Metal Mouth Message Board

I've been mostly pleasantly surprised by people's reactions (or lack thereof) to my braces over the past year, but I need to vent about an experience I just had! I was being photographed for an article about my work, and when I was speaking to the creative director by phone to set up the photography session, I said "just to warn you in advance, I have orthodontic braces." His response was, "oh great it was bound to happen to us sometime, you're not bald too, are you?"

I resisted the urge to wear a fake bald cap on my head when they came for the shoot. But then the photographer wouldn't let me smile! Even though I've had really awful teeth all my life and now have braces, I've never been able to avoid giving a big full smile. But every time my mouth opened even the slightest bit, the photographer would snap "lips closed please." I have ceramic uppers and my lowers don't show with the way I smile, and I told him that he was more than welcome to Photoshop out the braces if it mattered that much to him. Apparently that wasn't a sufficient solution - I'm dreading seeing the photos, as I'll no doubt appear that I'm grimacing rather than smiling.

Aarrgghh! Anyone else out there have experiences with photographers, either good or bad? (For those reading this who are considering braces though, let me emphasize that this was an unusual reaction!)

Cheers,
Erica

I think you should talk to his editor. I bet his editor wouldn't care if you had braces....and that's who is in charge of the article -- not the photographer!

Anyway, how ignorant and rude!

Yeah - that is pathetic. It would be no effort at to photoshop them out (if that was even necessary - I mean you would photoshop out someone's glasses?)

OMG - Unbelievable! I'd definately complain, that's totally unacceptable. You know what I recently did an interview for a local magazine and had some pictures taken, I also warned them that I had braces, but these guys were really cool, in fact on my big picture, they printed a big open smile full braces shot! And I'm totally cool about it, it doesn't bother me at all. Plus there have been no negative comments about it.

Sadly some people just aren't professional.

erica wrote:I've been mostly pleasantly surprised by people's reactions (or lack thereof) to my braces over the past year, but I need to vent about an experience I just had! I was being photographed for an article about my work, and when I was speaking to the creative director by phone to set up the photography session, I said "just to warn you in advance, I have orthodontic braces." His response was, "oh great it was bound to happen to us sometime, you're not bald too, are you?"

I resisted the urge to wear a fake bald cap on my head when they came for the shoot. But then the photographer wouldn't let me smile! Even though I've had really awful teeth all my life and now have braces, I've never been able to avoid giving a big full smile. But every time my mouth opened even the slightest bit, the photographer would snap "lips closed please." I have ceramic uppers and my lowers don't show with the way I smile, and I told him that he was more than welcome to Photoshop out the braces if it mattered that much to him. Apparently that wasn't a sufficient solution - I'm dreading seeing the photos, as I'll no doubt appear that I'm grimacing rather than smiling.

Aarrgghh! Anyone else out there have experiences with photographers, either good or bad? (For those reading this who are considering braces though, let me emphasize that this was an unusual reaction!)

Cheers,
Erica

Never ever had a reaction like that! That was incredibly crappy.

erica wrote:I've been mostly pleasantly surprised by people's reactions (or lack thereof) to my braces over the past year, but I need to vent about an experience I just had! I was being photographed for an article about my work, and when I was speaking to the creative director by phone to set up the photography session, I said "just to warn you in advance, I have orthodontic braces." His response was, "oh great it was bound to happen to us sometime, you're not bald too, are you?"

I resisted the urge to wear a fake bald cap on my head when they came for the shoot. But then the photographer wouldn't let me smile! Even though I've had really awful teeth all my life and now have braces, I've never been able to avoid giving a big full smile. But every time my mouth opened even the slightest bit, the photographer would snap "lips closed please." I have ceramic uppers and my lowers don't show with the way I smile, and I told him that he was more than welcome to Photoshop out the braces if it mattered that much to him. Apparently that wasn't a sufficient solution - I'm dreading seeing the photos, as I'll no doubt appear that I'm grimacing rather than smiling.

Aarrgghh! Anyone else out there have experiences with photographers, either good or bad? (For those reading this who are considering braces though, let me emphasize that this was an unusual reaction!)

Cheers,
Erica

As an actress/model, I've had plenty experiences similar to yours..as far as modeling I mostly only get teen mags or I'll have to do poses where I only grin or don't smile. My acting coach was kind of upset with me for getting braces and asked why i didnt get invislign and I explained that invisalign was too expensive as well as ceramics, not to mention invisalign wouldn't do much for my jaw and bite problems according to my ortho. I've had two-phase treatment, and this is unrelated, but when I was in 5th grade my teacher told me she didnt like my braces.

Thanks for all of the support! I'm afraid that for some political reasons, complaining to the editor isn't an option for me. Also, I don't know that it would be right for me to be a "tattle tale" to the editor when it's really the creative director and photographer with whom I should have more emphatically raised my objections. Looking back on the situation, I probably should've defended myself better rather than trying to laugh it off. I guess I'm just SO accustomed to using humor as my "coping mechanism" with my braces that I failed to realize that this episode called for a different approach! Hopefully I won't encounter anything like this again, but if I do, I'll remember what you've all said and allow myself to get angry! And, I'll have some comebacks ala Meryaten on hand.

Maggie, I've got lots of respect for your story! So many of us agonize over the possible impact of getting braces on our career, but I can see that your decision was a lot more closely linked to your job. Good for you for going for it! I can't believe your acting coach was upset - doesn't he/she realize that having really straight teeth in a couple of years will make you that much stronger of a candidate for positions?

Thanks again everyone! I'll have to let you know how the photos look when the magazine comes out in a couple months.

Cheers,
Erica

erica wrote:"oh great it was bound to happen to us sometime, you're not bald too, are you?"

clearly that was a lame attempt at a joke but what followed was ridiculous. in my 27 months, NO ONE has said anything rude about my braces.

It would have been so funny to say:

"oh great it was bound to happen to me sometime, I have an ignorant man taking my picture. You do know what EDITING is, don't you?"

Or perhaps something like this:
Your going to take my picture, not kiss me. Get over it.



hindsight is an awesome thing....