So I ended up in a very unique situation and am not sure how to go about this. A new photographer that I met invited me to a styled shoot at a wedding venue. Long story short, she pitched things differently and when she laid out the plans less than a week before, the timeline and specifics were a lot more demanding than initially pitched. This was an unpaid shoot, but I decided to go regardless for content for my portfolio.
When I got there, a ton of vendors backed out at the last minute and everything was very disorganized. We shot the same photos together and both came up with posing ideas.
We both delivered our photos to the vendors separately, and some of them are tagging us on Instagram. I found out she’s been messaging them and telling them not to tag us both so people don’t confuse my photos for hers. She also made a post saying how she was the main photographer of the event and I “helped out.” She 100% organized the event but I felt a little insulted at the main comment since this was pitched as an equal opportunity and I did not feel like I was her assistant during the shoot. At this point, I don’t understand why she even invited me to this.
Now the venue owner shared my photos on Instagram and tagged only her (and none of the photos shared were hers). The photos were definitely mine because even though we took the same shots, she used different equipment (she doesn’t even own a flash, she used the one built into the camera so the lighting alone is a dead giveaway) and has a completely different editing style.
I don’t want to look like the petty one since she’s clearly trying to make sure she gets all the credit for this, but should I reach out to the venue and let them know that the photos they shared are mine? I don’t want to hurt my business’s image and am wondering if I should just let this go, but I do think I deserve credit where it is due.
Edit: I forgot to mention that you need to give him a hard cutoff date. I ran into this situation a few weeks ago with a family session. The family agreed to paying in full, viewed the invoice, and then ignored it. I reached out to the mom and said “if I do not receive payment by tomorrow at X time, I will not be able to add your booking to my calendar.” She paid ASAP. I think because I was polite and flexible multiple times, she thought I wouldn’t be serious about payment.
Since this is scheduled for December 2nd, I would give him until noon on Tuesday to pay.