It was my birthday and I was a bit tipsy. I looked on Facebook briefly and this competition came up for a "confidence building burlesque photo shoot". At that moment in time it sounded fun, and I knew someone who had had it done so I entered.
A couple of days later I got a phone call from a woman from the photo company saying I'd won. In my sober sensible state I wasn't at all surprised because that's how they find customers, but I still thought it might be fun. The woman asked for a £50 refundable deposit to secure the booking. She said to bring about 3 sets of underwear. Ok I thought, I'll go for it and see how it is. I went out that weekend and bought a couple of nice bra sets and a corset, which are all really nice and sexy so I'm glad about that.
I went along to the shoot and a young woman did my make up. I don't usually get things like this done, my hair and make up is usually kept really natural. When she had finished and I looked in the mirror I looked like a man in drag 
I really didn't like it, my eyebrows were so dark and thick, it just wasn't me.
Then I went to the photo studio and to be honest I just felt awkward the whole time. The woman doing my photos called me a milf 
and kept making fun of my accent, which didn't really do much for my confidence. When the photo shoot was over she gave me the price list for buying photos at my viewing appointment, which is this weekend. Oh my God I could not believe the prices! I know that generally these things are expensive and I was prepared to part with about £200 for my photos on a USB perhaps. Boy was I wrong. They charge £400 just for one A3 framed photo. If I wanted an album with 30 photos it's £1295. If I wanted a USB stick with just 10 pictures it is £600! They do packages ranging from £1200 to £2100. That is crazy money and I can't afford anything like that, even with the pay monthly scheme. Christmas is coming and I have a family to buy presents for. Money isn't exactly tight, but it is still precious and I am not prepared to pay such an extortionate amount for photos of myself in my undies. Like I say, I would consider buying if they were more reasonably priced but I have better things to spend our hard earned money on, like a family holiday.
When I think about it, it's almost cruel what they do. It's like taking a child into a sweatshop and saying look at all these delicious sweeties, and here's 1p for you to spend.
I'm dreading going to the viewing as they will try to make me buy and there's just no way. I have to go along in order to get my £50 deposit back. I never envisaged anything like this when I entered the competition, and I really wish I hadn't bothered. They phoned me up today to confirm the viewing appointment and ask me what I was going to do with my photos, obviously presuming I'm going to buy. CFs.
I'll be a lot wiser in future and stay away from these so called competitions.