I’m your host, Scott Wyden Kivowitz and this is the photo breakdown. Let’s break it down. Welcome to photo breakers. Usually I would be talking about a photograph still.

I feel strongly that this episode is so important to share that I’m dedicating an episode to it. Today’s story is of a person who is a dog groomer, who also dabbles in photography. This is an essential item to take note of as it starts the story out. Yes, this person is not a working photographer in any way.

However, this person does enjoy photography and often shares photographs on Facebook and Instagram of the dogs who have been groomed. I seldom shoot things older than dogs, even if I have a nice setup, that’s a direct quote from the Reddit post. This person’s friends who were getting married and asked the dog groomer to be their wedding photographer.

Also a significant part of this. The dog groomer agreed and only charged the friends $250 for the entire day, which started before 11:00 AM and was supposed to end at 7:30 PM. I say it started before 11:00 AM because a commute is of course necessary to get to a wedding. So this person might’ve left at 10:00 AM for one hour drive.

We don’t really know all the fine details. Now, apparently the wedding was at a veterans Legion, which had no air condition and the temperature was pretty high. Additionally, as a photographer, you are often running around lugging equipment with you. So this photographer was likely overheated and extremely tight.

Now around 5:00 PM, the photographer asked for a break and to be fed. I mean, that’s typical at a wedding photographer should get fed. So when the food is served to the guests, the photographer would sit off to the side or eat a meal in another room. A 20 minute break was requested and denied. The crazy part is that with no open.

The photographer couldn’t even grab a quick glass of water, which would have taken a minute, maybe less. Now here’s where the story gets super interesting as if it wasn’t already, the groom told the photographer and I quote from the Reddit story, I need to either be a photographer or leave without pay or.

Out of frustration, hunger, heat, and who knows what else? The photographer decided to delete all of the wedding photos directly in front of the groom. All the photos made from 11:00 AM that morning gone in an instant. This is a once in a lifetime. Quote. So I deleted all the photos I took in front of him and took off saying I’m not as photographer anymore.

And quote, now apparently the couple went on their honeymoon and went silent on social media, even with friends and family asking for photos. So who was in the wrong here and what lessons can be learned? Here are my personal thoughts on this topic. We’ll start with the dog groomer. The dog groomer should not have taken on a wedding.

The dog groomer should have charged way more for the wedding than $250. Add an extra zero to the end of that number. And that is a good starting point. The dog groomer should have hired a second photographer so they could take breaks and rotate as needed. Now by hiring a second photographer, you need to charge more.

So maybe the charge should have been $3,500 or 4,000. Not 250. Finally, the dog groomer should have brought bars or something to snack on for a worst case scenario like this. I mean, you go out and you’d do a photo gig. You’re going to want to have a, an emergency backup of some sort. Now let’s move on to the groom.

The groom should not have been such a, you know what, and let the photographer had a. The groom should not have been so cheap and pay the photographer way more than $250. The groom or someone in the bridal party should have gone out of his or her way to ensure that the photographer was fed and provided endless amounts of water.

And finally, the groom should have been honest. Or should be honest, rather with friends and family and share how dumb he was at the wedding and how poorly he treated another human being. So who was wrong to me, both the dog groomer and the groom. None of this should have had. Now I would love to hear your thoughts on this story and your takeaways.

Please go to photo breakdown.com to find episode 11, show notes and to comment. And if you are listening on Spotify, scroll down and complete the one-click poll to share your thoughts there as well. Thanks and see you in the next step.