Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/05/16
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Kyle Personally I try and make all the money I can off my relatives. I'm joking, but only slightly. A long time ago, just after I retired from shooting weddings a friend asked if I'd photograph his wedding. I thought it was sort of odd, since he was an extremely close friend. I thought he'd ask me to be his best man, rather than photograph his wedding. But I lived several states away and I wasn't sure I could make his wedding. So he hired another photographer. In the end I made the wedding. I photographed it. I went back home and printed a bunch of 8x10s. I gave him the prints. His wife loved them. She raved about my prints, and she blasted the other photographer's work. She asked for more prints. Even offered to pay. I was realy busy then. I didn't have time or the desire to print any more up. (That's, one the benefit of not being the photographer. I only had to do what I felt like doing). About two-years later I visited my friend. Hanging on the wall was a wedding photograph taken by the other photographer. It was a bad photograph. Mainly out of curiosity, I asked my friend about it. He said that his wife felt more strongly about the other photographers photographs because she'd paid for them. I always thought that was strange. Sometimes people place more value one something when they have to pay for it. One more twist to this story. I was at my friends house about 2 years ago. It had been 15 years since the wedding. This time one of the wedding pictures I shot was on display. I felt vindicated. When I asked about it he told me that the other photographer's prints had faded and turned yellowish. That's when I learned that not all professional photographers believe in fixer. Sometimes I think if I started all over again from the beginning, I'd never give away another photograph. Main reason. I think today I'd be a better photographer. Dave - -----Original Message----- From: Kyle Cassidy [mailto:cassidy@netaxs.com] Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2001 11:14 AM To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us Subject: [Leica] an ethical question.... 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)