A photographer is not the kind of person you want to mess with. They might look harmless, standing dutifully behind a lens, asking everyone to smile. But remember, they can shoot you, frame you, and hang you without spilling a single drop of blood. Every unflattering angle and every awkward expression is in their hands and their hands alone.
One photographer had a nightmare photoshoot day with an entitled father orchestrating the chaos. "What I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you," he probably thought. But he got his revenge; it might just have taken the main culprit a little while to figure it out. But until then, the internet is laughing with him all the way.
Photographers actually have a lot of power, despite them looking timid as they stand dutifully behind the lens
One photographer was caught in the chaos of a family shoot, with an entitled dad screaming and shouting at the lot to try and wrangle everyone
On top of it being a terrible shoot, the photographer almost missed his own Mother's Day event because the family had no respect for his time
He spent hours fixing everyone's miserable faces, but when it came to the very entitled father, he had a very sneaky plan for revenge
Roughly 72% of parents find gathering the family for photos to be a major challenge, which goes some way toward explaining why family shoots so frequently descend into exactly the kind of chaos on display at that winery. The stress of corralling children, managing expectations, and performing happiness on demand is real, and it lands squarely on the photographer who is trying to capture something genuine in the middle of all of it.
What it does not excuse is a grown adult screaming at children, threatening his son, and barking orders at winery staff while the person doing him a favour stands behind a lens trying to salvage something usable. The level of entitlement and sheer audacity that was on display that day is not something most people could stomach, so can we really blame the photographer for his actions?
Psychologists and dating experts frequently note that a partner's current behavior toward service staff is a preview of how they will treat their partner once the "honeymoon phase" wears off and they feel comfortable. This dad seemed to have no problem going off on the winery staff and the family alike, but surprisingly, his wife has stuck around. Maybe she is part of the problem too?
Cape Town-based photographer Anli-Mari Engelbrecht knows this dynamic well and offered Bored Panda an exclusive few words of warning. She has been in difficult situations with clients many times, but draws a firm line at using her position to deliver anything less than what was agreed upon, even when the shoot was free, and the client was a nightmare. "Even if the shoot was for free, I value my service and name in the industry."
"You never know where your next client will come from; it could even be the worst client that still recommends you to their friends on how you have handled the situation," she added. This photographer might not have had aspirations of having a successful business, but in the comments he mentioned that he wanted to use his work as a charitable service, and you never know who at the shoot could have helped him achieve that goal.
On what derails a session most reliably, she says that clients who micromanage and refuse to take direction from the professional they hired are the single biggest obstacle. "You have appointed me to take your photos based on my style or photography portfolio, so let the professional do what they do best." It didn't seem that this dad was anywhere near letting go of control, but Anli-Mari suggests a "proof gallery" of the chaotic images might have driven the message home.
The average family photography session costs anywhere from $400 to $1200 for a full custom shoot, with Mother's Day being one of the highest demand periods of the year. The photographer in this story did it for free and spent hours in post-processing combining frames, so a little gratitude might have gone a long way. The one small creative decision he made in the editing suite afterward was the only thanks he would be getting.
Do you think the photographer's petty revenge was worth it, or should he have let it go? Share your thoughts in the comments!
The photographer was doing all of this for free, and people were urging him to stop that precedent
The internet gave this photographer a standing ovation, saying this is the exact right amount of petty that they came for
