A Sad Story

[monkeygirl123]

I thought I'd share with you another story from my days working in a High Street portrait studio. It's a rather sad one, I'm afraid, but I'd be interested to know what you would have done....

We shot on film back then (ten years ago) and for every shoot we did, the lab would eliminate the poor images and print up all the others in 3 different sizes (10x8, 7x5 and passport size). The client would buy photographs from this package (and we'd take orders if they wanted any enlargements) and then the remaining photographs were stored on site for 12 months, after which they were destroyed.

One day a woman came into the studio who I vaguely recognised. It turned out that I had photographed her daughter about 6 months previously. She was very interested in obtaining the remaining photos from the shoot (at the time she had purchased just one 10x8 for about £25). I located the photographs and set them up in the viewing area for her to look at, and as soon as I led her into the room to see them she broke down. It turned out that her little girl had passed away just a few weeks before, having been diagnosed with leukemia. It was a terribly sad situation and I sat with her for over an hour as she told me all about it...and about how beautiful her daughter was.

All the while this was going on, I knew I had a decision to make. How much was I going to charge her for these very last photographs of her child? The pacakage in front of me should have made about £170 for the studio. My manager was not there that day and so the decision was mine.

So I gave them to her.

I kept thinking that had her daughter not died, the photographs would have contiued to sit in the store room for another 6 months and would then have just been shredded. I just couldn't bring myself to take any money from her...to make a profit from her little girl's death. Admittedly, I wasn't losing any money on this...I was just an employee. But I honestly feel if it had been my own business I'd have made the same decision.

What would you have done?

[gturner]

No-brainer mate - you did the only thing any person would have done.

[SwissJon]

Who want's to make money from someone elses misery? (Except paparazzi I guess)

No chance I'd have charged her for them, I'd have given her the negs as well. Lucky you had them still.

Sometimes a little compassion goes a long way.. I'll bet she came back when she had something happier to photograph, and told other people about you. £170 spent on good advertising (You can't buy advertising like that)

[Penary]

You definitely made the right decision and thanks for letting this grieving mother share her story.

Matthew 7:12 ~ Do unto others...

Matt. 25:40 ~ Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.

Well done Monkeygirl.

[Arstine]

I wouldn't have thought twice about doing the same thing you did.

[candidrachel]

I would have done exactly the same thing. You just couldn't ask her to pay under those tragic circumsances and I am certain your manager would have agreed too.

[GuruBhai]

That's a very good decision you made.

[AnneWynne]

The very same thing. I recently had a request for digital images of a gentleman who recently passed away. I had a portrait of him between 2 other people. I provided it AND I cropped that image into a head shot, and provided it. The headshot was used at the funeral and on the front of a memory book compiled for the widow. Did I charge? No way!

As part of an advertising campaign a local photographer ran a contest in which she gave away a princess package to a deserving child/family. She chose a little girl with a congenital heart defect and did a full-out on-location session with the child and her 2 sisters. A few months later the child died and the parents were left with these wonderful images of their daughters. They had not been able to afford truly professional photos before due to the expenses associated with the child's medical care. The images were displayed at the funeral.

How do I know all of this? Because the local newspaper picked up the story of the contest and gave it great coverage. Once the session was completed, they devoted 3/4 of the front page of the Sunday Living section to it. When the newspaper received the death notice, they again devoted 1/2 page in tribute to the little girl.. I am sure the photographer was not expecting such coverage of her campaign to gain greater exposure/clients, but her generosity in doing a contest for a deserving child was paid back a thousand-fold by the Universe.
Ava Jane wins contest to be a princess for a day | Living | OnlineAthens.com
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/...80341013.shtml

The photographer continues to do run this contest in memory of Ava Jane and another little girl. A wonderful gift to parents of a severely ill child, one that also "buys" the kind of advertising few studios could afford to actually purchase.
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/...95245948.shtml

MonkeyGirl, you absolutely made the right choice.

[candleman]

i'd have done the same.

however.. your boss may see it differently... so careful how you tread there.