You guys remember how Ty won the Bump Photo Contest right?  Well, we won a trip to Jamaica, a photo shoot to be featured in The Bump Magazine and a Susan Brown gift basket.

Unfortunately, the best thing was the gift basket.  Don’t get me wrong….I LOVED the images from our session but read on . . . . .

First, the company we were put in contact with for the trip has been unresponsive at best.  When we would actually get a response, they wouldn’t actually answer any of our questions.  Even if we could get a staight answer from them, it turns out being so expensive for us to get to the proper port for the airline they are requiring we use, its unreasonable for even just two of us to go.  We even tried to see if they would give it to the runner up just so it wouldn’t go to waste, but, in true fashion, we can’t get a reply.

Second, and this bugs me the most, they “bumped” the feature in the magazine.  I received an email asking to confirm the spelling of our names for the feature and our address so they could mail us a copy and the editor stated we would receive it several weeks later (in late October).  To say that Ty was EXCITED was an understatement.  He was thrilled!!!! He told all this friends, his teachers and anyone else who would listen.  His art teacher planned to have Ty talk to his class about the experience and his photograph once we received the publication, they were going to make it a big deal for him, very cool  Every . single . day the child ran to the mailbox.  He’d come back through the front door, disappointed, and say “nope, not today”.  After almost two weeks of this, I emailed our contact at the Nest and she tells me that the feature got bumped and wouldn’t be run.  Nice huh?  No notification, nothing, except one very, very, disappointed 11 year old.

Not to mention all the broken contracts with photographers.  As a hardworking photographer myself, this bugs me to no end.  The nest worked with photographers for the 10 finalists on a barter basis.  No money was exchanged and the nest required they sign a (crappy) contract giving up all rights to the photos….something we photogs hate to do.  Totally giving up the rights, not just saying the Bump can use the images, but signing them away meaning they couldn’t use them on their sites, on blogs, nada.  ((Insert me shaking my head in disgust here)).  In exchange for all their hard work in setting up the session, shooting the sessions, proofing the sessions, etc, the photographers were supposed to be featured in the magazine along with each finalist, including a little blurb about what they do, etc.  Hard work in exchange for advertising.  The photographers did everything they were supposed to do, put in the work, gave up the rights, but the nest dropped the ball.  Big time.  And to add insult to injury, they didn’t even bother to notify everyone.  I was the one who passed it on to our photographer.  I must admit, it was embarrassing, she took time away from her business and her family in good faith.

So, thank you to everyone who voted, it meant the world to Ty and to us.  I’ll have to break my promise to all of you guys of having Jason do a boogie on the beach wearing dreadlocks, pretty bummed about that.  But, we got some wonderful images of our family by Teri, which I am so grateful for.  But, our experience with The Nest and The Bump, I gotta tell ya, pretty disappointing, especially for Ty.  It had the potential to be amazing.