Frischling Stiffs Fellow Photographer, Part 1

It seems nobody despises Steven Frischling more than professional photographers. The pros can spot a fake when they see one, and they've been sick of his antics for years. Since they recently discovered our humble blog, the stories have been pouring in.

The following post occurred on Digital Wedding Forum, a place for wedding photographers. On July 22, 2008 a wedding photographer says that she responded to a post by Frischling who was in need of a photographer to shoot a wedding for him at the last minute because he had an emergency. She shot the wedding, he did not pay her and would not respond to her at all (sound familiar?). She noticed that during the weekend of the "emergency," he was updating his blog, and then the following weekend he shot two different weddings.

Also during this time, he was posting on the SportsShooter forum repeatedly, including about his book contract that went nowhere! Obviously he didn't think anyone from the SportsShooter forum would also be on the Wedding forum...

The frustrated photographer writes on the forum:

"What if you try to discuss the pay before hand and the photographer says:"Figure out what you need for compensation and I'll have my wife sort out how to get it done."Then when you say how is second shooter pay of $350 and he NEVER returns your emails?Then the bride contacts me and still nothing from the contracted photographer. Then you are really in a bad spot because you don't know what to do with the files or with the bride or the contracted photographer. Again, the contracted photographer has not communicated what to do with the files. What do I do?"

After some responses she continues:

"Not all of the photographers on here are generous. I have unfortunately found this out the hard way.
The photographer I filled in for has very questionable business practices. This is becoming more apparent as time goes by and he does not even email me and as other photographers surface with similar allegations. The bride contacted him and has not heard from him and she is upset. I've emailed him today and yesterday with still no response. I offered to send the files early on with very little compensation, but he never emailed me back.
This was an emergency posted ON THIS FORUM, so besides his posting, I really don't know him personally.  I can't even get him to respond to my emails and I don't have an address I could send files to. Still really don't know what to do."

Someone asked her if she has called him vs email and she responded:

"Several times. He does not call me back. He emails."

She continues:

"I felt like I was doing a favor and now I am in a difficult position. I don't know this other photographer personally, so how do I know he is not lying about his emergency? He did, after all, find time over the weekend I shot for him to post on his blog and went on to shoot two more weddings the following weekend. Maybe he has a celebrity call him up last minute and ask him to shoot a wedding and decided he would take advantage of the forum to cover the weddings he had. I can only guess because he does not communicate with me. Perhaps because this person flys all over the world doing weddings, he has no specific address, or perhaps he is trying to avoid having a specific contact as there are many people and clients who are frustrated with him."

Another photographer pointed out that Frischling has been active on SportsShooter forum and should have had time to call the photographer back:

"The point of my post was to indicate the photographer in question isn't in some far off land beyond the reach of modern communication.
On Tuesday July 22nd he posted at 4:09pm, 4:43pm, 8:06pm, 9:59pm, and 10:39pm about his new business deal on Sportsshooter.com
Then yesterday July 23rd he posted at 6:37am, 7:30am, 3:12pm, 3:16pm, 8:19pm, and 8:25pm again on Sportsshooter.com about the same subject.
In his first Sportsshooter.com post on the subject (Tuesday 4:09pm), he mentioned that the morning had been rather uneventful,
but that the afternoon had be spent finishing up negotiations with an international firm.
At 6:09pm on Tuesday he posted a rather lengthy post about the new deal with an international firm.
Just seems to me, that had he wanted to be reached, he could have been."

Frischling finally responded in typical Frischling style, laying it on thick with the excuses and accusations of misconstrued "facts," all while playing the victim:

"There is misinformation being posted here. There are words being missed either intentionally or unintentionally. At this point I'd like this to be settled.
It needs to be settled in writing, so there are no miscommunications. The beauty of the internet is that it does not matter who is right and who is wrong. It does not matter if either side is right or wrong. What seems to matter is who can shout louder and who can rally the most support.
Internet forums are a great place for facts to become irrelevant and those who speak the most and push the most opinion in the face of a silent opposition to become the victors. There are quite a few reasons I have remained absent from this discussion. For one it is not a discussion. Secondly I prefer to not enter into a mud slinging competition, no one wins and everyone looks foolish. I love that people count my SportsShooter posts, ones made from a Blackberry the other day while in the hospital on Tuesday.....and there an email explaining I'd be unavailble most of the day due to an exploratory procedure, which was explained to one party in the mud slinging session at 4:31pm on Monday by email, yet on Tuesday I get an e-mail stating she has not heard from me.......while I was in recovery.
Tuesday afternoon I was home and briefly awake. I was happy a contract had been agreed upon for me to write a book, that agreement came by e-mail, was signed electronically in under a minute and sent back. In the span of 20 minutes I posted about this in a few places and was then back to sleep for quite a while.
The next day, my expected 30-min follow-up consult lasted seven hours and spanned five doctors. I expected in an out and was hit with may more than I expected. Following this day of consults I couldn't give a crap about business, photography, or getting involved in a verbal jousting. In light of some options, nothing life threatening really, but some significant issues, I want to be done with it, move on, not play tit-for-tat and I don't give a shit what my reputation looks like after 48hrs.
As for me being able to work the weekend after I needed emergency help, I did that on heavy pain killers. I did work Wed-Thurs-Fri-Sat on both coasts. I did that because I can't afford not to work. I have no idea what people think of me, or what they think 'I Have,' but my guess is you have no idea what hole I am working out of. My guess is you have no idea how much pain I was in working those days. I never rented a car, I got a lift or took cabs because I knew renting a car would be reckless and highly illegal in my condition.
Maybe some people can afford to pay $15 more than then were paid for a job to have someone cover the, I sure as hell can't.
So feel free to get back to your opinions based on one sided facts. Enjoy your foray into the world of mud slinging just for the sake of mud slinging. I have much more pressing issues to try and sort out between now and my next doctors visit on the 28th of July. 

He dismisses his 11 SportsShooter posts about nonsense as "ones made from a Blackberry" while he was in the hospital, yet he cannot explain why he did not simply use that same Blackberry to contact this photographer and give her some instructions. Isn't that what a professional would do?