Karma… || Mount Forest Photographer

They say that Karma “is the concept of “action” or “deed”, understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect” … What you put out into the world is what you get back… Everything happens for a reason. Yes all of which I do strongly believe.
I learned just that with the experience I had recently dealing with a photographer I shot a wedding with in December 2010. I was naïve, innocent and very trusting. What resulted was something I never would have predicted in my early stages of business development. I wont go into the details as Ive posted about it before.

As a photographer I am an artist with my camera, just as an artist with a brush or pencil, however an artist creates their piece of work(s) there is great pride in colours, composition, lighting, angles, medium etc. I was robbed of my images and after many attempts to reconcile this issue, I was given no choice but to fight back.
I submitted her file to the Credit Bureau with all of my documentation, proving what was originally agreed upon and our correspondence. I did this just before we left on holidays, the Friday before we left.

My hubby and I were out last night, arrived home and I went to get the mail, low and behold… The cd of wedding images! AMAZING!
So it took me submitting this file to the Credit Bureau for her to actually woman up and be somewhat of an “honest” business person.

Because afterall is was MY work she stole…
So. I come in, insert the dvd… What do I find – 331 jpeg files!

Great, right?

Wrong!

I shoot in RAW, only RAW… I was promised MY RAW images. Nope …
Honestly this may sound petty – ok yes I technically got “my” images – however its something like this… An artist sketches a drawing…

Someone steals this drawing.

When the thief finally decides to man up and return it, he instead returns a photocopy.

Its about respecting the artist and their individual talent.

So my theory on this – live and learn, obviously! I will never ever use anyone else’s cards but my own, I will also only ever use my own equipment (which I did use all of it for this wedding) and I will continue to always be honest in business with my clients! All throughout this entire process I did not mention her name once – does she deserve that respect … NO. I had to bite my tongue many times. A part of me still does want to call her out…

However I am much better than that and quite honestly after submitting the file to the credit bureau it felt good to get it off my back. Its very sad to say that about someone who calls them self a “photographer” and who advertises the same services as I do. Interesting enough she has already re-located… to the Exeter/Teeswater area.

There is one thing that my family said to me when I was going through secondary school that if I ever wanted to get involved in our family businesses I HAD to attend post-secondary school. Quite honestly this should be a pre-requisite for ANYONE who wants to operate their own business – a course in many of the business education offered through college is “Business Ethics”.

So to her I say… Good riddance and good luck.

After all its very true… What goes around, comes around!

Everything does happen for a reason and this has only made me stronger and more determined in my Photography Business 🙂