Yikes

The photographer from our recent shoot posted a video of the editing process of one of the photos he took of me. Besides color and lighting alterations, he Photoshopped by waistline to be smaller.

It took me several days to realize that I felt weird about this. As a nutrition business owner and coach, it seemed disingenuous to have my hard-earned work eclipsed by a few minutes of photo manipulation.

I texted him asking to take the post down, saying I felt uncomfortable with the alterations to my shape and that we wanted the photos to be authentic and approachable. He didn't respond. Two days later, I asked him again. He skirted the question. I asked him again. He avoided giving me a straight answer. I asked him a final time. Nothing.

Tyler called him the next morning. In short, the photographer refused to take the post down.

He emailed us shortly after to say that he'd get around to deleting the post sometime today when he wasn't busy. He immediately blocked our business and personal accounts on social media. And did finally take the post down.

I can't imagine having a client tell us they felt uncomfortable with something we posted about them, and then refusing to take it down.

We got a thirteen paragraph the next day from his wife. I chose not to read it.

Lesson learned: Work with people you know well and trust.

Lesson relearned: People who seem overly-friendly are probably crazy.

Went on a little break from Instagram for a few days after that. Nasty experiences just make you want to step back and regroup.