Have you ever wanted to quit?

[Stina3246]

Has anyone, in the beginning (or as a long time professional even) Had such a bad shoot that they thought maybe they should never pick up a camera ever again?
I shot an event over the week end that I don't think there was one photo I'd be proud to show here. I have plenty of excuses but all my confidence that I'd been building is gone. The lighting was VERY poor, the back ground that the event planner chose for me was HORRENDOUS and in the worst lit area of the room! I did not have the best equipment for the job. ( I thought I did but, nope) I also realised that while I'm great at posing the average sized couple...I'm at a complete loss for posing, how do I say this with out sounding mean....large people. 90% of the guests were somewhere between large and obese, at least the women...and many of the men were either stick thin are large as well. (The were wonderful kind people and I don't want to sound snobbish but this was an issue for me.) Now the client was happy...the average NON-photographer is sometimes easy to please and the second day was GREAT but I'm a bit shaken by this.
I mean, I've shot weddings, engagements, special events etc before with good results that I'm proud of but this....I don't know. I have a wedding coming up soon and I'm considering canceling.

[Niresangwa]

suck it up, buttercup.

everyone has bad days, not just photographers. i'm sure it wasnt quite as bad as you feel it was. the client was happy, you boomed on day two, put it down to experience, sign off on the job and move on.

as for 'heavy' people...pretty sure they know theyre heavy and are going to look heavy in the pictures. there are a few tricks (i seem to remember a rather heated discussion on these frums not long ago about this), but ultimately even once you use them, heavy is heavy.

if this is a regular event, thats a different matter...

[Stina3246]

Originally Posted by Niresangwa

suck it up, buttercup.

everyone has bad days, not just photographers. i'm sure it wasnt quite as bad as you feel it was. the client was happy, you boomed on day two, put it down to experience, sign off on the job and move on.

as for 'heavy' people...pretty sure they know theyre heavy and are going to look heavy in the pictures. there are a few tricks (i seem to remember a rather heated discussion on these frums not long ago about this), but ultimately even once you use them, heavy is heavy.

if this is a regular event, thats a different matter...

Thanks Niresangwa. Luckily it's not an ongoing event. I'm gonna have to brush up on my portrait shots though. AND invest in at least 1 umbrella flash.

Honestly. Nope.

Every shoot I do, I do the basic stuff.... basically enough to get me paid. Then I experiment, the client at this point trusts me in what I'm doing, even if I have no clue what I'm doing. But by then, I've got them hooked in my way of doing things and they are HELPING me get better shots, giving me suggestions and helping with lighting and stuff... it's collaborative at that point of the shoot and when I get them involved they feel that they are a part of the process and are VERY invested in what I'm doing.

By then, I'm content with what I got... even if the experiments didn't work, I know I got the basics down.

~Eric

[BigVinnie]

I had one where I wanted to curl up and die.

It was a couple of years after I had stopped shooting weddings so I was a bit out of practice. I shot my cousins wedding as a gift to her. I was using a hassleblad with a 70mm back. Typical is around 75 shots before changing film. After the ceremony I checked the counter and it had not moved! I grabbed a dark bag and cracked it open. The film had come free from the spool and I had not taken a single shot.

I was able to salvage by staging things before everyone changed. I was SOOOO embarrassed. I have not shot a wedding since. I'm even hiring someone to shoot my sons upcoming wedding.

[Stina3246]

I just got this E-mail from the client. I feel SO much better!

"I'm glad that I found you guys! You did a wonderful job. I would like to ask a personal favor, if you could take my personal album off of the webste and only include it on the CD. I appreciate all of the work that you've done and the personal touch that you added to it. I definitely will look forward to receiving the CD's and working with you again in the near future. Thanks again"

[windrider86]

Never feel like something you have done is a failure. Quite the opposite in fact. Everything you do is a success! Each time you learn something new, even if its something not to do again, you still learned something and gained that much more to your profession

[gturner]

I think we all have those days, regardless of profession. I have a couple of serious hobbies/ sports & I am competitive with myself rather than with opponents (IE I don't mind losing at all, but I dislike playing badly.)
Rather than throw toys and hate myself, I prefer to walk away from the hobbie from the game for a week or 2 until the desire to play returns.
Same with photography, although it is easy if it is not paying the bills

[BCampbell]

Stina, sometimes we're our own harshest critics. Whenever I shoot an event I'm usually surprised at how happy the clinets are. Don't worry too much.

But, I tend to have "crisis of confidence" cycles, where I just don't feel great about my output so I slow things down. I'm going through that phase right now and wondering what exactly I'm doing and why I'm bothering with the resources I have (or rather, lack of), but it's especially hard to drop things because I'm in the middle of a documentary project and a separate group art project. So yeah, sometimes you have to suck it up, or something you have to take a step back.

[martenfisher]

I wanted to quit when my favorite lense broke then I bought a new lense and I can't get a good picture with the new lense that I sacrificed money I don't have for. So since I have absolutely nobody to help me I decided to join a forum this one as a matter of fact to take an hour to figure out how to post a photo get information I don't understand then finally figure it out then take the time to make test photos to post so I could get some help then all my photos are removed with no explanation why leaving me all alone with my camera and a lense that I can not use any more. I am would love to just smash my stuff now and go to bed.