What do you make of this?

[candidrachel]

This is quite long so bear with me:

I've recently put an ad in a bridal leaflet. I was approached back in October by a sales rep who had a spare space left and did I want it. I said Ok. All good. The leaflets are all printed now so I went up to the bridal shop to pick up a few to distribute locally. Fine!

I did notice that there was another local photographer advertising on there too but didn't bother me at all.

I got a phone call yesterday from this other photographer who was slightly pissed off with the printer because the rep promised that he would be the only photographer. I was quite philosophical and said "Well we could be completely different styles and could compliment each other and this could potentially be a little money spinner for both of us" he agreed and then he mentioned a wedding I did last August.

Here is the real cherry! He asked me if I did a wedding for a particular couple (his colleague did the wedding day, I did the party in the eve). I was feeling "Eek were my photos crap as he's a pro". He said my photos were excellent. I asked him how he knew and he said "because the couple showed me a cd of your photos". I was like thinking "WHAT??". I told him that I gave the couple the cd so that they could choose what photos they wanted in the comfort of their own home but the deal was to order prints and I haven't heard from them since. All photos were water marked.

Why would the couple show him the cd? Was it to take the watermark off and print them themselves? Hmmmm

Anyway, the conversation moved on and I asked him if he sometimes gets second shooters at his weddings and he said sometimes but the last guy he used wasn't any good so he won't be using him anymore. He said he liked my style and perhaps later in the wedding season we could meet and discuss working together.

Sounds a good idea but I'm miffed about this couple back in Aug.

I did draw a line under them months back as I was on a steep learning curve and have since learnt never to hand over discs of photos without money first.

What do you think?