So I'm pretty new to the industry and I got comfortable enough to offer Holiday Minis in my area. I did two dates, each mini was $100 (Extremely reasonable given that other photographers in my area were offering the same thing for $250+ but I kept my price low because I'm not as experienced and have never offered mini sessions) and I only got 3 bookings total.
Anyway, first shoot was amazing! The kid was a little tough but parents were SUPER involved in getting him to laugh, they were shocked I got photos of them with their kid at all as the goal of the shoot was just to get updated holiday photos of the kid for family. Second shoot doesn't go as well, the kid is about 2 and the parents do not care at all what he does. He un-decorates my tree which I tried to just work with and take pics as though he was decorating it, ultimately the pics weren't great but he wasn't having it and the parents didn't seem to care or want to control their child.
This brings me to my worst client and the one that has me questioning what to do. Family of 4, mom is ready, dad clearly doesn't want to be there, 3 month old and 2 year old. I took a total of 340 pictures, I extended my 15 minute window in a desperate attempt to get one good photo. By photo 45 the 2 year old had knocked over my entire Christmas tree TWICE and I removed it from the shoot. The mom and I were doing everything we could think of to get this kid involved in the shoot. I sang songs, I encouraged her to show me the plastic ornaments, to show them to her parents, to find the pinecones I hid in one of the gift bags, I tried to just take photos of her wandering, I tried to tell her to tickle her mom, kiss baby sister, give dad a big hug, etc. She wasn't fucking having it and the dad was ZERO help. Just sat there looking miserable the whole time. Of the 340 original images, I have 2 good ones. The rest are blurry, look SUPER disorganized, only have one person looking, or just overall look bad.
WHAT do I do? Do I offer a refund? Do I offer a reshoot? I didn't make hardly any money off these shoots as it is, and I truly don't want to work with these people again. But I also feel REALLY bad for the mom because it seemed like she desperately wanted a good photo of her family! What on earth do I do?
Honestly, I think some tough love might be appropriate here.
Young kids aren't always gonna cooperate. But a few things stand out here:
You're a professional. Did you deliver what was promised? If you don't feel like your photos were what was promised, you haven't delivered your end of the contract. (Also, have a contract.) Keep in mind that even a full refund wouldn't be great - those people took time out of their day to do this, maybe bought new clothes for their kid. Their reviews could sink your reputation before you even really start.
If I felt like I didn't deliver what was expected, I'd offer them a choice of reshoot or refund, along with any of the shots you had for no cost. I'd consider partial refund and reshoot. That's what I'd expect if I paid someone for a service and they didn't deliver on it.
Finally, I don't know your level of experience. However, it's very common for people to jump into trying to make money from photography before they really are qualified for it. I don't personally think there's integrity in taking peoples' money as your training opportunity rather than when you're actually ready. But if you're having issues with technique and cannot reliably deliver the results that people want, maybe you should reassess whether you're in a fair position to solicit clients.
I would tend to agree with this. The issue is that I also see a lot of criticism of new photographers when they work for free or very little - it seems like a big no-no in the eyes of many professional photographers. Which makes it feel like a lose-lose for new photographers, where they’ll be criticized no matter what they do.
On one hand, yes, it’s a difficult balance. There are absolutely situations where doing work for free is a bad idea, and there are situations where charging for work is a bad idea.
On the other hand, new photographers should be criticized, as long as it’s done constructively (i.e. with reasoning and possible solutions). You’re going to do things wrong, no matter if you’re brand new or extremely experienced.