I just want to start by saying, I know this is clearly a learning moment for me and my business lol. I’m just curious as to how y’all would proceed, if in my shoes. TYIA 🫶🏼✨

So, I photograph weddings. I love it. Oddly enough, I had a volleyball coach DM me, asking to photograph his team. He said, “I need photos of my girls and I think you’d do a great job.” Leading me to believe he’s seen some of my work, as he’s DMing through IG. And since it was about portrait work, I felt more than able to do this task. However, now I’m feeling weird about this booking.

He’s rescheduled on me, twice. If I hadn’t reached out to confirm both times, I would not have been notified about his intentions to reschedule/cancel. Both times were less than 24 hours notice, with the most recent reschedule being less than one hours notice.

He’s also now asking me to help 12-16 girls get their hair and makeup ready, saying, “it’ll be easy because they’ll have their products with them.” The initial conversation never included me providing H/MU. He’s only hired me for three hours, and there’s no deposit made or anything. I didn’t think to ask for deposit since it was such a short notice booking and I figured I just wouldn’t deliver photos until payment was made in full. I just never expected to reschedule so many times.

Now, this is all supposed to be taking place on an outside sand court, in Minnesota. It’s now been re-scheduled to take place on December 2nd…

I don’t know lol. It feels too real to be fake, and too fake to be real.

If you were in my shoes, what would you be thinking/doing? Am I being paranoid? If this is legit, I’m totally down to photograph him and his team! However, there’s been blatant disregard of my time, and he seems really oblivious about what a photographer is expected to do in a situation like this. Also, I can’t imagine wanting to schedule a volleyball portrait session outside in December in Minnesota. Should I just say I no longer feel like the right photographer for this job? He hasn’t even signed my contract I sent him.

Anyways, hope y’all have a great holiday weekend!!

  • anywhereanyone@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    While it’s not impossible, it’s very odd to me that someone would be reaching out to a wedding photographer for a sports job. Outdoor volleyball in Minnesota in December sounds dangerous to me, unless it’s sponsored by Northface. And why on the planet Earth would he be asking you to help with hair and makeup? Is there anything on your website or social media that says you’re licensed for hair and makeup? Is this for high school? College? It definitely doesn’t sound right to me.

  • casuallyreddit@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I would let him know “since this is the second time this booking was rescheduled less than 24 hours prior to the scheduled session time, I respectfully am going to have to take full payment prior to booking the rescheduled session.”

    If he was serious, he would have no issue paying. I had to do this with one of my clients once and they paid in full.

      • casuallyreddit@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        Edit: I forgot to mention that you need to give him a hard cutoff date. I ran into this situation a few weeks ago with a family session. The family agreed to paying in full, viewed the invoice, and then ignored it. I reached out to the mom and said “if I do not receive payment by tomorrow at X time, I will not be able to add your booking to my calendar.” She paid ASAP. I think because I was polite and flexible multiple times, she thought I wouldn’t be serious about payment.

        Since this is scheduled for December 2nd, I would give him until noon on Tuesday to pay.

  • mrfixitx@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    With them rescheduling twice both with less than 24 hours of notice it seems very fishy. I would require a deposit for at least 1/2 the session fee immediately and make it clear the deposit is non refundable.

    If this is just someone trying to mess with you or scam you that should make it easy to tell. Though if they try to send you more money than your deposit or session fee I would run as that is another common scam.

  • Chillers01@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I had a very similar message come through IG. I was suspicious as it was theoretically local and was a club I’d never heard of. I live in an area with mostly small towns and my kids are very involved in sports. I tried to Google the club, the “coach’s” name, etc. When I kept asking for more specifics and the actual location he ghosted.

    I feel like this is a scam OP… 😕

    • manoooomin@alien.topOPBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      It’s so strange because all the specifics are laid out, including location but I agree, this is probably just a scam. I will follow other’s advice by asking for a deposit and I’m sure he’ll disappear lol. Ty ty!

  • mtempissmith@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I would be worried about my safety. Doing a photo session in Winter outside? How do you know there will be other people there and this is not just some attempt at getting you alone in a place that’s not going to be filled with people? Something doesn’t feel right here…

  • CrimeThink101@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I had one of these exact same scams. They DMed me about doing photos for a high school soccer team. Very specific about what they wanted. I’m also primarily a wedding photographer but do other jobs on occasion when they pop up. Went back and forth a bit but something didn’t quite add up, I reverse image searched some of the pictures on his instagram and turns out he was using photos posted by a somewhat obscure welsh footballer (who lives in wales and coaches in the championship somewhere). I don’t know what they are hoping to get out of this scam

    • ThenAppearance923@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Don’t even ask for the deposit just cancel the whole thing now save yourself the agrevation , and keep your blood pressure down .