This was quite the story in a long time, so lets cut right into it! Originally the corpo shoot was set for evening, which never works for me nor natural light setting required, so once I got a hold of the owner I bumped it up to a reasonable time. Usual fight through traffic to get there, found parking that was luckily nice and easy for the little corner of crossroads in Annandale this is in, walk in this brand new spot that’s slated to open in literally couple of days. Makeshift staff gets on the food prep, and while owner is popping in and out of the kitchen area he poses one of the best questions – how about some shots for them as well?
“Don’t worry about money, I gotchu bro!” is usually a line I like to hear, but fact that it was said well ahead of even asking my rates…. well, this one is always interesting and serves as a nice premise for these opportunities since that immediately points to two things – money not being an issue, and venue wanting the work done. Excellent. I ask the owner if he has plates of any kind to elevate the look and to adhere to my standard of work, to which I get a, “don’t worry about plates bro, I want to do a takeout concept.” Alright. Like when you order any item on almost any menu anywhere – you forgoing some ingredients does not change the price of the item, so that is almost always understood by both parties. What I lacked, however, was my normal set of equipment and told them up-front that I’ll knock about 30% off my rates for that sheer fact. Everyone looked in agreement, but no one still even bothered to inquire regarding my rates, so I proceed on the Don’t-worry-I-got-you-bro punchline.
Initial shoot done, we move into the overtime for the restaurant and now the pacing eases up. I get hit with another fairly standard question of – could I take some videos of sauce pours in all the items, so I reply, “sure thing!” Now most of the makeshift crew leaves and it’s pretty much the owner and one of his friends from the looks of it there. Owner is busy with setting up the point of sales system that is having incredibly simple hiccups and useless customer support can’t even handle it, but that’s not for me to focus on, my focus is on shooting various saucing of all 12 dishes (and then a bonus round at the very end). Everything gets wrapped up almost 2 hours later. I explain that I will get the work done, send him proofs and invoice, and then final copies once I receive my payment. They ask me how much, so I roughly break it down and owner and his buddy are suddenly starting to sweat a little.
“C’mon bro, can you give me a package deal?” As originally said, I repeat that that’s with the discount since I don’t have my full set of gear on me, and that I will send him the invoice once I’m done with edits. “Can you air drop the videos?” Hahaha, no, not how using professional equipment works that use formats that no rotten apple phone would understand off the bat. As with any restaurant – yes, edits aka food prep is mandatory. If you want something immediately then and there, you can always delegate it to your buddy to use his phone, or you pay a professional who’s also there to handle it, but it will be handled how I normally handle things. Finally, owner guy insisted on getting everything as early as possible the next day and I already had quite a few things on my schedule, but I agreed to bump the rest of my business for his.
I get things done early next afternoon, shoot off proof and invoice, and get on with my day that suffered a few hours of delay. Some time later I finally get a reply – “C’mon bro, that’s too much! lol rush delivery fee, c’mon bro!” All almost literally in these exact words. Whining after being macho the day before with the whole he got me and not to worry that they’ll pay. Right. I come down to my absolute lowest price to which I get an immediate low ball counter offer, and an absolutely hilarious, “if you change your mind in an hour, let me know.” I simply reply, “cheers then,” and finally get back on the rest of my delayed itinerary.
About an hour an some change later I check my phone after getting back to its vicinity to it being absolutely blown up by this guy. “I have a dealership and I got a guy that can do all of this cheaper and per hour even if I remake all of the food.” Why even tell me this in all honesty? Just like any restaurant, I provide a level of service that has a cost, and there’s no point in begging and bartering kind of nonsense. It’s like asking for a burger, half price, and reason being that you could just make one at home, but you’re already here… Mentioning opening more locations the night before and then throwing this whole car dealership fact at me – trying to prove that he has plenty of capital available, but just doesn’t want to pay me my rate that was already stepped down twice. If the itemized invoice seemed like too much, well, the hours this job took me in all would actually closely match as well. So, I just go back to doing the rest of my work. Eventually this guy agrees to my low-ball of a final offer and we finally conclude the deal. Absolutely walking the line of hilarious and ridiculous way to do business.
I have had places ask me to do work for them before. They all heard my same exact rate. Some places declined, some places accepted, and some also took me up on venue packages on top of food ones. How and why owners forget that my work will elevate their sales for a long, long time since everything hinges on imagery these days and that it is an absolutely necessary investment today is beyond me, especially considering that only long-established places could get away with it, but even they don’t and maintain solid visual presence.
And to wrap this one up with the key point of a food porn blog – how was the food? I have no idea, since after entire 3 hours with plenty of plates sitting there, not a single one was offered to me, so I would go ahead and heed google maps reviews if anything.
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