Anna Mitankin (0:00)

It was neither a dark nor a stormy night. It was a beautiful Saturday in the middle of spring. And I was second shooting a very high end, fancy wedding and was very excited about it. I was working with another photographer that I really liked working with. And this wedding had all the makings of a really fun, very photogenic day. So I arrive and the room where the women were getting ready was very small and quite crowded. It was in this historic venue and that room was just not a large space. So after introducing myself to the bride and the mother of the bride, I decided that the best way that I could make use of my time until more of them were dressed and had makeup on and all that sort of thing, was to take some of the, you know, various details out of the room into this beautiful space and make some detailed photos. So I ask for, you know, shoes and garters and jewelry and all that sort of thing. And as the mother of the bride, who was a very stiff, very serious woman, was handing me her daughter's ring, engagement ring, she made a very specific point of telling me about how this was her mother's ring. It was this family heirloom. It also looked quite large in terms of the stone on it. And she made some sort of like, joke about how I needed to be really careful or, you know, this was the first time she met me. Maybe she was making a joke about like, don't run off with this or something. And I obviously didn't roll my eyes at her, but internally I was rolling my eyes like, of course I'm going to be careful with your stuff. I'm not, you know, to steal your ring. So I go out into the space and I'm doing my thing, I'm making photos and I take out my macro lens and I get ready to photograph the bride and groom's rings and this engagement ring. And I found a really pretty spot to set them up where I was going to get this really beautiful bokeh in the background. And so if you've ever tried to photograph rings, you know how it is, they're, they're small, they don't like to sit exactly the way that you want to sit them. So I'm trying to kind of nest them. And the engagement ring falls, which typically, no big deal, right? It was on a table. And so it, you know, worst case scenario, it's ring, it's a diamond, it's not going to break. But what happens is that it falls onto the floor where it bounces and then bounces again and goes directly down An H Vac vent that was about 8ft away from where I was standing. Like I hadn't even noticed this vent because it was nowhere near where I was. It was just the bad dumb luck that this ring happened to want to bounce in that direction. And I hear it right, like plink, plink, plink. And I, my stomach just dropped. I was like, how did this just happen? And how do I get myself out of this? So I like, I think I must have stood there frozen for five solid seconds before I could do anything. And then I'm like, okay, this is okay. The air conditioning duct does not go down into like the sewer system. We'll be able to get this eventually. But of course, I really did not want to kick off this wedding day by going back into this room full of women and announcing that, haha, I actually did lose your engagement ring and we're going to have to call somebody to get it out. So I go over to the H vac vent and as gently and delicately as I can, of course I'm wearing, you know, all of my like, dress up wedding gear, pull the vent cover off and inch my arm down this like curved duct to see if it happens to be within reaching distance that I can get to this ring. And I am full shoulder, like all the way down to my neck deep in this H vac duct when I start to hear commotion outside of the room. I can hear the bride's like group of. I didn't know who it was, but I could hear women talking and they were coming toward the thing, toward this room where I'm standing. And so I'm feeling around and I don't want to make any sudden moves because I don't want to of course, knock the ring and knock it further if it happens to be within reach. And I'm feeling around and I, and I feel something hard. I feel this ring in my, in my fingers and I'm just as stretched as can be, like splayed out on the floor, arm down in this hole. And I get this thing in my fingers. It was like playing a giant game of operation. I hook it over my finger and I pull the ring out of the H Vac just in time to sit up and see the bride's mother walk into the broom. And the only way that I got away with this without having to confess what had just happened was that she was so, you know, animatedly talking to the wedding coordinator about I want these flowers over here and this over here, that she didn't notice that I was sitting on the floor right beside a giant hole in the floor with her daughter's ring on my finger. So I stood up and I gathered all my stuff. I put the H vac vent cover back on the hole in the floor. I went back into the room, I delivered everything back to the bride and she had all her stuff again. And then I went and sat in the bathroom shaking for like 15 minutes. I had to do a lot of deep breathing to get rid of the adrenaline that was just flooding my system. I can tell that story now and laugh, but the day of it shook me to my core. It was a total nightmare. And I tell that story now to kick off a series of stories like this one, where I asked you, my listeners, to share your worst stories, your horror stories, whether they were things that, you know happened to you like this, like that was your fault, or whether it was an issue with a client, or just sort of the bad luck that happens every once in a while in this industry. And my hope is that, like, you know, once upon a time I used to read embarrassing stories in the teen magazines that I read and things like that. That this sort of shared sense of exasperation, mortification and horror can actually help you smile your way through this season. Because even though we take our jobs seriously, and we should take our jobs seriously, every once in a while, it's worth standing back and laughing at some of the absurdity that being a small business owner entails. Welcome to this Can't Be that Hard. My name is Anna Mitankin and I help photographers run profitable, sustainable businesses that they love. Each week on the podcast, I cover simple, actionable strategies and systems that photographers at every level of experience can use to earn more money in a more sustainable way. Running a photography business doesn't have to be that hard. You can do it and I can show you how. Now, I just shared a pretty embarrassing story, so to make myself feel better, I'm going to kick things off with some stories that were shared where, like me, these photographers made kind of rookie mistakes that landed them in some nightmarish situations. We're going to talk about the importance of having a second photographer at an engagement session, which I'd almost never done but on this one particular occasion really came through for me. I love shooting film. I have a whole bunch of different medium and large format cameras and Leicas, and on this particular day I was flown to New York to do an engagement session with some fancy clients. They took us to a really fancy lunch where we went to this sushi restaurant that was closed, and we were able to go in and make photos. We wandered around. I'm shooting. It's Mamiya 7, so it's a rangefinder. You look through one part of the camera and the lens is in a different part, which is critical for what happened. And I'm shooting film and I'm so excited. And I feel very Cosmopolitan. And about 2/3 of the way through the day, I look down and realize that my lens cap is on my camera. All of the photos that I've been shooting the entire day were shooting straight into a lens cap. And I just like, I died. I stood there frozen. Because at this point, I'm at the throes of, like, do I admit what just happened or do we just move on? I take the lens cap off and wonder if they had noticed a lens cap on the entire day. I'm going to say no, but that's really occurred to me. And then I looked over at the person who was helping me, my second photographer. And luckily for this, like, I had had a great photographer friend of mine travel along on this trip, and they got all of the photos. I had two photos. I got two photos the entire session. Luckily, one of them was like a really great scene setting photo. But every other photo, all of the ones that were important, I made none of them. So that was exciting. Second photographers at portrait sessions, in case you are an idiot and shoot into a lens cap. All right, so it's ironic that this just happened. So I listened to this episode, pulled up the feature to submit a story, and then was like, I don't really know if I have anything. Then I had a session and now I have a story. So I am a boudoir photographer with a home studio. And today I had sweet client bride in beautiful, wonderful, lovely person. And halfway through my session, I realized I moved a blanket and I realized that my puppy or my wiener dog had peed on the bed that I had been posing her on. And I did not know. So I've been posing my client, laying her and pee the worst. I don't feel like I should ask for a review. Like, she was really sweet except for the pee smell. And anyways. All right, that's it. Okay. So quite a long time ago, I drove 45 minutes to get to my favorite photo session spot and like usual, prepped all my gear, made sure my batteries were packed, batteries were charged, SD cards were clear, all that good stuff before ever leaving, right? Got 45 minutes down to my session with my camera bag, all the goodies, all the all the backup things to find my camera was not in my camera bag. I had left it on my desk, right where I took the battery out, probably with no battery, got all the way there. And of course 45 minute drive. Could not drive home and come back and get it. We were in the middle of an island with no place to go buy a new battery. In the sweet family of five, we couldn't do their photos and rainy season was upon us and so I had to reschedule them. And at that time I was all inclusive and so or a hybrid, all inclusive. And so I just offered to give them everything for their basic package for being willing to reschedule. It was mortifying, absolutely mortifying. My horror story. So my horror story actually happened at the first wedding I ever shot. I had a friend who was an event planner in Montreal. And through at that time, I was taking photos of cocktail events, nightclubs, corporate events, anything that could keep me busy. And through one of the events I ran into her and we became friends. She on the side was trying to get her wedding planner career going and she asked me if I would shoot her wedding. We had been friends for a few years at that point and amazing. Of course I gave her great price. That'd be, that's, that's how in my mind I'm like, that's how I get in to wedding photography. This is my, this is, this is the door. So I'm all excited. A few weeks before the event, the wedding, I buy a second camera, I buy all the, the best gear that I could afford at that time, which wasn't all that much. So I get to the wedding, I get to the venue, which was in Vermont, about an hour away from Montreal where I live. I get there a few days early to scout everything out, have all my photo locations ready. And as many people listening to this I'm sure you have, is you've watched YouTube videos on how to's and all this and that. I'm like, okay, what do I need to do? So the day of the wedding, the wedding was in two locations, one by the lake and then the reception was on a field. They pitched up a massive tent and there's about 20, 30 tents out in this field at this point, the main tent being where the party was. But speaking of partying around, at around 10 o'clock the day of the wedding, I began to party with everybody. I mean, these were my university friends, these were the closest, my closest friends. And I decided to put all my equipment away, lock everything up, get Everything in a safe space. The next morning, wake up, and we are all given. We were all given chores to do to help, you know, clean up for everybody. This was not, say, a low budget wedding, but this was more DIY style. And I'm packing my car up, packing everything up, and I see that I wanted to take a few more photos of everyone cleaning up. I mean, this was pretty cool that everyone's participating not only in the wedding, but in the cleanup as well. So I try to take some photos and realize I don't have an SD card. Like, where the hell is my SD card? I don't find my SD card case. I don't find not even my backups, not even the extra ones that I keep in a random pocket. I cannot find them. I start pacing up and down this field. And while I'm pacing up, down this field, it goes through my mind that this is a lot worse than it seems. My friend who asked me to shoot her wedding was marrying a man who for the last two years had been fighting cancer. And the doctors had given him just a few weeks at this point. So not only was this a wedding, but this was a celebration of life. This was. People came to see him for the last time. I go into the tents and I'm ready to tell my friend, like, I need some help to find this. As she walks up to me, she had been stacking up the chairs with. And she said, I found your suit jacket. And she gives me my suit jacket. And as I grab the suit jacket, I feel something inside the breast pocket. I could have cried. I could have cried. I had felt sick to that moment. I had put it in my suit jacket, thinking, oh, this would be the safest place I could put this. Not realizing I was going to have an absolute panic attack trying to look for it the next morning. Yeah, don't do that. I made the mistake of going to an eye doctor appointment the morning before a wedding. And those yellow drops that they used to dilate your eyes were given to me. And I. My eyes were no longer dilated by the time the wedding started. But the yellow drops affected the way that my contacts fit in my eyeball, and they made my eyes feel very dry and felt like they were closed. I could barely see because my contacts kept moving around in my eye and it felt like I was almost shooting blind. It was awful and probably the dumbest thing I've ever done before a wedding. Do not recommend the eye doctor the day of a shoot. Just don't do that. But it's not always our fault when things go wrong, right? Sometimes, despite our best efforts, we end up working with clients who make the job so difficult it haunts us for years. So I was doing a family session and this was like a family reunion type of situation. So There were about 20 people involved and the weather was iffy. So we ended up cramming everybody into a room that was not like super tiny. And luckily the ceilings were high enough to get some lights set up. But nothing like out of the ordinary in terms of seeming, you know, stress or anything like that. But we finally get everybody in place and we're. I started taking photos and one of the kids, like 7 or 8 year old, is picking his nose, which is fine, but the grandfather, the sort of patriarch of the family, notices the kid picking his nose. And meanwhile the father is like standing behind the kid and is just kind of like, hey buddy, come on, let's, we're taking a picture. And so the dad is like dealing with it, but the grandfather turns around and sees the kid picking his nose and grabs the kid's hand and pretty like forcefully. And the father just sees red and he grabs the grandfather by his shirt collar and he says, if you ever touch my kid again, I'm going to kill you. And there's like a very long. I mean it couldn't have been more than one second, but it felt, felt like a very long pause. And then the grandfather shoots up and punches the dad in the face and the whole place just goes nuts. Everybody's screaming. There is like an active fist fight going on again. This is 20 people in a relatively small space just going bananas. So I got four pictures before that happened and I'm pretty proud of myself because I managed to face swap enough things around to get them their holiday card. They were very grateful for me for being calm and gracious. Just a, I guess a lesson that you should be prepared for anything. And every session after that felt relatively stress free. So I had a client, they wanted to have almost like an adventure. She, to quote her words, she wanted to be out in a field that looked very unkept. And I had a perfect location right by my house. I was so excited. Well, then the day was leading up and I was like, look, it might rain. We might be able to go for it if we have the session earlier. I was like, but you know, are you down for like, we could put rain boots on even if it's raining and have umbrellas and just have fun in the mud. Because it was just kind of the vibe that they were going for. Well, her husband did not want to do that. And I was like, okay, totally, I understand. We can reschedule. So then we reschedule. She lightly lets me know that her daughters are kind of like getting over a cold. And I was like, okay. Like, you know, everybody was sick. It was like end of October, ish, Beginning of November. So they show up to the session and they're dressed like they're maybe going to church or they're going to do, I don't know it, off to work or something like that. So nothing was like vibing with fall, rustic, going out for a walk, wild adventure. And to add to that, the girls were very noticeably ill. Wanted nothing to do with pictures. So here we are. Not all dressed appropriately. I mean, at least I'm dressed appropriately. I got boots on. I'm ready to just walk through some tall grasses. You know, the youngest needed to be carried. She didn't want to walk. I mean, she's not feeling well. So the dad here, he is fully dressed, carrying her. I'm trying to get some moments. We have a long walk. We get to the water. Finally, I'm like, okay, maybe she'll play. You know, once you start playing, going on a little adventure, we'll be okay. Littlest one didn't want to look at the camera. Wanted nothing to do with it. So I'm pulling out my fart machine that didn't even work. So then I was like, okay, well, I don't really know what. What to do. I bribed both of them with lollipops. And that was the one thing that worked. Finally, as we were leaving and taking the longest. I mean, it felt like the longest walk of my life. And I kept thinking, did I get any good photos in this? Walking up finally got some glowy light as they're walking away, something. And then I finally was like, look at me smile for a second. And I got like kind of a smile. I mean, and that was it. I'm just thinking, oh, my goodness, that was rough. And of course, there were only a few good pictures, and they bought the lowest collection. And yeah, it was rough, but I got through it. And there at least was one cute picture, but woof. So the cringiest story I ever had was this mini session. I had a family. Mom, dad, and four kids. And the kids were hateful to each other. I think they ranged in ages from probably five to 14 or so. But there was four kids, and they could not be kind to each other. They couldn't stand next to Each other. They couldn't look at each other. They were just hateful. I mean, the mean things that were coming out of each other's mouths was terrible. And so, you know, I've only got 15 minutes to grab this mini session and try to get these holiday cards for the parents. And the parents were being nasty back to the kids, too. It was just icky. So I'm standing there at one point just kind of flabbergasted, don't know what to do. I'm trying to get the shots that I can, but in every single shot, they're like, they're glaring at each other, they're yelling. They're not listening, not listening to me. Even though I am definitely I was a teacher, I can take control of a situation. But finally the mom looks up at me and she goes, so, what do you think? And I said, well, I mean, I can talk to him like I talked to my own kids. And I just kind of trailed off. And she was like, no, I mean, did you, did you get the shot? Did you, did you get a picture? Did you get the pictures? And I was like, oh, God, I totally misread that one because I was seriously about to go off on them like I would my own children. So needless to say, I actually never saw them after that. They never signed up for another mini session from me again. And I'm kind of glad. I'm a virtual IPS photographer. I do things very differently. I own that up with all of my clients and inquiries from the very get go. And so I get on the phone with all of my clients before ever booking to talk about, you know, their goals, their dreams, hopes for photos, and the pricing and how I do things differently. Right? Buy only what you love at the gallery reveal is kind of my. My catchphrase there. And this big extended family, multiple generations, probably four or five generations of extended family were in this big session. Super fun people had a blast. Really good session from start to finish. Well, two to three weeks later, at the virtual gallery reveal, you know, we had about six people attend from all over the country, right? Like, tuning into this live gallery reveal where they got to see all their photos for the very first time and pick what they wanted. And so it, you know, showed them the slideshow, all the good stuff. It really great feedback, really just fun, fun group of people. And then I was like, okay, guys, like, all right, what, what do you want to do? Like, what, what are you eyeing? Like, now's the fun part. And I was like, I, you know, I Haven't. If you need a fresh link to the price guide, I can send that over. And she's like, oh, yeah, I never saw that. I was like deer in the headlights. So my client, who hired me in front of her entire extended family said she had never seen the price guide. That I not only emailed over several months in advance, also emailed over three other times and follow ups, you know, into scheduling the gallery reveal. And I was like a deer in the headlight. It's like, how. How has she not seen this? I have done everything I possibly can. Like, it is not my fault, you know, all these things going in my head, like, but I cannot just embarrass her in front of her entire extended family. And so I was just like, oh, I sent it over several times, but I'm happy to send a new fresh link right here in the chat. And it was so awkward, so mortifying, I don't even remember. And it ended up going pretty poorly. She was really upset. She made a lot of assumptions in the booking process that, you know, in the contract she even signed. She understood the pricing guide, all kinds of things. And so she was really upset with herself. We ended up going back and forth quite a bit and things worked out. You know, I tried to be as empathetic as possible, but it was, you know, huge red flag and I hope it never happens again. So I have so many stories I could share, but this is a pretty recent one. I think it was last year. There was a lady who wanted me to take photos of her dogs. And occasionally I do that for people, but, like, I like them to be little dogs. And she was like, oh, no, I want to bring my German shepherds into your studio. And I was like, okay. I guess, like, sometimes I find it hard to say no, which is not a good quality. But she's like, don't worry. Like, one of them's a little bit young and not super well trained, but that's they're fine. And the other one is, like, really well trained. What she forgot to mention was the fact that the really well trained one was deaf. And so I had these two giant German shepherds in my studio, one of which was deaf. The other one, which was the young one, which was totally going to be fine, she said, was in a muzzle. And we couldn't make, like, eye contact with it because it would attack us. And they just kind of like destroyed the studio, like, ripped up the paper. There was mud everywhere. And then it was supposed to be just, like, photos of the, like, solo Portraits of these German shepherds. But then the lady decided that she wanted photos with her dogs. And so she got down on the paper and did these kind of, like, awkward poses where she was kind of like, hugging them and lying on them and, like, had that real kind of, like, 80s boudoir feel that. I don't know, it was just awful. Yeah. So I guess the moral of the story is just, like, never believe people when it comes to, like, their pets. They just lie to make you take photos. Like, the photos turned out great, but, yeah, like, we've stopped photographing dogs since then, so. And finally we come to those situations that aren't really anyone's fault. They're just plain bad luck. But if you stick around to the last story, you'll hear how sometimes, even when the situation seems really bad, you can turn it around and get some treats with the tricks. This story happened at the very beginning of my photography journey. I was. I was in Malaysia, in Kuala Lumpur. And this may or may not be the reason why I'm not shooting families outdoors anymore. But anyway, at the very beginning of my career, a lot of people in Malaysia wanted photos outside this family of four. We met at the park and they were nicely dressed up, and we started to do the shoot. And in the middle of the shoot, everybody's relaxing, and then there's this beautiful frame with the light. I mean, like, everything is really put together. Mum is playing with the baby. She's kind of like lifting the baby up in the air. And so I'm thinking, oh, I want to frame this in a special way. So I go closer to the bush, and I am in the bush and I'm taking those photos, and suddenly I start to feel some tingles in my neck, my arm, my body, everywhere. And it starts to actually hurt. So I get off the bush and I realize the bush is covered in red ants. And by extension, I am now covered with red ants, too. But I don't want the family to see that I am in trouble. So I'm, like, pretending everything is fine and I'm smiling away, telling them they look beautiful. And at the same time, I'm trying to chased the ants away. They big. We're talking tropical country insect size. They are huge. And so I'm starting to be a little bit in pain because obviously by trying to chase them away, they panic and they start to bite me. And I'm continuing to take the photos because I am a professional. I came home that day covered in ant bites, and I can't even remember if There were finally good photos in the end. I'm not sure, but yes, this is my horror story. Needless to say that I did not try to get photos from any bushes after that. And slowly, slowly, I started to take my client family clients indoors. So I had a commercial shoot for a fine jewelry brand that I was so excited about because it was the first time I was working with a fine jewelry brand. I worked with a few jewelry brands, but this was the first time I was going a little bit bigger in that industry. So I was really excited. I rented a lens, like a dream lens, so I could have exactly what I needed on hand. And the shoot was going great. It was about a full day shoot and everything was going really good. I dropped my camera in the middle of the shoot on the lens and it broke. And of course, I'm surrounded by the whole team, so I can't externally freak out. I absolutely internally freaked out because I was like, oh, my goodness, this is going to be so expensive. What am I going to shoot with? And this really speaks to the power of always bring it back up. Always bring it back up. Always bring it back up. I had other lenses on standby that ended up working out really well. They weren't exactly the lens I wanted to use, but they still deliver. They still met the needs of the deliverables that we had. But the internal panic of dropping my camera on a lens, Ooh, especially a lens I rented. I went through all of the mental worries of like, oh, my gosh, how much are they going to charge me to fix this? How much is it going to cost me to fix this? Am I going to have to just buy the lens and pay for it? What's this going to look like? And then, of course, the additional panic of like, okay, now what am I going to use? How am I going to switch this? I can't panic while I'm here. It was definitely an exercise in take a breath, have some patience, make a plan, do it quickly, and always, always, always have a backup. I have a book a call button on my website. I had someone book a call with me last night for this morning. So I opened my email today and it's an expected mom. She wants a maternity session. She is due at the end of the month, so she's due right around Halloween. So when someone books a call with me, I call them at the number they provided. So I call her at 9am promptly when she booked her call with me. And she picks up and I introduce myself, I say, this is Katie, your photographer. That you reached out to yesterday. And then she says, oh my God, I'm so sorry, I've lost track of things because I'm sort of preoccupied right now. I think I'm in labor. So I wished her all the best and I said, well, I suppose you won't need your maternity session now. And she says, no, I don't think I will. And yeah, we sort of said our quick goodbyes and that was that. So moral of the story is if you're expecting pre book your maternity, maternity session a little earlier than like four weeks before you're due because this can happen. I used to work at a university. I was the faculty photographer and I had been commissioned as such to go and photograph this giant group shot. So I got there, I'm in position, I've set up lights, I've got brollies, softboxes, all the things, all my triggers are in place. Yes, everything's fine. I managed to herd all these people into this group shot and get them into position and the shot itself, great. No issues whatsoever, photos coming, appearing on the back of the camera gear, working, all as usual, nothing of concern. Problem is I get back to the office to, you know, process and upload these photos and there is absolutely nothing to be found on the memory card. Not a single photo had actually recorded. Or at least as it turned out my supervisor helped me figure out in the end. But yeah, the card just completely corrupted. I've been a professional photographer for 16 odd years now and that is literally the only time it had ever happened. Fortunately for me, I guess it was, you know, I was working under another organization. But yes, very unfortunately for the client they had made a big deal out of, you know, all these people were coming together from all these different places and it was their one chance to get this photo. And yes, despite having shot it, well, as it turned out, my technology failed me and I had to, yeah, red faced, fess up as such, explain what had happened. And it was professionally devastating. And to make it even more awkward and horrifying the next time these same sort of group of people were together, say a couple of years later, I was, yes, commissioned again to go and photograph them. And the organizer had forgotten who I was. No surprises, we'd only met once, but as I was packing down from this shot that I'd retaken and this second time it all worked out perfectly fine. But I could hear her explaining to a colleague about this, you know, ridiculous situation that had happened a couple of years earlier when they'd had the exact same photo. And, you know, they'd gone to the effort of getting everyone together and scheduling it in and all this hoo ha around it. And yes, the photographer had grossly failed them and produced nothing. So that was my horror story from very early on in my career. I'll never forget it. And I have been shooting with cameras that have dual card slots ever since. Thank you, Nikon. Happy Halloween. This story really is, I feel like every photographer's worst nightmare. And it happened to me last fall. So it was a Sunday afternoon and my schedule was clear. I was sitting in the living room with my new baby, my husband, and we were just talking about how it just felt oddly peaceful. And I had just started back at work like the month before, and I was like, man, it's weird. I just, I don't know, it's. It's so quiet and we're just enjoying this day and. Wow. Well, for the last several hours that day, I had been texting, texting back and forth with the client whose session was on Monday the next day. And, you know, we were talking about final details with location and wardrobe, and she asked what time, you know, to meet, and I sent her the time. And so, you know, we are just continuing to chat. And she calls me and so I didn't answer because it's Sunday. And you know, I'm like, it can wait until tomorrow. Like her. We can talk in the morning if she has like a wardrobe question. Anyway, she calls me again and back to back like three times. So I find the answer and she says, hey, Tiff, we're here. And I'm like, here, like where? And she's like, at the photo shoot. And I was like, wait, it's tomorrow. And she said, no, it's today. And I look at my calendar and somehow I thought that the next day was the current, or the current day was the next day, or vice versa, however that works. And realized that it was Sunday and I was supposed to be at her session. And that whole day we'd been talking. I assumed we were talking about the next day. And so where she was was about half an hour away from my house. Mind you, it's sunset. So she's been there for several minutes now I'm still half an hour away. She has five children and I have a new, like three month old nursing baby. So my husband can hear the panic in my voice and he's like, give me the baby. Go. Just go. And I'm like, but I don't know. And he's like, just go, just go. And so I started driving and I call her back and I'm like, hey, do you want to reschedule? Like, let's reschedule. And she's like, I mean, you know, we're already here. I'm like, but I think we're going to have like 15 minutes maybe of light. And you know, she said, I got five kids dressed and we're here. Let's just do. Even if we get like one good family picture would be great. And so, you know, I get there, I realize that my batteries aren't charged and I have one bar, a literal one bar. So it's like everything that could go wrong is going wrong during this session. I just am thinking, this is it. Like, this is it for me. I don't know, this is a new client and I'm, you know, was so hopeful, but I'm like, this is going to ruin me. Like, I have, I have messed up beyond repair. And so I get there, we just start rapid fire shooting. Her children are the most adorable little humans. They are absolutely amazing. Happy, joyful. Dad is not very pleased, but, you know, that's understandable. I practically missed their session. But, you know, at the end of all of that, and I will tell you, my battery did die before I actually officially started stopped shooting. I kind of just kept going for a few minutes. Anywho, at the end of all of that, it's probably one of the best sessions I've ever produced in the like 15 minutes of light that we had. It has more likes than any session I have ever posted, you know, and it's just proof that we're human. We make mistakes, but sometimes they can turn out beautiful. Since that family has become pregnant with baby number six, I photographed their baby number six. They were one of the first families to enroll in my membership. And so, you know, all's well that ends well, I guess. But to say it was a nightmare, to say it was probably the worst moment of my photography career would be an understatement. Well, that's it for this week's episode of this can't be that hard. I'll be back same time, same place next week. In the meantime, you, you can find more information about this episode along with all the relevant links, notes and downloads@thiscantbethard.com learn if you like the podcast, be sure to hit the subscribe button. Even better, share the love by leaving a review in itunes. And as always, thanks so much for joining me. I hope you have a fantastic week.