Yesterday morning Channel 7 aired a segment on their "The Morning Show" about Wedding photographers and brought in 'Choice', the consumer advisory group to discuss wedding photography.
During the segment the Choice spokesperson, Tom Godfrey, stated "Ask the best man or maid of honor to call the photographer telling them it will be just a party". He did so based on the assumption that wedding photographers charge more, and told consumers to LIE to the photographer about what the event is to get a better price.
The actual segment has been pulled from the Channel 7 website, so I cannot link to it.
The Choice facebook page has been inundated with complaints from photographers about this : https://www.facebook.com/choiceaustralia
The entire segment on The Morning Show began with a quick comment about one photographer who is being investigated by fair trading: https://www.facebook.com/whereismihaja
http://www.rentacam.com.au/blacklist...blacklist.html
http://www.qls.com.au/For_the_profes..._not_to_employ
The segment basically was then driven by this one case to give the public the mis-assumption that ALL wedding photographers are rip-offs. Needless to to say, the AIPP was not happy, along with a huge number of photographers who shoot weddings and do so professionally, in their approach, conduct, pricing and final product: https://www.facebook.com/AIPPOfficia...51721439763687
My reason for posting this here, is that if members are in the photography business and you are approached to photograph a 'party', it might be in your interest to have a clause added to your contract along the lines of full disclosure about the type of event you will be photographing, being required. Otherwise you could find that 'party' booking you took is a 6-8 hour wedding!