So clearly I lied the other day when I said I'd be back by that night with Chapter 1. I suck. The story won't even be interesting anymore by the time I get to it. I did start it and saved it as a draft, does that count?
You know who we can blame for this, right? That fucking stage mother. I took pics of her kid a couple of weeks ago. She saw some other photos I took of a child that could easily be Ralph Lauren's next model...seriously stunning. No two ways about it. Every woman that sees this child wishes they could have one just like her. Every man that sees her is impressed and uncomfortable with her beauty. So I put her in a tutu dress and took her to a butterfly garden and took stunning photos and the other moms that saw them came flocking, because they wanted their daughter to look JUST LIKE THAT.
Of course there was the small problem of genetics, but I put their children in the tutu dress and tried to recreate the magic and the stage mom was one of these moms. She herself is gorgeous and wealthy and the mom of 2 older boys, so she loves all the girly girl stuff and is doing the SAHM thing to the nth degree.
I knew she had potential to be a pain in the ass from the get go, dictating to me exactly what she does and does not like and warning me that she considers herself a photographer. Then there were the hundreds of shots that I had to crop her hand out of, because it was constantly there, waiting to sneak in to fix hair or the dress or the posture. The kid looked at her the whole time and was tense and felt awkward and was being coached to do "the smile we practiced" (don't do that by the way, it never works) but somehow I did get some beautiful shots of this nervous child.
Now we have been going back and forth all weekend because she thinks my price list is negotiable and that we'll haggle like we're at the flea market in Mexico or something.
So that has sucked up a lot of my free online time this weekend. I also got my first official order and made $500!! For that little girl that was such a terror.
Now I'm busy (read: supposed to be busy) getting ready to go to GA, because I'm pretty sure we're going there tomorrow. And I've done NOTHING. So I'm going to go do that.
8 comments:
Hey Ashley,
I love your blog. You partly inspired me to start my own blog(I say partly because my sister-in-law was the other reason). I'll be honest, this ass kissing is sort of a shameless plug for my own blog. I'm just new at this blog thing and have this unhealthy need for everyone to love me.
wait a stinking minute!? you're coming to GA and I am leaving? huh? That's plain wrong.
clemsongirl
So this stage mom is trying to push you around to get what she wants- probably like she does everyone else and they probably gives in to the windbag just to get her to shut up..little does she know that won't be the case with Ashley. If she could see one of the photo books you've made she's shut right up & order ten of them. Congratulations on finally reaping some benefits from all of your hard work! Kudos to you!!
Give her a buy-out on the high-res shots -- some exorbitant number that makes you feel like it was worth your time. Issue her a release that gives her the full rights to the photos and lets her use the however she wants and mail her a DVD of the photos. Seriously... ditch her. You don't want to put together a photo book for this chick.
Glad the business is going so great!!
Man why can't you live close to me so that you can photograph my kids. I would promise not to be a stage mom and would even try to leave because my kids seem to love to smile for other people just not me!! Congrats on making money on something you love to do, now if I could just figure out how to do that we would be set.
Joy
Congrats on the photography biz.
Ugh, stage moms...
Now I'm dying to see the "awesome, perfection" photographs you took of the other little girl with the awesome genetics.
Congrats on the success of your new business. You are my hero. I might need to copy you (what else is new?) and figure out a way I can make some extra $$ too. I'm tired of this household budget/allowance thing we have going on here.
Yes. Listen to Deb. I've had the pleasure of re-editing a 3 hours video 10 times because One of THOSE Mom's didn't like seeing her under-age daughter drunk. (Hello, you were at the party, and didn't stop her!) Then I had to do another edit because "Where's my precious Baby?"
Uhg...charge her up the ying-yang for the files.
PirateMommy
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