Sometimes the day just doesn’t go in your favor……

For everyone who reads this, I know you’ve had “one of those days.”  Fact of the matter is, those days happen.  You just roll with it, take a deep breath, roll some more, and eventually you get home and can just flop.

I’ve been flopping for a while now tonight.

The honest truth……the “day” had nothing to do with me.  It had to do with many people around me.  Clients, friends, folks wandering in off the street.  A day of issues going on with other folks, and then the results spilling into my own day.  I’m sure you know the feeling.

Early into the day I got a panicked call from a friend.  While working on a file for a client his computer completely did a blue screen of death.  Then it went a step further and went to the black screen of death.  That’s the screen of death where the computer screen displays nothing at all.  Each of these screens followed a nasty warning about some Trojans infecting the system last night.  Total system melt down.  Fortunately, disaster recovery was a specialty of mine in the network days!

Bad mojo across the board.

I had him bring his system by.  Hours later, restored system, viruses cleaned, and client files restored.  Backups in the future for my friend?  Yeah.

It’s at this point I’ll point out a little trick I use……  Two portable hard drives in tandem.  When I import into Photoshop Lightroom I automatically back up the main drive to the secondary drive.  I know, it’s expensive to buy multiple drives, but if you’re doing any type of tech work, photography, web design, network design, etc, you need backups!  No excuses folks, your clients will not understand.

After my friend’s near disaster I thought things would mellow out.  Whoops, totally wrong.  Just odd situation after odd situation.  Seriously.

Today I met several new potential clients.  Only potential though.

One had issues with canvas prices, which by the way are some of the most reasonable around, and the highest quality.  When I quoted $90 for a reproduction that he was planning on selling for $400 his face totally dropped.  “That’s a lot more then I planned on spending.”  Really?  Okay, you’re looking to sell a piece for $400?  What should you pay for the reproduction?  $50, or how about $25.  I mean, the sign in the window says charitable center, right?  Oh wait, no it doesn’t.

After that super odd interaction I had yet another.  A person popped in looking to do some photographic reproductions.  They’d called ahead, spoken to me previously, etc.  So I was totally prepped to print the afternoon away.  The one thing……they wanted me to review a “few” photos for them.

I was presented with 4 CDs worth of photos.  Review?  Yeah, it was a review alright.  The intention?  They wanted me to pick their photos for them, help them gain access to a gallery, etc.  Man, I’ve got to work on my boundaries with clients………

The kicker to all of this?  The bulk of the shots presented to me were photos of other people’s art.  The photographer had recently visited a few museums and other fun artistic places.  I had to explain repeatedly that it’s not okay to photograph someone else’s painting, bronze, photo, glass art, and resell it as your own piece of art.  Copyright, trademarks, the whole works.  And the bottom line for me.  I will not, under any circumstances, reproduce an image that is not your own.  I could get sued for that, loose my business, and other horrible things that could leave me worrying about whether or not dropping the soap is safe………

Speaking of soap……after today I need a hot shower.

Oh, and don’t even get me started about the female meth addict who came into the gallery again.  Second time in a month she’s come in with a story, and then a request that I give her money.  Really?  That’s okay to do nowadays?  Yup, I need a shower.