[Leica] an ethical question....

["Michael E. Berube" <MEB@GoodPhotos.com>]

As a "paid hourly" wedding shooter myself I think the operative point here 
is "he seemed to somehow be missing everything." Cousin Mike hired the 
photographer in good faith to assumably actually shoot the wedding, it is 
therefore incumbent on the photographer to NOT miss everything (or anything 
really.) If you undercut the guy by offering up your professional work when 
he couldn't cut it (and let's face it Kyle, you produce professional 
photographs even though you sacrilegiously don't always use Leica glass) 
you are only doing him and maybe his otherwise future clients a favour, if 
he learns from his mistakes. Regardless, you are certainly doing right by 
family, which is most important anyhow.

Personally, I prefer everyone with a camera at a wedding to back up 
everything that I shoot. It saves the couple from having to print tons of 
reprints and covers my butt. In 15 years and hundreds of weddings it has 
yet to happen, but Gods forbid, if I ever do "somehow miss everything" or 
have a few rolls get cooked in the soup, I'll feel better that the couple 
at least has some images of the day (as well as my fee returned.)


>Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 14:13:40 -0400 (EDT)
>From: Kyle Cassidy <cassidy@netaxs.com>
>Subject: [Leica] an ethical question....
>Message-ID: <200105161813.OAA07695@unix2.netaxs.com>
>References:
>hey folks -- last week linda and i went to her cousin mike's wedding and,
>as i sometimes do, i tossed a leica and a 50 1.5 into the car and took a
>couple of pictures in between challenging the best man to "just one more
>shot, you sissy." my own personal perception is that i probably got
>better shots than the pro they hired. but that's just my own casual
>observation. he seemed to somehow be missing everything -- but in any
>event we get a call from someone in the family who says "can we see the
>pix you took?" and my ethical dilema is ... if i show them the pix now,
>it'll most likely screw the real photographer out of a lot of reprints --
>after all, why spend $80 on an 8x10 when your cousin has one just as good
>and he's willing to give you the negatives. so my inclination is to put
>off letting anybody see anything for at least a couple of months, and then
>just make them a wedding present of all the negs. i think it's rude to get
>in the way of the real photographer, and it's even ruder to undercut his
>bread and butter. but at the same time, i get to look like a real rube to
>the family -- and also, what's my obligation to them? why should i be
>siding with someone i don't even know?.... what would you do? what's the
>wedding ettiquitte? i'd like to hear from anybody who actually _shoots_
>weddings too. maybe i could just give them 3 8x10's now and in a couple
>months send them the rest?
>and in case anybody's interested in the awesome power of a canon 50mm f
>1.5 in ltm on a leica m6:
>http://www.asc.upenn.edu/usr/cassidy/pix/5-12-01-wedding/
>kc
>(not that you could pay me to look at someone elses wedding pictures even
>if robert capa took them)


Carpe Luminem,
Michael E. Bérubé
http://www.GoodPhotos.com