What annoyed you today?

[jinky]

Cheapskate bride and grooms! I knew part of what to expect when the bride haggled with my price for a discount ( wish I hadn`t now) and then boasted how much she had got off the venue and other suppliers and some of the underhand tricks she pulled. Then went on to be the most demanding / emailed bride ever with over 100 emails all in by the end of which I was still saying please  complete my shot list outline / supply alternative "must have list", music for the day and running times the day before the wedding. Suffice to say it panned out just as I thought. Poorly organised keeping me running all day as I sometimes happened to overhear -"there`s a line up", "registrars say not too many photos on arrival as they are 30 minutes late with another wedding for them to get to", "cake cut and first dance will have to be later as e are just too tired" - (as if!). Drunken guests telling me how many people I could shoot at a time on the photobooth set up and swearing at me when I stood my grand! A groomsman urinating on the public Harrogate stray in retaliation for me making them walk 50 yards from the bar for a set of photos and then standing in the formation with his member hanging out of his flies as a joke as I went to shoot. Add to that my being supplied with a meal deal of a bacon sandwich, coke and Mattesons dried chicken pieces (in the bin) as my only snack during an 11.5 hour working day with a 40 minute break all day (in two parts). beware those thinking wedding photography looks an easy gig!

How did I deal with it?
Though I don`t think they noticed much I was less cooperative / keen to seek as many special images as I usually seek to do - given they wouldn`t leave the bar and smoking area I had little choice
As the flashing groomsman bragged to vaious people/ groups and within his speech of his exploits I raised laughs explaining I`d spotted it luckily but photoshop would have been an easy option as there would have been such a small area to deal with - his mates give him a lot of stick for that and he left me alone thereafter.
I shut up the photobooth earlier than planned after the drunk bridesmaid spilled a whole jug of water over a good section of my props - cheap tat in the main but my cheap tat and worthy of an apology I`d have thought but no!
generally means a quicker edit than I would do usually - all in lightroom with a bit of work in NX2 and photoshop for the photobooth shots.

It was not being offered one drink all day by bridal part or guests and the meal deal that got me most! I have a clause in my contract that says feed me but not with an expensive wedding breakfast but a sandwich and soft drink I can order at the bar. Some have ignored this and supplied a wedding breakfast I`ve no time to eat whilst other times a venue has brought me something without asking but really a £3 meal deal from Morrisons! as I explain that I am carrying 2 huge prop backs, 2 camera gear bags + a whole host of frames and lots of water I cannot carry anymore why would someone say at the first home shoot of preps "Your lunch is in the fridge just take it with you when you go to the venue?". I give more tea / biscuits etc to a guy coming to do a 2 hour job at my house. A total stranger stopping by the hotel for a quiet drink on his own said " How you you put up with this lot? You look really exhausted with a sweat on - do you want some of my pint?".

Rant over - sorry. Only 4 more wedding to do before I stop trading. At least those ones seem OK - for now! If any of you have loved ones getting married please don`t treat the photographer like a skivvy to be worked into the ground because you`ve failed to plan and give them a decent snack. You`ll see the benefits of being human and decent in the edited output. I did have so many people telling me how hard I`d worked all day at the end which was nice appreciation but it will be a while before I forget this one.

[Jediboy]

Jinky that sounds like a nightmare. I can see why you would want to give it up, it's a shame that people can't treat you with some respect. Good luck with the last few and I hope that they don't cause you too much grief.

[jinky]

Cheers Jediboy - just summed up a rough week I guess. As ever probably not as bad as it felt after a late night / early rise but I do think I made the right decision to stop if it gets to me like this. Most have been enjoyable and as I edit just now it`s nice to see some nice pics emerge but no I won`t miss going back to shooting in a more relaxed way now that the old bones creak when I try to get from a prone lying position with a heavy camera on each hip!

[Graham]

  I think when the haggling starts is the time to say "I'm sorry, I don't think I'm the photographer you need." and just walk away.

[Oldboy]

  I think when the haggling starts is the time to say "I'm sorry, I don't think I'm the photographer you need." and just walk away.

Very good advice. It's the one reason I've refused to do any shoots where I'm paid. Once you accept the coin you no-longer call the tune. 

[jinky]

  I think when the haggling starts is the time to say "I'm sorry, I don't think I'm the photographer you need." and just walk away.

Yes but with the world and his dog out there willing to shoot for peanuts and facebook groups driving prices every downward it sets you up sometimes. I didn`t do too badly out of it as I got her to go up a long way from where she started when first contacted with a take it or leave it offer from me in the end but I should have guessed  it would turn out as it did. The annoying thing was seeing the crap she had spend money on like wishing wells, letters, favours and the like. never mind it part funded my Vietnam trip 

[Oldboy]

This:

Yesterday I noticed utilfortunitas.exe running on my PC and slowing it down. A quick check on Google showed it to be malware. To remove, press Control-Alt-Delete keys together and from the list select Start Task Manager. Select the Processes Tab and select utilfortunitas.exe from the image name then click End Process.

Left click on the Start button select Control Panel, click on the Programs and Features. Select utilfortunitas or fortunitas from the list and click on uninstall and follow the instructions in the box that appears.

It got onto my PC by saying it was a Java Update from Oracle and appeared just like the Java update box. 

[Reinardina]

What security software do you use?

[Graham]

This:

Yesterday I noticed utilfortunitas.exe running on my PC and slowing it down. A quick check on Google showed it to be malware. To remove, press Control-Alt-Delete keys together and from the list select Start Task Manager. Select the Processes Tab and select utilfortunitas.exe from the image name then click End Process.

Left click on the Start button select Control Panel, click on the Programs and Features. Select utilfortunitas or fortunitas from the list and click on uninstall and follow the instructions in the box that appears.

It got onto my PC by saying it was a Java Update from Oracle and appeared just like the Java update box. 

  I got a Java update message the other day. I usually just click "Update" but I got a funny feeling about this one (no idea why) and deleted the message. Probably a good thing I did as it's not come back, which I presume it would if it was genuine.

[Hinfrance]

I seriously doubt this came with the Java install - it is, allegedly, adware, so probably snuck in with some free application you had recently installed. In fact that is precisely the install method that the French malware companies predict.

The French sites say that simply uninstalling the .exe file isn't enough, you need to remove it from your browser extensions and plugins, delete the caches, and then run an anti malware prog to get rid of the embedded nonsense it will have already written to the hard drive.

Sounds like a pernicious little beggar . . .

[Oldboy]

I seriously doubt this came with the Java install - it is, allegedly, adware, so probably snuck in with some free application you had recently installed. In fact that is precisely the install method that the French malware companies predict.

The French sites say that simply uninstalling the .exe file isn't enough, you need to remove it from your browser extensions and plugins, delete the caches, and then run an anti malware prog to get rid of the embedded nonsense it will have already written to the hard drive.

Sounds like a pernicious little beggar . . .

This is what I found.

It has been discovered that Fortunitas can be installed onto your personal computer illegally. For example, you may find this application installed onto Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer browsers after downloading illegal Java installers, fictitious PDF converters and other unreliable software. Needless to say, if the extension has been installed onto the browsers without your notice, you may be oblivious to their existence. Despite this, you will realize that you need to delete Fortunitas as soon as various ads, pop-ups and banners offers will start flooding your web browsers. Some of the presented advertisements could route you to authentic and trustworthy websites; however, some of them could be completely unreliable. This is because the presented advertisements are managed by undisclosed third parties.

The suspicious Fortunitas is not available from its official download page fortunitas.net, which is why it is distributed with the help of undesirable software. This should be enough to have no further hesitations about the removal of the suspicious application. Unfortunately, computer users continue running the plugin just like its clones BringStar, AdvanceMark or SizlSearch. After the application is installed onto the browsers you will discover various pop-ups whenever browsing online shopping websites and regular websites. At first you may think that these are useful; however, soon enough you are likely to find the appearing offers disturbing. Furthermore, you might discover that your computer is running slower than usual. These are the symptoms which can be disabled if you remove Fortunitas from the PC.

Fortunitas removal should be performed right away if the application has been installed onto your personal computer without any of your notice. If this is what happened you should consider this advertisement supported program to be intrusive and potentially dangerous. Click the download button below to acquire an automatic malware removal tool which will delete Fortunitas from your PC. You can also remove the undesirable application manually; however, note that the instructions presented below may be helpless against other potentially running threats

[Hinfrance]

Well at least you've got rid of the little menace

[Oldboy]

Well at least you've got rid of the little menace

Not a problem. I think, like Graham said, I had a Jave update and clicked install. Later, I remembered I had installed a Java update a few days before and thought it a bit strange, but concluded that one hadn't installed correctly. 

[spinner]

Local Municipal elections taking place in my area today. Since late Fri. night I've been inundated with robocalls by the various candidates. As far as I'm concerned it's an invasion of my privacy 

[Reinardina]

Anyone use Gmail? Wanted to send a BCC but could not find the 'right button' to click. Probably overlooked it. If anyone can point me in the right direction, then, yes please.