Just made steak tacos for dinner with appropriate sides and I am so stuffed with delicious that I hurt.

I spend parts of every day scripting things in my head to share that I can’t/shouldn’t/won’t say on facebook/twitter/blog, but then I forget most of it before I write it down.

To be clear, I shouldn’t say anything here I wouldn’t say anywhere else either, but this is MY PERSONAL BLOG dammit so you get me the person, and if someone wants to stalk me hard enough to find it then I’m not the one they should be judging.

In May of this year we ran a gr0upon, for portrait sessions. I really should write a book about HOW TO STRUCTURE A GR0UPON OFFER TO MAKE MONEY AND NOT TAKE IT UP THE ASS, but that’s a whole other conversation. We are making a decent amount of money (and I’m referring entirely to after sales here, not what we got from gr0upon as that doesn’t even cover our costs, nor should it have), and did it for a number of reasons all of which have business rationale not pie in the sky unicorns are pretty rationale. Anyways.

We KNEW going in that working with clients who would not normally be our clients would present a unique set of – ahem – challenges. We KNEW they would be high maintenance. We did EVERYTHING in our power to provide as much information as possible, and I think we’ve done a great job.

But SERIOUSLY – THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS NOT CLEVER IN ANY WAY.

I’ve really paid attention and anytime I have gotten the same question more than once, I’ve gone back and looked at the process/system/etc. to try to make things more clear. That being said, almost 100 of these clients have gone through selecting dates/booking/shooting/ordering/receiving product, and I am constantly inundated with completely unique, really really dumb questions. Only, I know it’s not me, it’s them, because 99 other people had no problem figuring these things out. Sorry m’am, it’s just you.

Some of my favourites (facts changed to protect my paranoia)

- “I bought a 6×9″ frame and the print I ordered doesn’t fit.” “No, it wouldn’t, you ordered a 5×7″ print.” “Well, why do you provide prints in that size if they make frames for different sizes?”

- “I’d like to do my shoot in a park because I like the photos you have on your website of a couple sitting in the grass” (until the phone call for clarification…) “I didn’t know I’d have to walk on the grass, my heels sink in if I do that, can we shoot at the park but not go on the grass at all?”

- “I want photos of us running in the waves at sunset, in t-shirts and shorts” “We can definitely do a shoot on the beach, but most days are fairly overcast if not rainy in November and it’s pretty cold to be in the water” “I know, but I thought you might be able to make it look sunny, and have some suggestions on how to stay warm”

Not to even mention the numerous emails and calls because people can’t read at all…

I am sadly being reminded of working tech support almost every time I pick up the phone. I can’t wait until we’re back to working only with our normal group of totally awesome, completely rational, intelligent, smart, funny clients who both understand and love what we do

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