Birthday let down

jenarae

Member
Feb 23, 2007
946
1
My birthday was January 24th and i had a party the next day, January 25th. All of my friends were there, my cousin DJ'ed, photographer snappin photos (my friends friend is an amateur photog and he agreed to take photos for free against a leopard backdrop i set up), great food and drinks, and an ice cream cake.

Sounds like fun, huh? Well it was! The only problem that I'm dealing with right now is the photographer is totally ignoring my attempts to get a hold of him to send me the photos. He's ignoring me and my friend the one who recommended him.

What's really odd is he was having a great time doing his thing and when he left he said "Thanks for letting me do this, I'll be sending you the photos!"

So, today is the 8th and after numerous attempts to get a hold of him i still have no photos and no replies to my messages (or my friends) The worst part of all of this is he took like 200+ photos and i took none on my camera because obviously i was depending on him to do the photo taking. Some of my friends took a few on their digital cams and that's currently all i have, a total of 13 photos. :sad:

What else can i do? I told my friend that if she sees him to maybe scare him by talking about me wanting to take him to small claims court or something to maybe coax him into sending me the photos. After all i have written agreement of him taking this photos for me. And as far as a money value i purchased the backdrop solely for him to take pictures on, he ate food and drank alcohol which he only got to do because he was the photos otherwise, he would not have even attended my party.

I'm so frustrated over this because i was really excited to have such a thing done for my 23rd bday.

Any advice ladies and gents?
 
Because he took the photos for free, I don't think you have any recourse like small claims court. It's pretty terrible of him to withhold them from you.
 
Because he took the photos for free, I don't think you have any recourse like small claims court. It's pretty terrible of him to withhold them from you.


He did take the photos for free but i still paid for things for the photos you know? And he ate my food and drank my alcohol lol Doesn't that count for something! hahaha

It's just a sucky situation and i don't know what to do anymore! :sad:
 
He did take the photos for free but i still paid for things for the photos you know? And he ate my food and drank my alcohol lol Doesn't that count for something! hahaha

It's just a sucky situation and i don't know what to do anymore! :sad:

Actually no, it doesn't... if you were serious.

It is a sucky situation, I'm sorry. Maybe he's expecting to be compensated and is holding them hostage even though he claimed to be doing it for free?
 
As long as you have a copy of the written agreement, you should be able to get your pics....hopefully, he will come around and you won't have to go to court.
 
Here's his reply message with my original message straight from my myspace inbox




Date: Jan 23, 2008 12:44 PM
Subject:RE: Hi!
Body:
ya i can do that for you,,no problemm, i wont charge this time cuz your tawnis friend so just let me know all the details and everything and ill make it out there!

----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: jenn.njuice
Date: Jan 23, 2008 12:34 PM


I'm one of Tawni's friends from the salon aaaaaand she recommended you as a pro photographer! It's my 23rd birthday tomorrow and I'm having a hotel party on friday! I wanted to have someone take pictures at the party... Like nice pictures. I had someone who could have done it but they wanted a million dollars for it and i was just not down...Tawni said you may be willing to do it....I don't know how much you charge or if your in it for fun and to get your name out and don't charge....SO! Let me know! Thanks :smile:


Jenn
 
I'm sorry, but I don't think a myspace message counts as any kind of contract.

Honey catches more flies than vinegar. I think you should send him a really heartfelt email about how much you're looking forward to seeing these images. Or else just get down to business and ask him if he expects to be paid: after all, the goal is to get the pictures.
 
Actually no, it doesn't... if you were serious.

It is a sucky situation, I'm sorry. Maybe he's expecting to be compensated and is holding them hostage even though he claimed to be doing it for free?


The thing is in the past messages i've sent him i have said if you decided you want money after all please let me know! He just does not say anything and i know he's reading my messages because it says "read" in my sent box. Honestly i just want him to respond with a "i'm busy editing them still", or "screw you i don't want to send them to you". Anything...it's just really pissing me off because he's straight our ignoring me.
 
WEIRD... seriously, I don't know. Maybe he really is busy. Maybe he accidently lost the photos. I have no clue. I'm inclined to believe he might've done something dumb and accidently deleted the photos or something...
 
I'm sorry, but I don't think a myspace message counts as any kind of contract.

Honey catches more flies than vinegar. I think you should send him a really heartfelt email about how much you're looking forward to seeing these images. Or else just get down to business and ask him if he expects to be paid: after all, the goal is to get the pictures.

I think anything counts...as long as it comes from him and he agrees. Even if he wrote it with crayon on a napkin it's written proof. IDK....and like i said i've already done the heartfelt email. And he's just not budging.
 
I'm sorry, but I don't think a myspace message counts as any kind of contract.

Honey catches more flies than vinegar. I think you should send him a really heartfelt email about how much you're looking forward to seeing these images. Or else just get down to business and ask him if he expects to be paid: after all, the goal is to get the pictures.


Exactly, all you can do now is offer money for the pictures....if you really want them, ask him how much money he wants, I guess that's all you can do. He has no legal obligation to give them to you, he can just claim he was an invited member of the party and took his own pictures for personal use. Maybe deep down he figured you would have offered to pay SOMETHING...I know if I had someone offering a service for free, I would offer something afterwords, maybe a small monetary tip, as a courtesy. He could be upset about that, maybe.
 
Exactly, all you can do now is offer money for the pictures....if you really want them, ask him how much money he wants, I guess that's all you can do. He has no legal obligation to give them to you, he can just claim he was an invited member of the party and took his own pictures for personal use. Maybe deep down he figured you would have offered to pay SOMETHING...I know if I had someone offering a service for free, I would offer something afterwords, maybe a small monetary tip, as a courtesy. He could be upset about that, maybe.


I've never met the guy in my life until the day he arrived at my party. I asked him in the message above if he wanted money and he said no. At the party my bf offered him a tip as i and he said no. So this is why if he wants money now it pisses me off because he was offered it.