<p>I have recently moved to a new city. So I offered a few free mini sessions to promote my business to get the word out. They were 20 min sessions, NO product or print release was included. The free package includes 3 edited web-sized and watermarked images for web sharing only. If clients wanted anything beyond what's in their free packages, they would have to purchase.</p>
<p>I did a free mini session for a client and her family. Let's refer her as J in this post. J and her family were very happy with the photos and told me that she was going to order prints from me. I haven't received any orders from J. I wasn't bothered by it, until yesterday.</p>
<p>Yesterday, I was contacted by a local framing business. The owner wanted to know if i would be interested in establishing a business relationship with them, because they had framed some of my shots and were very impressed by them. They also happened to mention in their email that they also framed some photos for J that I recently shot. So apparently, she downloaded the photos from Facebook, printed them, and even invested in some framing work also.</p>
<p>Not sure if i am being over reacting, but i am feeling pretty upset and pissed about it. She already didn't have to pay a dime for her session. On top of that, I offered her some extras such as 10 mins more shooting time and more images to share. I also told her about my referral program. She could earn points towards free products if she brought new clients to me. The fact that she didn't order anything from me doesn't bother me at all, since my goals were not get the free mini session client to spend big dollars beyond their freebie. The purpose of my free mini sessions was entirely marketing. I am, however, very offended by the fact that she stole from me after receiving everything for free! <br>
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I'm new in photography business, and this is my first time dealing with a client stealing my images (that i know of). What would you do in this situation? Any suggestion would be much appreciated. Thank you!<br>
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