While at her brother's wedding, a mum spotted the photographer taking snaps of her 18-month-old son, who was the only baby at the otherwise child-free ceremony. Although the photos were sweet, she decided to have a polite word to make sure close-up pics weren't used for any promotional purposes, being anxious to protect her little one's privacy.
Unfortunately, the photographer took issue with this, and quickly became 'defensive', stating that the bride had signed off on his terms and conditions which permitted him to use any photos on his social media pages, website, or promotional flyers.
Clarifying that she didn't mind so much about the group shots, she explained that she simply didn't want the close-up pics of her son to be used in this way. She then gently reminded the photographer that as the boy is just a child, he cannot yet give his consent, and as his parent, she did not give hers, regardless of any paperwork her sister-in-law had signed.
The photographer simply shrugged in response and told her 'sorry, no can do', point blank refusing to agree to her terms. Having initially tried her best to be polite, the mother - who has a strict no social media rule when it comes to her son - decided to take matters into her own hands.
Taking to Reddit, where she goes by the username u/throwawayweddingpic2, the mum wrote: "I didn’t set out to be difficult but he rubbed me up the wrong way so for the rest of the event I made sure to always place myself between the photographer and my son to prevent him getting more pics."
She continued: "It was a bit awkward at times having to shift my position mid conversation but I didn’t make a scene or do anything inappropriate for the photos. In fact, nobody even knew what I was doing and I certainly wasn’t going to trouble the bride and groom over it during their big day.
"It was only after the fact when my sister-in-law got the photos back that she asked me what was going on. Instead of focusing on other guests, the photographer had in fact continued trying to photograph my son and the result is a huge number of photos with my back turned."
Although this wasn't her intention at all, her sister-in-law is now annoyed about her having inadvertently blocked out other wedding guests and is also bitterly disappointed that there aren't any photos of her dancing with her young nephew.
She's tried to explain exactly why she acted the way she did, but her family feels she should have just made them aware of any concerns beforehand. Given this was the first wedding she'd taken her son to, however, she hadn't imagined that there would be any sort of issue with the photographer.
One fellow Reddit user commented: "You have a right to make choices for your child and the photographer is definitely a big a**hole for neglecting the wedding and focusing on your son, either for his own benefit or to spite you.
"I can understand your sister-in-law's disappointment, but she needs to take it up with the photographer, who behaved unprofessionally, rather than with you."
Another advised: "This photographer sucks. The professional way to resolve this would have been to respect your wishes and focus on the other guests, speak to the bride and groom about the situation, or both.
"Continuing to try and take photos of an uncooperative guest who stated they didn't want to be photographed further was just stupid, and that's what ruined your sister-in-law's photos."
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