About Me
- Steven
- I'm from the foothills of the North Georgia mountains. I was a woodworker for about 12 years. Well, up until I had the rug pulled out from under my feet, and I was laid off. I got back into photography in 2008 and decided to give that a try professionally, but haven't made any money so far because rednecks, white trash, and hicks are cheap. So, I'm working in a local grocery store where some days I hear and see the craziest stuff. I tend to complain a lot about things, but I'm too poor to afford a good therapist. So, I decided to make a blog and complain online to all of you instead. But I digress. I really just wanted to do the blog to share ideas and stories with the interwebz. =D
Monday, April 18, 2011
I Could Be Wrong...
10:42 PM | 
Posted by
Steven
Alright photographers, (That is - if there's any left reading my blog after the junk from a week or so ago...)
Let me ask you a question:
Have you ever seen a contest where a photographer uses other photographers' works to promote their own business?
Let me explain... Let's say, for example, I hold a contest in which people (subjects or clients) can submit their photos to me, so that I can post them on my Facebook fan page, let people vote by "liking" their favorite photo, and the winner gets a free photoshoot with me - And while I'm not linking the photos to you, or giving any credit, I'm not removing the watermarks and I'm not claiming the photos are mine. Basically, I'm using your photos as a third party to promote my Facebook fan page, and therefore, my business.
Does that even make any sense?
Now, before I get any further - I'M NOT DOING THIS!!!
But I know someone that is. So far, I've had one of mine submitted and removed. I haven't seen any work by anyone that I personally know, but there's others there that don't belong to this photographer.
I'm pretty sure that what this photographer is doing is illegal. It's not any different that farming Flickr for photos to use in any other sort of advertising purpose. Or it's like using a Radiohead song on your website without permission. If you were in a band, and you worked hard at your music, would you be pissed if someone was using one of your songs without even telling you?
She's tagging the subjects in the photos, and therefore, it's showing up on their walls so that all of their friends will go and "like" their photos - all the while driving traffic to her Facebook fan page.
Last time I checked, I wasn't getting any type of kickbacks for referrals to her business.
Now, all of this might not amount to a hill of beans, but as a photographer, I think it's wrong to use anyone else's work, period. Go out and shoot your own junk for cryin' out loud.
Am I out of line for calling this photographer out? Would you want your photos promoting her Facebook fan page and not yours? Do you even care about it at all? What say you? Let me know.
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3 comments:
I think the first thing that should be required is "no professional photos allowed"... I mean isn't that weird, "hey share your photo with me by X photographer and then if everyone LOVES their work... then you win a photo shoot with me.... " ?? I actually recognize one of those photos.
So to answer your question "...where a photographer uses other photographers' works to promote their own business?"
The answer is yes. When you read this article you'll be surprised that even a big name photographer will stoop to this level. I lost all respect when I found this out.
http://photogzilla.blogspot.com/2010/11/interview-jasmine-star-ywd-magazine.html
That's the first I had heard of the Jasmine Star thing. I knew about the workshop, but only from what I had seen on her blog. Were those images used in YWD magazine? All I can find using Google was stuff related to the actual workshop, e.g.: Photos taken there at the workshop itself. I couldn't find any promo photos for it other than the link you posted above.
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