Weirdest Photography Clients Moments: Photographer and YouTuber Shares Humorous Confessions

From the outset, it may appear that the job of a photographer is an easy and glamorous one. However, what goes on behind the scenes can be equally as humorous, terrifying, and unnecessarily dramatic at times. Check out this video of odd photography confessions!

As a photographer, it's very likely that at some point you have shared your experiences in a Facebook group, group chat, or simply complained to your partner or a friend who's willing to listen. It could be about frustrations from belated client payments, unrealistic requests before, during, or after a shoot, clients who aren't willing to reason, inappropriate messages or behavior on the day of the shoot, and many more. How many can you already think of that you've seen firsthand?

To remind us that we're all in this together, professional photographer and YouTuber Jessica Kobeissi has collated numerous confessions of photographers from different industries in one video where she reads them out loud, reacts, and provides her commentary. If you enjoy Ellen DeGeneres or Jimmy Kimmel segments of reading out humorous tweets, this video is the photographer's version of it. 

Few confessions, featured in the video, include a photographer complaining that their client wanted a full refund because the bride's eyelashes were crooked, getting lost on location shoot with a model and consequently having to call the police, and other scenarios. I suppose, at some point in our photographer's career we will end up finding ourselves in a situation where we can either laugh or cry, so always remember that it's very likely you're not the only one who have found themselves in this position, and pick yourself up with your head held high.

What are your most bizarre moments experienced as a photographer? Share those below!

Anete Lusina's picture

Anete Lusina is a photographer based in West Yorkshire, UK. You'll either find her shooting weddings, documentary, or street photography across the U.K. and Europe, or perhaps doing the occasional conceptual shoot.

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13 Comments

When I first got a camera I used to explore my local area to death. I'd try to find somewhere out of the way, then roam on foot through woodlands to see where I ended up. One morning I decided to do this for sunrise and drove to a large wooded area not too far away. I walked for a while as the sun came up and I found a clearing which lead to a large hill. I was half way up it when I heard lots of movement; very low in pitch and lots of it. I stood motionless and confused. The moment was surreal as I was in familiar British surroundings, but had no idea what was happening. Over the crest of the hill came a hunting party on horse back, with dogs, some sort of horn, and a giant flag/banner. They were not happy at all and had to call some emergency halt to their party's activity. They claimed I could have been shot, though I doubt it. Still, a bizarre morning. I just hope I saved a fox.

Clientsfromhell.com

Sorry, but if you have to work 10 hours on one wedding photo, you better change work…

That depends. I come from South Africa, a land with many religions, cultures and customs. If you shoot a Zulu or Indian wedding, 10 hours is not enough. And then there are weddings where 10 hours is 9 hours too much. Besides, it's customary to drink with the father of the bride in some cultures after the job.

I once had a wedding where the best man played a prank on the groom. He got this idea from a Youtube video and got a little boy to come up to the altar when the question of who objects to these two being married was asked. So this kid comes up to the groom and asks "daddy, when you're coming home?" Everyone knew it was a gag, everyone laughed, even the priest and the bride (the best man was a known prankster), everyone but the bride's mother, who created such a scene the wedding was postponed to another date. Till today she believes her son-in-law is the devil incarnate (she's very religious).

There really needs to be a LOL button here!!!

A lot of unprofessional behavior there. I don't care how I was treated, I wouldn't do most of those things.

I agree with your statement but I also understand that some people struggle when getting crap from clients. I've had some hard ones where I was basically told my work is no good but I replied with my head held high and as neutral and polite as I could, I would not want to get personal at all. The video itself I thought was just a light funny watch. :)

I'll confess to cursing my broken camera because the LCD screen was blank...only to realize that I was holding it in portrait orientation while wearing polarized sunglasses.

I'll also confess to this situation happening multiple times.

1. During a photo shoot, raising the camera to my eye only to be reminded by the model that the lens cap was still on.

2. Rented a Profoto B1 for a shoot at an airfield. A couple of shots in, the wind blew over the light stand that I FAILED to weigh down. Shoot over.

Did the light survive?

Nope! The display window cracked and the light failed to fire thereafter. Luckily I paid for their damage/theft insurance. I had to pay the cost of repair which was no where near what a B1 costs. To this day, I firmly believe in sandbags!