NoHopeOnlyDeath

Elements of the shoot that are planned to be provided by the client (including but not limited to: client-owned business or other location, employees, props, etc) are provided at the sole discretion of the client and are not the responsibility of (insert business name here). Appointments that are unable to be completed due to these factors will be rescheduled at the client's discretion at the currently agreed hourly rate.

I'm not addressing the quality of the photos. Enough people in the thread have brought up the out of focus thing.

I will say, however, that if I'm contacted by a business owner to shoot them in their business, and then when I show up, the business is obviously not prepared for the shoot, that's not my problem.

If the shoot is for x, y, and z, and then the restaurant says "Oh sorry, we don't have the ingredients for x and y, and z is just gonna be this random employee who wasn't prepared for this.", that's the client's fault, and, honestly, I have a paragraph in my standard contract that covers shit like this.

I hate it. Writing artist statements about my work was absolutely dead last on my list of things I wanted to do for my photo degree.

I shouldn't have to tell you how to feel about my work. If I do, I did it wrong.

Watermarks haven't been a secure way to protect your images for years.

The only way to be 100% sure you can retain full control of an image is 1) never post it online or 2) never post it in full resolution or crop. Anything else is able to be gotten around.

Other than that, the only way I keep myself from losing my mind about it is knowing that I'm not nearly famous enough for it to matter, and even if someone steals one of my photos, the most they can do is make a print and sell it to some rando somewhere.

I don't know about the other countries (esp. Russia who has very lax copyright laws), but the US govt probably does it by accident often enough that if you send them a bill for the licensing, they'll probably just pay it to avoid the hassle.

Photo degree / 15 years experience / committed amateur level of involvement

For my landscape stuff, barring some unforseen malfunction or thing moving through the shot, it's as close to 1:1 for shots to keepers as I can manage. Once you know what your settings / lens can give you, there's not really a reason to set up for a shot unless you see the potential.

For my concert stuff, especially since I only use available stage and ambient lighting, I usually average around 20 - 30 sellable quality images out of 500 - 750 shots.