Help – My Photographer Doesn’t Return My Calls!

By Kitten Rodwell

As a photographer, let me tell you every time my phone rings and I can see from the number that it is not my 90 year-old Mother or sister calling about Mother, I shutter. Depending on whether I am sitting at my desk in front of the computer and not in the middle of working on an image – I’ll most likely an- swer. If I am in the kitchen in the middle of feeding my dogs – not happening. At 11pm at night – not happening. Ditto 6 am. In the middle of my dinner – NOPE. And as for returning calls that my answering machine hasn’t zapped in the latest southern electrical storm, it may take a week depending on my show schedule.

Have you tried reaching me by email? BINGO! If it’s something simple (email to…, take new champion off the sign – got the wrong pic, not my dog), it gets done either right that day or the next. Less simple “which dog was it” when I am on the road and the catalog is back in the office, what is my current bill, where did you send the reserve winners picture? Those issues might get buried under more “urgent” emails but will still be addressed long before I start return- ing phone calls.

HERE ARE REAL LIFE EXAMPLES OF PHONE CALLS WAITING ON MY MACHINE TO BE RETURNED:

Hello, this is Tina. You took my dog’s picture last month and the flash caught his tail so it needs to be slightly darkened. Call me. Click. Put on my magic Harry Potter hat and guess the show, breed, owner’s name and phone number.

Hi, Chuck here. This is the second time I’ve called. My number is mumble, mumble, mumble.

Kit, you are the absolutely best photographer in the world, Dumbo’s picture is awesome – send 4 more immediately. And Dumbo would be???

Kit, this is the worst picture I have ever had, Poopsie is fantastic, I look like I died three days ago. I will never use you again unless you can find a better picture of me and fix this one. And you would be whom?

Terri here – where is my picture? Click.

Call me so I can give you my credit card number – click.

You say your pictures take forever to get to you? Let’s go into a little history about how dog show pictures have evolved. I showed my first dog in 1965. Shows were mostly a one day affair on Sundays and there were sometimes weeks between shows. While you haunted the mailbox, it was usually there before the next show you were entered in. There was no Facebook to post your win on, your club and/or breeder was not anxious to add your win pic to their website, and your judge wasn’t scheduled at a show near you for another year, so there was no urgency to get him/her a copy of the picture with a thank you note.

Short URL: http://caninechronicle.com/?p=112261

Posted by Alex on Sep 18 2016. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.