The Nerve

Sometimes, even your Goddess cannot believe the gall of people. Truly. And today is one of those times.

Back in December, another area photographer called me. A client/friend had asked him to do a restoration job, and as he got into it, he realized it was beyond his admittedly limited skill set. He brought it to me. This was supposedly the only copy of a woman's mother and son together. This picture mattered, a lot.

The photo had adhered to glass in a frame, and then the glass was broken. Gentle Readers, do NOT put photos behind glass unless you have the photo matted so that the glass isn't touching it. The least moisture, the photo emulsion turns to glue and you'll never get it unstuck. Then you'll be calling me, and I'm gonna have to charge you because I have this nasty habit of eating.

Ordinarily, I give an quote and require half down, but since this was a friend of a colleague, I didn't. Idiot me. I quoted two hours work...and as always put in a lot more...and the cost of a print. And I did the work, and was very pleased. I called the photographer and told him the job was done.

That's when he told me that another family member had given her a copy of the photo for Christmas. I was screwed, and so was he, for the time he'd put in on it. I've stewed over it a bit, but figured I had no recourse.

And now today. I posted a new photo on Facebook of some image enhancement I'd done. I'll show you in a minute. I tagged a friend in the photo because it was done at her dance studio. And turns out, SHE has a friend who looked at the photo in my work album, and also saw the before and after of the broken-glass-I've-been-stiffed picture. You guessed it (or should have!) - it was her mother and son. So she has the nerve, gall and presumption to ask me if she may tag herself in it!!!

Un-flippin'-real. I know my eyes bugged out because there's mascara on my monitor screen! I politely wrote her back, saying that since I hadn't been paid for the work she referred to as "beautiful" and "amazing," I was uncomfortable allowing her use of it. She says that oh, gee, she was never told by the other photographer that it was ready. :::head to keyboard::: I replied with an oh, gee back at her that since he knew she'd obtained another copy, he probably figured it was fruitless. I added that I was not too happy to be out my work and the print cost.

Now, this woman KNOWS she didn't pay for this work. Can you imagine her having the cojones to ask me to use it? Especially given that SHE HAS HER OWN FREAKIN' COPY OF IT????

I've said it before, I'll say it again, people are idiots. Including me doing the work on spec. :-(

On a happier note, here's the image I played with. Kind of a grunge/fantasy light thingy!