Wedding photography isn't the simplest job in the world, for sure. After all, you're responsible for capturing someone's most important day of their life. In addition, you not only have to take beautiful pics of the newlyweds, but also of their whole celebration, so they would have nice photos to remember everything by.
If such responsibility wasn't enough to make this job a hard one, dealing with people and their various quirks is another addition. These quirks can be insignificant or a big nuisance, which can turn the whole situation sour very quickly. Today's story is a perfect example of that — a woman brought her anger from the past and made sure to make the photographer's job hell because of it.
More info: Reddit
Wedding photography is not as simple of a job as it might seem — it not only bears a lot of responsibility, but also includes dealing with a variety of people with different kinds of moods
Image credits: freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
Today's story is a perfect example of how one person can make the whole journey of wedding photography a sour one
Image credits: pixel-shot.com / Freepik (not the actual photo)
A freelance photographer, who usually doesn't do events like that, took on shooting their friend's wedding as a gift
Image credits: Blake Cheek / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
While doing so, a random woman came to them and started yelling about how they had ruined her life
Image credits: TexiAsiana-AITA
Turns out, back in the day, while covering the protest, the photographer pictured the woman vandalizing something, which caused her to be expelled from the university
Today’s OP is a freelance photographer who was hired to shoot a wedding over the summer. Granted, her usual tasks aren’t weddings, but rather news, sports, family portraits, and such. After all, there are so many niches where freelance photographers are needed. It ranges from fashion, corporate or landscape photography to shooting family portraits (just what the post's author does) and events.
The latter two are one of those types that have the most clientele, thus are one of the most profitable ones. So, a professional in these niches doesn't need to venture far, as the money is more than enough to make a proper living.
Circling back to today's story, while the poster isn't really into event photography, they agreed to shoot this wedding for one specific reason — the newlyweds were close friends. In fact, they even suggested doing it themselves, as a gift for such an occasion. Pretty wholesome, isn’t it?
Everything was going smoothly like butter until one guest ran up to the photographer with an angry face during the reception. Before they could even say anything, this woman started yelling that they had ruined her life.
This made the OP beyond confused. How could they have ruined her life when it was the first time they had ever met? It’s not like they did something malicious during the celebration that could have resulted in something like this.
Turns out, some of the photos the photographer took back in the day caused this woman to get expelled from school, which ruined her life. So, basically, the photographer covered a protest in which the woman participated by vandalizing a building. This was caught in a picture, which her university saw and kicked her out for.
Someone getting expelled due to vandalism, especially when the affected property is one of the universities, isn’t unheard of. Apparently, schools tend to take these acts fairly seriously and take quite a lot of preventative measures to nip them in the bud. These would include surveillance cameras, increased supervision, and things like that.
It should be noted that the phrase “act of vandalism” can mean a range of things – from scribbling on desks to serious damage to school property. Of course, not all acts are treated the same way, as their severity isn’t similar at all, but knowing that even the smallest act can be viewed in a negative light of vandalism is always useful.
Image credits: freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
Well, the woman in the story surely did something more than just scribble on a desk. The post does not detail what she did exactly, but it’s pretty clear that it was severe enough for the university to kick her out.
So, she kept picking on the photographer for ruining her life by covering the protest, which caused her downfall, to the point where other guests had to come and pull her away. Way to steal a wedding's thunder, isn’t it?
Not only that, but this whole situation is borderline traumatizing due to the humiliation by the photographer, and now they say that they can’t see themselves shooting another wedding anytime soon.
This fact didn’t sit right with some of the netizens – the person had a run-in with an entitled lady once, and now they’re swearing off the whole wedding photography niche?
The OP had to answer this – it wasn’t their niche to begin with, their sports, family portraits, and other things manage to fully cover their bill, so it won’t be a huge loss.
Plus, it isn’t that they’re afraid to run into this woman when the chances of that are very slim, but it’s about how humiliating it felt to be yelled at in front of many of your acquaintances when you simply wanted to do a good deed by gifting the newlyweds a photoshoot.
What do you think? Has the photographer's reaction to this whole situation been blown out of proportion? How would you feel in their place? Please share your answer and all other additional opinions in the comments.
The whole run in with this woman was so traumatizing for the photographer that they say they won't do another wedding ever, which was met with some skepticism from netizens
