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Second shooter let me down
Zerodog
Registered Users Posts: 1,480 Major grins
This past weekend I had a dude come out to shoot some Moto with us. His work for us at another event was pretty good. But this time, he let me down. He shot more than double what I did and probably 10% are good shots. For us we have wasted a ton of time sorting and because the bad shots were displayed at the event,I think we lost sales.
So the question is this. Originally I offered to pay a percentage off our total sales from the event. This was assuming his shots were very usable as they were last time. Now I am almost considering tossing his entire batch.
What would you guys do?
So the question is this. Originally I offered to pay a percentage off our total sales from the event. This was assuming his shots were very usable as they were last time. Now I am almost considering tossing his entire batch.
What would you guys do?
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OK, here are my thoughts............sit him down and go over what it is you liked about his first time with you (images, quantity, quality, work ethic, etc) and what you don't like about the second experience.
Ask him if he were the business owner how would he feel about paying someone the full amount based on these images and performance. If you can get an agreement from him that his performance was not up to minimum standard, and he volunteers to accept lesser payment. Then your good to go, but and this is a big but, you agreed to pay him 10% of the gross sales without any criteria. If he doesn't agree with you about the work and demands full payment I believe your obligated to pay.
This is the down side to not contracting for a set fee, and paying upfront. By trying to delay payment until your paid and not having any written criteria I think your shooting yourself in the foot.
As always would be very interested in seeing examples what you consider acceptable and what his average shoots looked like.
Sam
Guy that shoots for me sometimes does great work and at some events, I have kept MAYBE 10% of what he shot and 101% of the time I looked at them, I was wondering what the hell was going through his head??
I don't have any problem telling him when his work is good or bad and he knows if I am happy and compliment him he earned it and he also knows when i'm not happy.
I do take pains to point out what I'm unhappy about, I suggest what or how could be done better next time and what I want and also ask for his feedback on what we have discussed. I also take extra time to tell him when i do like what I see and why because I want him to get the good stuff burned in his brain more than what i don't like and unless things cut both ways they have no credibility in my book.
I try to burn him a disk of at least some of the pics he shoots as he now likes to go home and study and critique his own work as he genuinely wants to be the best shooter he can.
Thats enough for me to forgive him a lot of mistakes as long as he dosen't keep making them!
My guy tries really hard and I have to remember I have been shooting longer than he has been alive and I have enough trouble remembering last week now let alone what I was thinking when I was his age and what my level was then. We have become pretty good friends as well but neither of us have any trouble separiting business and friendship and in fact I think it strengthens both sides of things for us. Not that this is appropriate for many people i'd think though.
If your guy is genuine and worth his salt he'll understand his mistakes, be apologetic and produce work of the previous standard you were happy with next time.
If he gets in a huff and never shoots for you again, then the process of natural selection has again served you well and you can find somone that will be more worth working with and teaching if you have to.
As for payment, did you promise him 10% of everything that was sold or what was sold of his shots?
I myself would not hesitate to ajust any previous arrangements to suit what was delivered as against what was expected. I'm sure there was an understanding that he would deliver work of a certain standard and therefore value to you and having not done that, he cannot reasonably expect to be paid the same. If he does, I'd pay him this time and find myself another shooter for next time.
A client wouldn't pay you the full amount for sub standard work, as you are his client, why should it be different for him?
I know my guy is genuine because not only has there been times when he has refused any payment, he also refused the next time as well to make up for the last time! I pay him either directly or by way of getting him gear he wants but the fact he is so genuine goes a loooong way with me and definately wins my admiration and appreciation.
Be upfront with the guy and don't pull any punches and the situation will sort itself one way or the other but either way will be good in the end.
Good post, and it does sound like you have a honest second shooter with good character,
Sam
You are not obliged to ever ask him to shoot for you again, but it's important to follow through on your agreement, which is a verbal contract.
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I am working it out with him today. I will let him know the deal and what he did that was not up to my standards.
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My next event like this especially MX will be different. I will shoot 100%. We will then get help for the booth. More images are not the issue. It is dealing with them and helping people at the viewing stations. I will get pocket wizards to do some wide angle action in a corner or at a good jump line remotely and get a different look and still get the control I want. This is probably not the ideal setup. But I think we will make more $$ with more help on the customer end. You can have 1000s of great pictures and if there is not enough time to fully help customers you don't sell as much. We decided we don't need more photos, just more help.
On the other hand. Other events need more help in the photo department too. But not without the help at the booth.
Every event we do we have people waiting till the very end of the event to order their pics and then you have 75-200 people all trying to get into the tent to look at and order pics all at once.
If you are still uploading the last ring, for some logic defying reason some people will wait to see pics they are not even in!!!!
In January I was asked to cover a state event because the arena's were spread out over 1 km apart and i'm the only company that uses multiple shooters.
As this was dressage and every competitor went through 2 times on both days, We didn't even open the trailer till after everything was fininshed on the saturday. Instead, I had everyone shooting and covered every single competitor at the event doing their 2 rides on the first day.
We made it known that we would only be shooting by specific request the second day and did that for about a dozen people. For all the rest, all the pics were up on the computers on the saturday night and there was no reason not to order from anytime from there on.
We made this known by announcements over the PA and on the sunday had a steady stream of people coming in all day. I was out shooting in the morning ( no afternoon shoots either) and the other 3 of my people were working on filling orders and customer enquiries.
By lunchtime on the sunday, everything that was going to be offered was up on the Vstations and we just helped people by suggesting layout and upselling and giving the occasional bonus on the larger Cds ( if you take the $100 disk I'll throw in those 3 images you can't decide on).
At the end of the event, we didn't have a rush, in fact we didn't have any customers at all!
It was fantastic! We did have a LOT of entries in our recipt book however and it was one of our most successful events. Instead of the last minute rush and late packup, we were out before the last 25% of people instead of being asked to shut the gate as we often are.
This weekend I'm doing a bigger event still and some individual competitions are over 2 days. Again, i'll be shooting everyone on the saturday and just the ones that haven't been covered on the sunday. This again will free the rest of the crew to man the trailer and Vstations and for us to get people through more evenly. I'm also going to set up a 2nd printing/ burning station to get the people through quicker because the timing of the competitions and presentations WILL mean there is a last minute rush. Hopefully unleashing a second set of workstations and printer pool will get through that a lot quicker.
I'm also planning on increasing our number of Vstations so things may get a bit tight in the tent. If they do and it pays for this and the next event, then I'll simply add another tent and fill that with Vstations and another set of workstations and printers.
Only likley to be needed for a few events a year though.
You don't have to shoot everything everyone does. They will complain you didn't get this ride/ race but if you have 30 pics of them from what you have shot already and they aren't happy with any of them, chances are you could shoot them all day and they would still be throwing up objections not to buy.
I have firmly come to the conclusion that the take it or leave it/ now or never policy is best for me to maximise the return from my clients. It's not a matter of bad service or attitude, it's a matter of minimising the excuse for them not to buy NOW.
Sounds like your on the right track Zero, good luck with your next event.