When it’s just no photo booth rental…
Well the inevitable has happened!
With so many pretenders, wannabe’s and amateurs playing in the photo booth industry it wasn’t going to be too long before the ridiculous happened.
A client hiring, what they believed to be a photo booth, which clearly wasn’t.
Over time we’ve heard lots of horror stories along this line, particularly with upset brides, who believed they’d hired, as the ‘bargain of the century’ a proper, full fledged, 100% photo booth, only to have a fake photo studio appear. There is nothing wrong with event studios, indeed they can be in the right circumstances as much fun and produce some amazing portraits, but when you think you’ve hired a photo booth, which they clearly AREN’T, it’s a bit of a let down. And if your honest and this is you, and your not advising your potential clients clearly in advance of them booking, then your a dishonest, despicable liar!
So what happened in this particular instance that made it so wrong, as it turned out this was for a school prom. Now traditionally school proms have onsite photographers, who again if their doing it properly also set up a studio. Many of these photographers arrive on spec and make their income selling on the day. Not easy. In contrast, photo booths are by nature pre-hire, doesn’t matter where it is, if anyone tells you they’ll turn up for free and sell the prints on the day from a photo booth, it will be a flop and I wouldn’t trust the owner of such a booth as they clearly have no idea.
Sadly in this case, the photographer was booked to operate as a photographer, providing their service free of charge and trying to make a living by selling the professional portraits of the school leavers in their finest get-up, in their onsite studio. Enter the photo booth man, who had been pushing his ‘FAKE’ photo booth studio as a ‘photo booth’, big time, needless to say was booked on the ridiculously low quote, they gave in contrast to professionals, only to find out days before there was also going to be another ‘photographer’ there with a studio. How then can he appear with his studio & pretend it’s a photo booth? “Close your eyes kids you’ll never notice”! How did the photographer react?
Sadly I never heard the end, or the outcome I’d like to think he did the admirable thing, I somehow doubt it…
The moral of the story is simple, if you want to hire a photo booth, hire it from a ‘photo booth’ operator. Look at their website, there should be pictures of the booth and taken in the booth. If in doubt ask “What does your booth look like?”