I'm a photographer specializing in "boudoir" and sexy-style shots. I'm a woman, and most of my clients are other ladies looking for someone supportive since taking semi-nude photos is sort of vulnerable. 

I actually get a lot of referrals from my city's burlesque scene, which is super cool, and I'm worked with some really cool folx this way. Normally, it's a lot of smiles, laughs, and good times. Not so much this time. 

This client reached out to me because someone had mentioned my name - I'm not sure who. Things took a turn when I showed up.

Client: You're late, kitten. 

I arrived at 3:01 PM with all my gear. We'd said 3:00.

The client second guessed every decision - all the lighting, all of my gear, everything. I couldn't do anything without her demanding an explanation. 

Client: I'm a pro, honey. Don't try to pull a fast one on me. 

I honestly couldn't tell if she was hitting on me or not. It was kind of right on the line. Anyway, she had me take a few photos of her in her "signature" burlesque costumes, and... I want to be nice, but I'd worked with a lot of girls, and these costumes weren't very good. She was very pretty, but they didn't fit well, and they looked super costume-y. Still, I didn't figure she'd appreciate me telling her that, so I kept my lips zipped and did the shoot without comment.

When I sent her all the photos, she was furious.

Client: I look TERRIBLE. You made my outfits look cheap! I hate to say it, but this is amateur hour, sugar. 

I don't mean to brag, but I'm good at what I do. I'd taken countless photos of her colleagues and they all looked great.

She gave me two options: an entire reshoot or a total refund. I opted for the latter. 

Next time I did a shoot with someone else in the scene, I dropped her name just to see what would happen. They screamed. 

Some jobs are nightmares start to finish. What's the client story that keeps YOU up at night? 

I recently started doing working with two clients who were night and day. I was developing an online marketing campaign for each. One was a dream, opting for my most expensive service package and all the options, gave constructive feedback when needed and clear approval when not. The other was terrible, trying to nickel and dime me at every turn and using feedback as a weapon to get more work out of me than they were paying for. I was really happy with the first campaign, and the second was a terrible mishmash of good and bad ideas.

Both campaigns started getting results at the same time. The client from hell:

Client: I am NOT seeing the results I wanted from this campaign. I don't think I can pay your full invoice in good conscience.

The other client saw such good results that they paid me a bonus that more than covered my shortfall from the other. 

Oh, and by the way: this wasn't a case of rich client, poor client - the cheapskate actually owned the larger company, but I don't expect that to be the case for long. 

Work with good people, folks.

What are some of your hard-earned lessons? We want to know!