Know your photographer

Salam people. I hope all of you are having a good time with family and friends and i wish you the best of health , amin. I really wanted to make a post about this for a long time, its a guide for people either clients, couples, talents, cooperate organization, models and etc about knowing your photographer. This is important , if you think this article needs to be printed out or share, please do. Why is this important? Nowadays they are many FRAUD photog as i way say and its really dangerous for you to engage and deal with them. There are two types of photographer's, amateurs and professionals. Working with either one of them is safe, but, please be careful. You can determined them by various ways, they way they treat you, the way they talk, body language etc. Here's a list that differentiate between amateurs and professionals.

Professional 

• They will always meet up with the client either at their studio, office, meeting room, at the clients house, or even at a coffee shop which both ( photog and client ) have agreed on and made arrangements. 
• When discussing about location, pick a location which is comfortable both photog and client. If possible, search for an open space and always google map about that location first before actually going on that spot on the day. Locate any nearby shops, mosque, housing areas which are nearby with the location so that if anything happens, you know where to run to. Worst case scenario, if something bad happens. 
• Pick a time which makes sense. Usually pros will tell u the exact time and a meet up location before heading out to the spot. Photog's are also human, so for sunrise photoshoot, the ideal time is either at 6, 6.15, 6.30 and usually, they will do makeup on location so 6.30 is an ideal hour. By 7, the sun will raise and the soft morning light is what most of the pros will be looking for. DO NOT , I REPEAT, DO NOT agree to shoot sunrise at 4am, 5am. There is no sunrise at that time. Remember, there hours are important. Please refer to this post for time checking. 
• Usually models or talents will bring a long two or three friends to tag along with the photoshoot, and we allow that. The more the merrier. Our goal is to make the model comfortable working with us so bringing along a friend is not a big deal as long as they dont interfere with the photoshoot. 
• Professional photographers will bring along two or three crew member to assist them with lighting, reflector props and etc, that is normal. But there is also a photog which go solo, which means he a one man army, he deals the lighting and everything. That is also normal, but for safety , please bring along some friends and if possible, ask a male friend also to accompany you ( the model ) . 
• The easiest way to judge a professional photog is by their equipment. Professionals will bring an arsenal of equipment with them, big bags, multiple lighting equipment that needs time to set up. By looking at their equipment, gadgets and gears, you can already figure out wether the photog is a pro or an amateur. 
• Professional will not hand over the memory straight to the client/model after the photoshoot has finished as data is very important to them . So they will keep the memory card and make some copies of the files and do another backup for the files and keep it in their archive so yes, the will get the image a little bit delayed. But storing data and backing up files is a must , so relax if you'll get your pictures a bit late. That's normal. 
• Professional tend to shoot using RAW format. RAW files are big and not many editing software can open RAW files. RAW files can be opened using either plugins , or third party software's such as Adobe Camera Raw, Phase One, Lightroom 3.5 ( or higher ) Aperture and also Photoshop if you Adobe Camera Raw. So if you have difficulties processing an RAW file, try searching for those software that i have listed and maybe it can solve your problems. There's a lot more of software that can open RAW files, im just giving a short list. 
• From my experience, for modeling photoshoot, we rarely give the model an album, we usually give them in an DVD both the RAW files and the edited ones and some A3 sized or bigger printed portrait for the model. If you need an album, do discuss with your photographer . 

Amateur

• Occasionally, the photog and the client or model, dont meet up for a meeting. The deal is done by chatting on the internet alone. This is dangerous because sometimes, their default picture *example , Facebook,  is NOT their original self . So meeting up is crucial so that you can recognize the photog's face . If the photog insist of meeting up, then there's something wrong. Do not engage with this type of photog and do not close a deal with them. It can be dangerous. 
• Poses that they usually ask for the model to perform may make the model uncomfortable. If you are a Muslimah model , do resist if they ask you to wear tight clothing and perform eye boggling poses. Usually they will give an excuse, they want to see your body, DO NOT give way. Resist in any possible way. If they ask you to do those things, that means they dont respect you as a model and as a women. Respect is important. Know your limits and if you're an muslim, do not follow their ridiculous instruction. This dosent just happen to amateur photog's , but also pro's so keep a lookout. 
• DO NOT HESITATE TO BRING ALONG AN FRIEND TO ACCOMPANY YOU. If they dont let you, cancel the deal. Your safety is more important than the pictures. You can always find another good photog. Safety first . 
• Make sure the time is comfortable for both sides. If they want to shoot at midnight, think twice. Thrice if needed. Remember, also bring along a friend to accompany . Do not go alone. 
• Most amateur photographers are simple photographers meaning that they travel lite, and they dont carry to many equipment. Thats normal. 
• Shooting duration between amateurs and professional is something that is really uncertain and cannot be judge. It depends on the photog wether they have reached their gol and got their perfect shot but usually, 3 to 4 hours is more than enough. 
• On the D-day, amateurs usually bring along some other photographers to join with the photoshoot so if there's many photographer's , thats normal and nothing to be worried about. Amateurs bring along fellow photographer's , professional bring along crew's so there will be many people on the set , no worries.  
• Most amateurs are simple and fun people to work with, so do have fun when shooting and work together to get the perfect shot. 

The conclusion is , there's nothing wrong working with either professional or amateurs , just be careful with the fraud photogs out there. We will try to trace the fraud photog's and report them as they bring a bad name to photography. Many rumors and stories have spread about this issue so please be careful people. The reason im bringing up this post is not because i have no respect for other photographers such as amateurs and such. Me myself is a professional photographer and i have no problem working with amateurs or beginner photographer but sometimes, the action of some fraud photog's, makes us, the professional and amateurs look bad. Respect works both ways but in some events, respect only works in one way and that is not acceptable. So here's a guide for helping you to know your photographer and help you from any harm or danger whatsoever. For me, the most important thing is the safety of the client/model/talent and the sake of their well being. Its a shame to hear stories about people getting tricked by photographers and they blame it on the professional photographer without us even knowing what the hell happened. They blame it on us and we really dont appreciate that. I really didnt post this to attack or harm anybody, its just general information for all of us and for the well being of ourselves. Peace, salam.