My 5 worst experiences as a photographer

You are a photographer. You love every single part of it. You create, you share and you meet people. Sounds nice, doesn't it? But like in every career, you have some great moments and moments you would have rather avoided. Here is my top 5 of my (more or less funny) worst experiences working in the Photography world and what they taught me.

#5 : "Ganesh & Coconuts"
When I started taking pictures 5 years ago, I was an apprentice at the Police Headquarters of Paris (I know, but it was probably one of the best time of my life). My main activity was to shoot events in Paris. I started doing it in my free time, and that's how I ended up at Ganesh Day in Paris. I obviously had no clue about what Ganesh Day was, I just figured it would be full of beautiful colors and costumes. I was right, except for the "we smash coconuts on the ground" part. I had 2 choices : barefoot with potential risk of ending up with pieces glass between my toes or sacrifice my shoes. R.I.P sneakers, you had a good.. run (haha)
Lesson learnt: Even if it was a blast, read more about the event you are going to photograph.

#4: "I'm pretty sure people died like this"
A year ago, after my first month in Toronto, I decided to start re-creating my model network to shoot. I posted an ad on Kijiji (which is NOT a good idea) and talked with a few girls. As I am ALWAYS meeting up with people I'm supposed to work with, I set up one afternoon at Starbucks and scheduled 4 girls at different times. 4 stood me up. Yes, I got stood up 4 times in a row, spent hours at Starbucks and I didn't get free coffee.
Lesson learnt: Somebody that doesn't show up to an appointment without calling you is definitely not worth it.

#3: "The Teleportation"
Back in #1, with my fellow policemen/co-workers. I was sent downtown Paris to take pictures of a Police day with kids. I'm not really tall and pretty discreet, so I managed to find a way to get to the front of the crowd, to take pictures of the activity. I was minding my own business when suddenly, I felt somebody grabbing me by the waist and my feet stopped touching the floor. I ended up on the other side of the crowd because another (and not official) photographer was tired of me being at the front.
Lesson learnt: Be a massive dude instead of a 17-year old girl.

#2: "Outch, my ego"
A few months after my Ganesh experience, I started a portrait project with "older" women. The idea was to give them a tiny "makeover" with a make-up artist/hair stylist and I created an set up just for them. I did one I was pretty proud of, with paper lamps and I even took the photos standing up on a ladder (which is impressive, because I have vertigo). When I delivered the pictures, I had a pretty bad feedback from the "client" (I did not get paid for this).
Lesson learnt: I guess it has to happen, but it sucks when it does. Try to fix it as much as you can and don't lose sleep over it.

#1: "The Side Dude"
This one wins the gold cup! I was building my portfolio and was collaborating with a few models. One of them asked if I could take pictures with her boyfriend, who was also a model, and I said yes. God, I should have broken my leg instead, that guy was not easy to deal with. In fact, he didn't want me to take pictures of him from the side because he didn't like his hair that day. It pretty much speaks for itself.
Lesson learnt: A-L-W-A-Y-S meet your model before. I probably would have figured that guy was a weirdo.

Don't forget, the worst experiences are the best to tell.

Talk soon, 

J.