bobbollinger

Your customer's request sounds reasonable to me as well. And like any other service professional, you are mostly in the "customer service" business. But as Ruslan suggested, take out the technically bad ones first!

Invite her to your studio to have the photos chosen in personal presence. First remove the worst photos. :)

I am not a pro photographer, but I am a lawyer with 30 years of experience representing parties engaged in disputes. Based on the description of the emails that you have sent so far, I doubt that they have helped your cause any with this photographer. Human nature being what it is, she may have responded by putting your work on the bottom of her to-do stack. Maybe you should just lie low for a couple weeks and not contact her or post anything about her, and not risk antagonizing her any further. Even if you have a signed contract with firm deadlines in it, that is hard to enforce--it requires you to go to court with a properly pleaded case and win, and then an appeal period must run, before you can take any practical action with a court judgment or order to get your photos. So I think your remedies at this point are quite limited, and are mostly of the nature of cajoling the photographer to finish the job and deliver the prints. Perhaps if you do post something, the best thing would be "Sorry to hear that you have been sick. I hope you are feeling better soon."

Thanks, Sandy, for finding that for me. When I searched using the term "equipment" I got an overwhelming quantity of posts to sort through so I decided to just ask.

I relied on the equipment list to keep track of my gear, especially the serial numbers, in case of theft. But since the "upgrade" to the site, I cannot figure out how to access it to update it. I am not especially savvy about such things, but can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks.

Are you in the US? If so, any insurance company that sells auto liability insurance could probably sell you appropriate coverage. Call an insurance broker who works with multiple insurance carriers.

<p>Both the FAA and the DOT are part of the executive branch of government, (FAA is part of DOT) so there is no separation of powers issue. The legislative branch, Congress, passed a statute that instructed the FAA to promulgate rules for the use of RC aircraft/drones and like many government agencies do all over the country, the FAA has apparently missed the deadline. I suspect that whatever the DOT proper does will just be an interim or stopgap solution until the FAA gets around to acting and implementing the new rules. Or the DOT could release rules under the auspices of the FAA and we would not know who wrote the rules. (Although the rulemaking process normally includes public hearings and comment periods for proposed rules. Maybe that is what the announcement Monday will cover.) I suspect the proposed rules will try to accomplish two things--establish clear limits and guidelines on where and when and how these things can be flown, so as not to interfere with manned aircraft and objects and living things on the ground. And secondarily, a registration system so that the people who break the rules can be tracked down and dealt with. The FAA is pretty strict regulating pilots and manned flight and typically does not tolerate rulebreakers very well.</p>

 

<p>I am a lawyer in private practice, and I agree with Rick, among others. They probably have not contacted a lawyer, and if they did, and told him the full story, he probably told them they had no basis for a claim. I would not do anything until you hear from their lawyer. When you get a letter from their lawyer, your defense is that you did everything required of you by your written contract, and the failure of the schedule to work was not your doing. In a contract, if you do everything you are obligated to do, then you have fulfilled your end of the bargain, and the other side has to pay you. I would urge you not to lose any sleep over it at this point. I would discourage you from attempting to negotiate with these folks, or to humor them, as I think you are simply being taken advantage of. If they had a legitimate complaint with you, that would engender different advice. </p>

<p>I used the US Postal Service to ship a bunch of stuff to my son in Japan this past year. It took about 2 weeks to arrive, but the price was reasonable and it was all insured. So long as you pack it well in a sturdy box I think the postal service would be a reasonable choice. </p>

<p>I am glad that you are OK, William. Take care of yourself! </p>

<p>Your warning is right on point. I had a TIA at age 35. It can happen at almost any age and the reasons for stroke events are many. <br>

I had a big scare but no residual deficits---my neurologist looked at the scan and said that mine occurred in a "quiet part of the brain." My wife allowed that that would be most of my brain, of course. But I am much more attentive to any kind of symptom now!</p>

<p>Dorus, that first skyline photo is just beautiful. </p>

<p>The type of "wedding assistant" you are describing is going to be deemed your employee regardless of whether you call him an employee or an independent contractor, in the case of a lawsuit or a workers' compensation claim. This is because the duties of that person are not the duties of an independent contractor--that status is for someone with an independent calling, who typically provides his or her own tools, who does the job when he wants to and at his own pace, without any direct supervision from you. What you need to someone to help you at the weddings, which means you are controlling the hours, when he must work, you are providing the tools, etc. So, if he gets hurt, you may be liable for workers' comp even if you did not buy the insurance, which may not be too expensive for a photographer. Check to see if you even have to buy work comp insurance in NY, as you may not need it with only one or two employees. I don't know the answer there. But hiring an employee and trying to get away with calling him an independent contractor may cause you some unintended legal consequences. </p>

<p>If the two of you own a home together, you may have just put it in jeopardy (subject to being seized to pay a judgment that exceeds your insurance coverage) should someone sue you over a tort that you caused when you were working. You really should get a good local business lawyer to clean this up for you. Your potential adverse risks in a partnership with your spouse are much broader than simply tax issues. Incorporating is much less risky if you are in business with your spouse. </p>

<p>Jane, I am a lawyer, and I would respectfully suggest that you plan to buy the images (all copies, in all media) from the photographer if necessary and/or pay him to keep them private. Expect to have to pay more than you would like, because you may not have much leverage in this negotiation. Your lawyer could perhaps start this process by sending a letter asserting your right to privacy of these photos, that any violation of your privacy will be met with legal action, and that you would be willing to pay a reasonable fee to buy the images and/or to assure that your wishes are carried out and your privacy is protected. This type of agreement, if breached, has damages that are not possible to calculate, so you would be entitled to injunctive relief (a court order that prevents the photographer from doing whatever with the photos) and with liquidated damages (a set amount of money that is large enough to be a disincentive on his end, without regard to your actual, incalculable, damages). But in order to get those remedies, you will probably need to enter into a new contract with the photographer that sets out all of this stuff and these remedies. You need a lawyer who knows what he or she is doing to negotiate and draft this contract for you. A lawyer who drafts business contracts may be a good choice. It is going to cost you some money to solve these problems at this point. So far as "commercial setting" is concerned, that generally means a transaction in which money is exchanged for services or goods. A non-commercial transaction would be a boyfriend taking photos of his girlfriend. Get a good and thoughtful lawyer to help you, and do it soon before something happens to those photos. </p>

<p>I concur with Larry on Acuvue. I have been wearing the Acuvue one-day contacts for close to a year now and they are great. Wear them for one day and toss them, then put in a new pair the next day. They are not very expensive but they are much more comfortable than the traditional reusable soft contacts, and a whole lot less trouble. I get 20/20 for my over age 50 eyes for everything except the up-close focus issue (presbyopia) and I use reading glasses from Target or the supermarket for reading and close work. <br>

Only problem with the contacts and the camera that I have encountered is that I need the readers sometimes to operate the small print menus. But, if you memorize the menus on the camera, you may not need the readers. <br>

I also play tennis and need contacts for that, and so long as the wind is not blowing in my face, the Acuvue one-time wear types work fine there too. <br>

Lasik scares me. Even the very small risk (as calculated over a large population of patients) of a bad complication becomes a big risk if you happen to be the person that gets the complication. </p>

 

<p>I don't think you could recover any money from her by going to small claims court, simply because you don't have a written contract that sets forth everyone's obligations. Get yourself a contract drafted that will cover any situation you can possibly imagine. If you can find a young, newly minted lawyer who recently started practicing, that person may be able to do this for you for a very reasonable fee. But you will need to educate the lawyer about the specifics of your business. </p>

<p>Dan, your criticisms of FB are spot on, I think. But then again, $31 is pocket change in terms of a marketing or advertising budget. Whether a FB boost gets you a new client is a bit of a crap shoot but when you apply the boost, you do have some control over the demographics to which it will be boosted. My business page got about 200 new "likes" from that expenditure, which may or may not bring in any business, but it does expand one's exposure somewhat for a trivial amount of money. Whether a tangible benefit is eventually derived remains to be seen and will be somewhat dependent on luck, I suppose. </p>

<p>If you have a business Facebook page, you can greatly increase your reach by posting something and then spending a little money to "boost" the post. Facebook will give you a prompt to do it. I spent $40 last week to do this on a post and as of today, $31 had been spent of the $40 budget, and FB says that 5,999 people had seen the boosted post. Even if FB inflated the numbers by 50%, getting that post in front of 2500 FB users for $31 is impressive. And cheap. <br>

There are some good marketing books for small business owners available on Amazon and probably in the local public library. Look for books written by Seth Godin and by Dan Kennedy. Also, Jim Palmer is the "newsletter guru" and he has a book explaining how to send out monthly newsletters to market your business effectively. </p>

 

<p>I like that photo you posted. It is crisp and clean and has great color. A new parent should love that picture. As one's children grow older, one has a hard time remembering everything they said, and did, and every look they had. A photo like that one will remind those parents years from now of how that child often had that expression as a baby. </p>

<p>If this loser has already been on probation, maybe you can get the authorities where he lives to prosecute him for "obtaining property [your money] by false pretenses [his apparently worthless promise to provide photos]," or whatever the equivalent charge is called. That will probably send him back to jail. But the only thing legally that might get you photos as you contracted for will be a civil suit for "specific performance" of the contract and that will most likely need to be filed in the actual county where he lives. I don't know that you need lawyers in both states; a lawyer in his state and county will probably be enough. But if I were representing you, I would caution you that the photos may not exist, if they ever did, and you may be throwing away more good money by pursuing it further. Good luck. </p>

<p>How would you work around the patient confidentiality issues? <br>

The doctors who you would be "working with" are bound by confidentiality and cannot even disclose to you who the patients are, unless you are also a health care professional or already have the patient's written consent. </p>

<p>As a practicing lawyer, I would encourage you to find the forms that you think you will need from other sources such as the books mentioned in the posts above, and then go and review them with the lawyer. Go over them line by line with the lawyer so you can gain a good understanding of what each sentence and clause means. After you have done that, ask the lawyer to revise them as needed by local law and to suit your particular needs and preferences. <br>

If you just walk into the lawyer's office without a very good idea of what you want, the lawyer will not know how to help you effectively, unless he or she is a lawyer who already represents photographers and has some prior experience specific to your business model. Asking a lawyer to draft a contract cold, without a significant amount of education about your business (photography in general and your particular model) will not likely result in a good or cost effective experience with the lawyer.<br>

And I agree that you should get the credit card stuff from your bank. </p>

 

<p>Wow, what great photos. If you are interested, one of the young women pictured (Mary Josephine Farley) had a quite remarkable and pioneering life, becoming an Air Force officer and pilot. Here is a link to her 2012 obit: </p>

<p><a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=101736353">http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=101736353</a></p>

<p>I am a lawyer with 25 years of experience who is still always concerned about bringing in new clients. In what I do (workers' compensation), one client usually only has one legal matter so we have to get new clients all the time and cannot do much cross-selling of other legal services, because the clients are individuals and simply do not need the other services. So yes, there are a lot of lawyers who need help with marketing and advertising. <br>

From that perspective, I think Michael makes some good points. Lawyers have a very difficult task of getting new business in the door, because we are totally prohibited from soliciting business from potential new clients. If I know that you need my legal services, but you are not already my client, my friend, or my family member, then I cannot approach you about the fact that you need the legal service in which I may actually be a board certified specialist. You have to approach me first before I can even discuss it with you legally. Therefore the marketing is designed to put my name in your mind before you need my services. <br>

These restrictions mean that lawyers have more limited avenues for marketing their services. I think a good head shot could be very helpful to a lawyer's web marketing because a potential client may look at the photo of the lawyer and derive some positive impression from it--that man looks like an honest guy, or a reliable guy, or a smart guy, etc. If you can shoot portraits and maybe some stock type shots--courthouses, office scenes, etc., then the lawyers may be a good source of potential clients for you. Most lawyer advertising lacks imagination, partly because of how heavily it is regulated. But photography showing a comfortable office that a client would not mind visiting might be helpful. <br>

Most local (county-wide) urban bar associations will have a monthly member newsletter, and you can advertise in that. In addition, most states have a "Lawyers Weekly" newspaper and ads in that reach many potential lawyer/customers. <br>

You can find the locally applicable lawyer advertising regulations on the web site of your "State Bar" which is typically a governmental agency that is located in the state capital. The regulations may be listed in the "Rules of Professional Conduct" which will vary a bit from state to state. But the Bar will hold the lawyer (and not the photographer) responsible for his or her advertising materials. The ABA rules don't actually apply to anyone; they are just models. The state rules are the ones that count. "Bar" and "Bar Association" are not the same thing, and the "Bar" is the mandatory agency that licenses lawyers and maintains the rules. The "Association" is a voluntary organization that may also have a publication in which one could advertise. <br>

Dave, your buddy is passing along a very old joke that is common in the criminal defense bar. The part about going to jail is always said tongue in cheek, but there is some truth to it--a lawyer who accepts a fee of $10,000 or more in cash without filing certain paperwork with the government risks going to jail under the federal money laundering laws. So in the criminal defense practice, where fees are often paid in cash, that is a real concern! </p>

<p>Well, I am a lawyer, and I am mystified about what Color Run would be suing Max for--there was a link to the lawsuit but my Pacer password is at the office, so I could not look at it to see t heir cause of action. But it was in federal court (in Utah, of all places....and Max is in Florida. Going to be extra expense for Max to defend the suit.) Perhaps they are suing for some kind of declarative judgment that establishes their rights. Max can counterclaim for monetary damages I suppose, if he has his act together and has the funds to hire a Federal Court lawyer in Utah.<br>

I don't have a lot of sympathy for Max at this point, based on his apparent demand for $100K. That seems patently unreasonable to me. He should have settled this mess and learned from it when he had the chance to do so. <br>

</p>