So sick of school

so at the prom there was no photographer, making everyone take their own photos. They expect me to take photos (because at every event i take photos for myself) so everyone wants mine. I put a post online saying "If you want your prom photo let me know and we can negotiate a price." I put a watermark in the middle of every one of them so that people wouldn't just take them from me because I've had that happen quite often. If they didn't have the money to hire a photographer and they think they will get my photos for free they are crazy. So the post got some unwanted attention people were getting mad because i wanted money for the photos (i payed an expensive ticket of corse i want to get payed) that they would normally just take from me. They were posting things like "You didn't plan prom" "its ridiculous your charging photos you didn't have permission to take" when I specifically asked the people if they wanted their photo taken. Now at school people are probably going to come up to me and get mad at me. Its causing me a bunch of stress just thinking about it. I don't know why they expect everything to be free!

Just on principle, I think charging for the pics is fair. If they had asked you to be the court photographer, and maybe given you a free ticket for doing that, it would be different. So I think it’s only fair for you to charge a reasonable price for the photos. (Reasonable for me would be considerably cheaper than a professional photographer would charge.)
Here’s how to turn this lemon into something sweet: charge for the pictures, but donate some or all of what you make to a charity. Maybe 50/50, half for you and half for charity. Or all for charity! That would really take the wind out of their sails.
Does your school support some good cause? Do you have a favourite charity? Hey, how about Ben’s Friends, which supports people of all ages with rare diseases?
You’ll come out smellin’ like a rose, darling!

haha Seenie i LOVE that idea! and yah it was going to be about $15-20 a photo. I thought it was fair as well considering last year I got into prom for free because I was taking photos (they even had a photographer at the prom last year) Thank you for that wonderful idea, if people do end up buying the photos thats exactly what I'm going to do!

That’s great, Kitty. It’s pretty hard to get a hate on someone who uses their talents for those less fortunate.

Gotta good charity in mind? A cause close to your heart?

I like the idea of donating half to Ben's Friends. (I don't think people will buy the photos though because of how angry everyone got. They don't understand that photo paper and printer ink are expensive)

Kitty, I think you're great. Maybe an option you could offer is emailed photos for $5 - $7.50 or whatever amount you think is about right. That way if people want to print them they can use their own photo paper and inks.

Jules, I actually tried that! But they said I was being rediculous. Oh well. Let them go find photos somewhere else.

Kitty, you have a fab attitude. Yes, let them all figure out where else to get their photos. I wouldn't mind betting a few of them will come back to you!

Jules maybe they will! I hope so :slight_smile: if not one day they in the future they might ask me to take photos for them!