Everything But A Groom©

PHOTOGRAPHER TELLS ALL!

Dear Friend,

I have been a Professional Photographer for over 27 years and there is a scam that is prevalent in my area (Chicago IL) that is probably being done in other areas of the US. I call it the Small Package - Big Pictures. Here is how this scam works.

A Bride goes to a Pro Photographer and Likes the really reasonable Package which includes 48 -

3 X 5 prints mounted in an album. The Price is right at about $495 to $595. The Bride agrees and puts down her deposit.

After the Wedding she is presented with a "Proof Book" with over 300 to 400 Photographs.

She is told that she has only paid for and must select only the 48 prints that were included in her package from all the beautiful memories of her Wedding.

Of course, the Bride can't part with the other 352 other memories and is hit with the dilemma.

To purchase all of her memories, she must pay between $1000 to $1500 more. Now her $495 package is costing up to $2000.00. Not such a good deal!

There is an alternative. She can become a distributor for the photographer by selling her memories to family and friends. IF she can collect 350 to 400 "Points", she can get her proofs for F-R-E-E. Each point represents

1 - 3 X 5 print. She gets 2 points for 5X7's and 4 points for 8X10's. Now, 3X5 prints are about $4.00 to $5.00 each. No need to do the Math. The Bride MUST get up to $2000.00 in reprint orders to get her proofs for "FREE".

The Problem is that it is nearly impossible to collect that many orders from Friends and Family. The Bride will more than likely come up short and will have to BEG people to order pictures. How DEMEANING.

The Bride then goes to the photographer, short the required points, and she is told she must pay for the points she didn't collect at $4-$5 per point to get her proofs for F-R-E-E. Now not only has all of the Bride's Family and Friends pitched in to get the F-R-E-E Proofs but the Bride still has to cough up even more cash.

Now here is my problem. The Bride has paid the studio to have a photographer at her Wedding to take all those Photographs. The Studio went to all the trouble to Print all of those photographs and now the Bride has to Pay for them all over AGAIN.

The question comes to mind...What is the Studio going to do with all those photographs the Bride can't afford to Buy?

Here is the answer....The Studio will use the "proofs" to FILL the orders of all those Families and Friends that tried to help the Bride get those photos for F-R-E-E. Of course, they will throw away the rest that nobody wanted.

Why shouldn't they? After all, they made on average $1500 to $2000 on the $495.00 Package.

For the Record, I include ALL of the Proofs from my Weddings in my packages at no additional charge.

Sorry to be so long winded about this. PLEASE...

I would like you to keep my personal information confidential because I still have to work around these studios and I do occasionally get business from them. It would not be good for my business if the other photographers saw that it was me that sent this scam notice."

- Anonymous (Name Kept Confidential)

So how do you save?